Basketweave Stamp Problems

[PJ234]

I'm having trouble keeping my basketweave stamping aligned properly and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone help troubleshoot by looking at these photos?The leather is Wickett & Craig 7/8 oz shoulder, which seems to take the tooling much differently than the Tandy leather that I had before. The left side was done first, and it was probably too wet which could be at least part of the problem. I also made the impressions nice and deep, and this gave me problems trying to line up the stamp in the previous mark because of the differences in height between stamped and unstamped areas (if that makes sense.)The right side was allowed to dry to a more properly 'cased' condition before stamping, and I also first went over it lightly to try to keep everything straight and aligned, but when I went back over it the second time to make the impressions deeper, I had the same problems with overlapping and/or underlapping (is that a word???) impressions.One more thing is the border camoflage stamp...some of the half circle portions of the stamp have a line or cut in them. Is the stamp perhaps bouncing and causing this to happen?I'd appreciate and value anyone's suggestions on what I may be doing wrong!

Edited April 29, 2010 by PJ234

[pete]

Not a bad job! Too wet is definitely a problem and a common one when stamping anything let alone basket weave.

That looks very much like the Tandy tri-weave stamp. UGH!!! they are the worst for consistency. Their standard b.w. stamps are suspect at best unless you test a whole lot of them at the store.

Get a Beard, Barr, or some other custom stamp if you want to continue.

Also, I would go slower and make sure that the camo is at least vertical if not tipped a little forward when you do the border.

All in all, great job. I remember my first few forays when stamping that pattern!!

pete

[dirtclod]

Paint color one point / end and keep that end towards you when you stamp. That way if it is out square at least all of them are headed in the right direction and will be the same.

[King's X]

I think it does not look that bad. I would agree that it looks like a Tandy stamp which unfortuantely is not consistent. The casing of your leather is very important when stamping baskets or tri weaves since you are probably using a heavier impact tool. Just a couple of tips...Check your leather against your cheek or the back of your hand. If cool, then your doing good. If it dries out (especially with summer coming) wet the back and turn it upside down on your granite for about 30 minutes. Then check it and hit away. if you have your leather glued to something...then wringe our your sponge and just lightly go over the leather.....turn it upside down on your granite and wait about 10-15 minutes....then hit away!

As for consistancy......try holding pressure down when you are positioning your stamp and keep that pressure until you are done making the impression. it worked for me. If you hold that stamp lightly, you run the risk of it jumping and bouncing. When you have to get up off your chair and have to walk over to the other side of the room to get your stamp...well, you held it lightly.

Now to your camo border. It also looks like a Tandy tool. Because of its issue with consistancy, follow what Pete said and put in an extra secord or two to make sure that you have that position and strike it. keep some pressure on the tool downward like I mentioned above. Also, take a look at the striking surface of your stamping tools.....inspect them every once in a while because poop happens. But as I looked at your stamp again, it just looks like it may have been the tail of one of your tri weave impressions? Sorry, my eyesight is leaving me.

anyways, I hope this helps. Good luck

[Art]

PJ,

Too wet left. There are only two makers that make that stamp correctly, Bob Beard or Barry King. It looks like you kept the line straight, I generally recommend that you lay down a set of "railroad tracks" with a divider set to the exact width (the dots on a Bob Beard stamp) and lay that line down with a straight edge first, then go from there. Even with Bob's or Barry's stamps, you should maintain the same orientation of the stamp throughout the project, actually those stamps are so good you can get away without that, but with any other stamp, not a chance; paint a line on one side of the stamp and keep it toward the bottom of the project. Tip in a little when you get to the edges so you don't stamp where you will use your camo or border stamp. Go slow. If you get a really bad job (sometimes the basketweave and/or geometric ghods are not smiling that day), use a seeder to cover-up the junctions. It's a whole different effect, but a messed-up basketweave is in itself a whole different effect, especially with the tri-lobe.

