Belts, Pouches, Sheaths, Cases. Lots of stuff.

[Handstitched]

2 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Tooled to some degree" is no answer.  I could machine press a design, put a couple of knife cuts here n there, bob a couple o mulefoots in it, and call it "hand tooled" leather.  It's not new - all been done before.

My gut instinct  was right.  

HS

[AlexOstacchini]

7 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

So is it all hand carved and tooled or is it mostly embossed ?

 

5 hours ago, JLSleather said:

"Tooled to some degree" is no answer.  I could machine press a design, put a couple of knife cuts here n there, bob a couple o mulefoots in it, and call it "hand tooled" leather.  It's not new - all been done before.

 

3 hours ago, Handstitched said:

My gut instinct  was right.  

Sorry this is just a semantic misunderstanding on my part, I just read embossed as tooled. No there is no embossing in the sense of a big plate to do repeated designs or press in an outline, and no laser cutter etc to lay out patterns. I thought the original question was if everything I made was tooled. The 'tooled to some degree' comment I realise now implies vagueness in the context you desrcibe, but not trying to hide anything, I simply meant that I mostly make tooled items as opposed to plain/untooled!

Everything here is 100% hand carved. I draw out all my tooling patterns either directly onto the leather, or for anything where I need repeats (ie the coasters or swiss army knife cases above) it is done on paper first so it can be traced on. So no, no embossing. Just swivel knife and bevelling stamps. You will see slight differences between all of the pieces above.  

 

5 hours ago, JLSleather said:

SOMETIMES if you git wonderin' what's actually tooled, ask for something mirror image.  Not rotated around by spinning the die in the press, but actually REVERSED.  Or better yet, ask them to quote and do YOUR design you will provide...

I know what you mean, it is most telling on belts which use a rolling press, as the strap end can never be finished properly and the border and pattern will not taper down into the point. But yes a mirrored version of anything here would be no problem, and aside from the repeated items (which I sell frequently so keep a stock of), many of the items pictures are exactly the one off client designs you mention.

 

Hope that clears things up!

Alex

 

Edited March 28, 2023 by AlexOstacchini

[Bert03241]

Very good you do amazing work, sorry for the skepticism

[PastorBob]

Stunning! Absolutely stunning!  Thanks for sharing these beauties!!!

[JLSleather]

5 hours ago, AlexOstacchini said:

it is most telling on belts which use a rolling press, as the strap end can never be finished properly

Some  have moved to using a PLATE IN A PRESS for belts, instead of the rollers, for exactly that

No matter.  Certainly we'd all agree that your coloring is quite nice

 

[YinTx]

7 hours ago, JLSleather said:

No matter.  Certainly we'd all agree that your coloring is quite nice

It all looks carved and beveled to me, not sure what you are on about?  Embossing plates don't really leave a sharp clean cut edge on stems, leaves, flowers, and borders, which it seems to me all the pieces have.  Also, embossing will give exact results, if you look very closely you will see this is not the case.  Here you can see the cut for the stem is in different places on two similar pieces. 

 

All in all, very nice work in my view.  And the color scheme is awesome!

YinTx

[Hardrada]

[AlexOstacchini]

18 hours ago, Bert03241 said:

Very good you do amazing work, sorry for the skepticism

Many thanks and no worries, it was my own bad wording! 

 

12 hours ago, JLSleather said:

Some  have moved to using a PLATE IN A PRESS for belts, instead of the rollers, for exactly that

No matter.  Certainly we'd all agree that your coloring is quite nice

I'm not sure if I have entirely convinced you, but I have dug up some WIP pics to hopefully alleviate any doubts about the process. So here you can see the initial swivel cuts on some of the pouches, and the scrollwork tooling on a belt, next to it's initial drawing. This was based on a design sent over by the client, so there is certainly no embossing plate involved! So yes, all hand tooled

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by AlexOstacchini

[AlexOstacchini]

5 hours ago, YinTx said:

It all looks carved and beveled to me, not sure what you are on about?

Cheers YinTx, I admit I was a little thrown by the suggestion that it was not tooled but hopefully all cleared up now. To be fair though I may have added to the confusion by misunderstanding the initial embossing question.. In any case I have done my best now to clarify. Thanks for the kind words and well spotted on the pic, all of course traced from the same drawing but lots of small variations between these pieces.

Alex

 

 

[YinTx]

2 hours ago, AlexOstacchini said:

I admit I was a little thrown by the suggestion that it was not tooled

Also to be fair, your bar grounding borders on perfection, which had me thinking it was maybe embossed for a moment as well.  But studying your work closely it was clear to me at least that it was impeccably hand carved and tooled.  Thanks for sharing such inspirational work!