Inadequate knife sharpness, or too much moisture. Ugly "drag line"

[LakeOtter]

I'm embarassed to ask this when I have experiented with tooling this long already. Seems fundamental or elementary.

I put red dots near what I mean. The slightly raised ridge lines with tiny stretch marks pulled along with them.

It's good leather; HO. I did have to stick it in the fridge overnight after tracing lines, to work more later on when I had more time, but that's going to happen a lot in my life.

If I'm moistening it too much, esp. to bag and refridgerate, I'll have to get a handle on it. t's more moist than the color looks here; a whack on a shader burnishes nicely.

If it's because my blade isn't sharp enough... I don't know what to do. I have worked at that art of sparpening until it will shave some skin off my thumb. Surely that's at least as sharp as some guys who do great and claim personal sharpening deficienies. It is stroped to mirror smooth and all.

I didn't start or end those visible lines very gracefully but, neverminding that --

...could I be cutting just too deeply? It's 9 or 10 oz. and it just didn't feel like I was cutting through too deeply relative to the leather's thickness.

But I guess going deep enough may force the line so wide, with a standard blade, that it eventually reaches the end of the bevel on the blade, even. Maybe that could cause pulling as well.

I'm a little lost on something here that's obviously such a beginner thing I should never have gone this long without asking.

Sometimes I luck up and only have this happen on one side of lines that I'm going to bevel enough to cover it up. Back beveling doesn't help as much, lol.

Thanks for your thoughts. Too moist and too deep?

Edited 12 hours ago by LakeOtter
typo

[AlZilla]

6 hours ago, LakeOtter said:

. Seems fundamental or elementary

It's a good question and I'll be interested in what the mad geniuses here have to say. 

Does it happen before or after you refrigerate it? Or does it matter?

[DieselTech]

It looks like a combination of a couple things. Too wet & dull swivel knife. 

I have also seen belly leather do this. 

[chuck123wapati]

Let's see the blade and how you hold the tool.

Why do you put it in the fridge? It will stay too wet All you have to do is mist your work, then put some plastic wrap over it and seal it up. You don't have to rewet it to the point of soaking it, nor keep it that wet when not working. The idea is that you get it moist and keep it moist enough to work when you want to work it, not supposed to be a process of overwatering then waiting hours for it to dry every time you want to work.

PS, it takes years to learn to tool well. youre doing fine. Merry Christmas!!!