manfrommuc Report post Posted July 2, 2009 Hello @ all can anybody explain me how to use a bargrounder?? maybe with pics?? what is important for the background so it looks good thx for info johann Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
D.A. Kabatoff Report post Posted July 2, 2009 Hi Johann I'm self taught when it comes to floral carving so I can't say with certainty that the way I do things is the "right way", but here are a few things to keep in mind... Bargrounding takes practice and patience to keep the rows parallel to each other. Good tools help alot as well and usually come in two styles; shallow and deep. The shallow grounder's holes are not very deep and usually bottom out when tapped into leather. The deep ones have holes that are deeper than you will hit them into the leather and probably take more skill to use; if you do not hit the tool with consistant force you will see more of a difference between tool marks. I have both kind but always seem to use the shallow ones. Bargrounders come in many different sizes and you need to use the correct size for the type of work you are doing. If you are doing very fine work or small projects, you will need grounders that have smaller holes so that you can fit the tools into the small crevices between flowers and vines. If you are doing larger work you can use something a little larger to speed things up a bit. Besides speed, grounders that are too big or small for the project can look unbalanced. There are a couple of commonly used methods of grounding. You can either fan the tool or you can keep the tool marks parallel to each other. Fanning them is quicker because you don't need to keep reaching for different size tools as the space you are grounding narrows out. If you look at the first photo you can see the space beteween the vines narrow into points, the grounding is fanned into these spaces. I prefer trying to keep everything parallel, to my eye it looks cleaner than the fanning method but either way can look nice if done carefully. If you are using the method of keeping everything parallel, it really looks nice if you can keep all the tool marks running in the same direction instead of one space having marks running vertically and the next space having the marks running horizontally or diagonally. This is more time consuming but sure looks nice when done. The second photo shows grounding like this. Hope that helps a little. Darc Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
manfrommuc Report post Posted July 2, 2009 Hello Darc, first of all you make very fine and clear leatherwork, and you work with great toolingleather (where is the maker of that great leather??) thank you for that detailled information, I think the only way to find out is learning by doing keep in touch Johann from Bavaria Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
D.A. Kabatoff Report post Posted July 2, 2009 Hi Johann, the leather is from Hermann Oak. Darc Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
