wet leather

[King's X]

King's X, would this kind of leather still be good enough to use up as, for example, some soles sewn on the bottom of moccasins? - TexasLady

Absolutely. Go for it. I can be carved as well, but there is some difficutly to it. I have a friend that still uses Tandy leather, but he also uses Pro-carve solution mixed in his water.

[ClayB]

Pretty much everything I have carved in the last couple years has been on Tandy leather too. It takes a little while to figure out how to make it work, but once you do, it carves just fine for me. For me, the key seems to be to keep it damper than some of the other leathers out there, and I case with just plain water.

[TexasLady]

Absolutely. Go for it. I can be carved as well, but there is some difficutly to it. I have a friend that still uses Tandy leather, but he also uses Pro-carve solution mixed in his water.

8/18/09

Thanks, KingsX,

When I read that post of yours, talking about the leather that dried out too fast, I knew exactly what you were talking about. On one of my 'buying sprees' at Tandy, I'd grabbed some 'practice scraps' out of a bin, and greedily took them home, thinking of all the 'silk purses' I could make out of those 'sows ears'. Well, I did actually make one quite nice 'holster' for my high-quality leather-cutting scissors from a couple of those scraps. However, when I started making another 'scissor holster' for a friend (using, actually, a scrap that had the scarred 'brand' on it), the stuff was so hard that it broke my little 'awl' that I stab the holes with for my 'saddle-stitching'. I had to use the 'hole punch' to be able to sew the two pieces of leather together. And yes, the little awl was sharp and stropped. It just couldn't cut cement.

- TexasLady

[philarryous]

Hi Bob, great advice , one question, what does the joy dish liquid do in the casing process? just wondering. I like reading your advice, you seem to be a very seasoned leather carver. How long have you been doing leather carving? any tips on the sherraden carving style? not sure if thats spelt right..lol would appeciate any advice you can give me to improve.

[hidepounder]

The soap is a surfactant and allows the water molecules to be more completely absorbed. As far as Sheridan style carving is concerned, where do I start, LOL! There are some good books out there and of course the best place to learn is from another tooler or in some of the many classes offered at the shows.

[philarryous]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY, I KNOW THE BASICS, JUST TOUGHT THERE MAY BE THINGS YOU DO THAT HELP IMPROVE ON THOSE BASICS, SINCE YOUHAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR LONG TIME, THATS ALL..THANKS ANYWAY,,CHEERS

[Bob Blea]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY, I KNOW THE BASICS, JUST TOUGHT THERE MAY BE THINGS YOU DO THAT HELP IMPROVE ON THOSE BASICS, SINCE YOUHAVE BEEN DOING IT FOR LONG TIME, THATS ALL..THANKS ANYWAY,,CHEERS

The best resource out there for learning the techniques for Sheridan style carving is the book 'Sheridan Style Carving' by Bill Gardner and Clinton Fay. This book goes into great details about every step in the process, the types of tools they use, and why they do things certain ways. It was written by some of the people that defined the style, and its full of great pictures showing all the steps. If you want to really learn good technique, this is a great book to have.

Bob

[philarryous]

THANKS BOB , I LOOKED IT UP AND IT IS ACTUALLY AVAILABLE AT TANDY LEATHER, WILL PICK IT UP FOR SURE...HAVE A GREAT DAY

[Torquewrench]

When you want to start drawing your own Sheriden patterns Mr. Park has a great book out. Worth the money!