19th century carving

[CWC]

I’ve never done any carving, but I’ve been watching some videos and reading about it. I’m interested in re-creating some 19 century items. I would like to learn how to do carving as seen in the attached photo. It looks simpler and less sophisticated than modern floral style carvings, but since I have not done any carving, I am not sure what the differences are.

Am I correct that there was no background stamping? Minimal, if any, shading? 

If anyone has suggestions on learning to do this type of carving I would love to hear it.

 

[chuck123wapati]

 

That is done with just a swivel knife and a couple of stamps, or possibly an embossing wheel around the edge.  An excellent reference is the book " Packing Iron." I just found a copy; it was 60 bucks used. 

[alfredleatherworks]

I would agree that this looks like it was done with a swivel knife, a seeder, and a veiner. The repeating pattern border was most likely done with an embossing wheel. These were common then, and are still used today in many shops.

I tried to find the seeder and veiner tools in some of the old catalogs I have, but none were exact matches. Those tools did exist then though, and similar examples can be found in CS Osborn catalogs, or those of their contemporary competitors catalogs. Many people would make their own tools too, so there’s a chance that the tools used on this were homemade. 

To replicate this, I’d practice a bunch with a swivel knife, and just buy a modern seeder and veiner tool. You can get them cheaply from Tandy, or nicer ones from a bunch of other vendors like Barry King. For the embossing wheel, the easiest option is probably a small one that fits on a handheld roller. 

1. Bunkhouse Tools Embossing Wheels (these are made for an embossing roller machine, but it’s a good resource)

2. C.S. Osborn Embossing Wheel (via the CuTex ebay store) (they do have other designs too, and this size should fit on the handtool sold by Tandy, Springfield, etc).

3. Tandy Embossing Tools

4. Springfield Leather Embossing Tools

Hopefully this will get you started in the right direction! Good luck! Would love to see the finished work when you’re done!

[CWC]

4 hours ago, alfredleatherworks said:

I would agree that this looks like it was done with a swivel knife, a seeder, and a veiner. 

Does it look to you like a beveler was used on the knife cuts?

7 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

  An excellent reference is the book " Packing Iron." I just found a copy; it was 60 bucks used. 

Good eye on the book. This is a picture I took from Packing Iron. I checked it out from the library, because I couldn’t find an affordable copy. If I could find one for 60 bucks I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

[chuck123wapati]

13 hours ago, CWC said:

Does it look to you like a beveler was used on the knife cuts?

Good eye on the book. This is a picture I took from Packing Iron. I checked it out from the library, because I couldn’t find an affordable copy. If I could find one for 60 bucks I would snatch it up in a heartbeat.

No beveler was used on that particular design, but others did use them. As was said above, Most of the tooling and artwork done by local craftsmen was done with homemade stamps. Saddlers and those leather shops that had money had embossers and tools as well.  Holsters were also mass-produced and sold in catalogs of the day, and also tooled and or embossed. 

I picked it up on Amazon, just looked, there is one now for 130 bucks, I guess I got lucky. You really have to look daily for any books to find them. I also check eBay. I picked up the book "Sheridan Style Carving" for 20 bucks last year off ebay.

[chuck123wapati]

Museums are also a good place to look. What is nice about working with leather, you can't go wrong. It's been used and abused for thousands of years by every culture on earth, so as far as art or tooling, the sky is the limit. You can get just as perfect or as caveman as you want, and it won't be wrong. Just don't judge your work until you completely finish it!!! You will be amazed at how well even the simplest carving looks after some finishing, antiquing, and buffing out.

 Another tip I actually got from my high school art teacher. If you try to copy the Mona Lisa, everyone can see your mistakes because they know how she is supposed to look. If you paint her beautiful cousin, you're golden. No one knows if you made a mistake or not. The same is true for carving letters, lol thats why they are so hard to get right.

[AlZilla]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

If you try to copy the Mona Lisa, everyone can see your mistakes because they know how she is supposed to look. If you paint her beautiful cousin, you're golden. No one knows if you made a mistake or not.

I'll add this to my Philosopher Next Door series.

[dikman]

Redneck philosophy 101.