Art

I'm having trouble keeping my basketweave stamping aligned properly and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can anyone help troubleshoot by looking at these photos?The leather is Wickett & Craig 7/8 oz shoulder, which seems to take the tooling much differently than the Tandy leather that I had before. The left side was done first, and it was probably too wet which could be at least part of the problem. I also made the impressions nice and deep, and this gave me problems trying to line up the stamp in the previous mark because of the differences in height between stamped and unstamped areas (if that makes sense.)The right side was allowed to dry to a more properly 'cased' condition before stamping, and I also first went over it lightly to try to keep everything straight and aligned, but when I went back over it the second time to make the impressions deeper, I had the same problems with overlapping and/or underlapping (is that a word???) impressions.One more thing is the border camoflage stamp...some of the half circle portions of the stamp have a line or cut in them. Is the stamp perhaps bouncing and causing this to happen?I'd appreciate and value anyone's suggestions on what I may be doing wrong!

[TwinOaks]

Also, as you near an edge, lean the tool back a bit to avoid making an impression really close to the border- unless you won't be using a cam. It may just be me, but it looks like some of the stamping was done after the camoflauging....save the cams to hide the edges of the regular stamps.

[PJ234]

Thanks for all of the replies! Yes, both tools are indeed from Tandy and I did not realize they could be causing me problems. I will say the basketweave seems to work fine with shallow impressions, but when I made them deep is when things seemed to go 'pear-shaped'. I do also try to hold the stamp firmly in place during striking...in fact, I wondered if that might be causing it to bounce but that sounds like the correct way to do it.

The border stamp was done after the weave stamp also but in some cases over the weave stamp. When I get near the border, I angle the stamp back to get just a partial impression so as to not get outside of the border, but I do not make an effort to stay completely out of the area where the border stamp will go (ie, the border stamp frequently goes on top of the weave stamp.) Do I understand from your comments that this is incorrect technique, and that I should not stamp the weave at all where the camo stamp will go? If so, do you stamp the border first?

Thanks for the input!

[pete]

Thanks for all of the replies! Yes, both tools are indeed from Tandy and I did not realize they could be causing me problems. I will say the basketweave seems to work fine with shallow impressions, but when I made them deep is when things seemed to go 'pear-shaped'. I do also try to hold the stamp firmly in place during striking...in fact, I wondered if that might be causing it to bounce but that sounds like the correct way to do it.

The border stamp was done after the weave stamp also but in some cases over the weave stamp. When I get near the border, I angle the stamp back to get just a partial impression so as to not get outside of the border, but I do not make an effort to stay completely out of the area where the border stamp will go (ie, the border stamp frequently goes on top of the weave stamp.) Do I understand from your comments that this is incorrect technique, and that I should not stamp the weave at all where the camo stamp will go? If so, do you stamp the border first?

Thanks for the input!

Stamp the weave but lighten up the impressions when you get near the edges. Then use your camo or border tool to make a nice edge. It will cover up any marks left by the bw tool.

keep it up and keep showing your progress- We're all rooting for you!

pete

[Art]

Keep working on it, you picked the hardest of the basketweaves to start with, so don't get discouraged. Master the tri-lobe and the others are a snap. Keep showing us how you are doing.

Art

[King's X]

If you decide to stamp in the camo/border area you might want to consider an differen border stamp that has something close to the border to hide the over stamp marks? Good luck

[WyomingSlick]

Hi PJ. Well you have heard some good advice here,----and some that is not helpful at all. I am not going to claim to be an expert on using the tri-weave stamps, and that is what they are - - - not basketweaves. In fact I have never made an item with them since I bought mine from Hidecrafter a few years ago when they had a nice sale. I have "doodled" around with them a bit. and with my forty years of experiance; perhaps I can give you some pointers in the right direction. Now I don't own any King or Beard tri-weaves, but theirs seem to be pretty much the same tool. I am not sure what the "experts" are talking about when they bemoan the inconsistency of the Tandy tri-weaves. My Hidecrafters are Craft Japan made ones which look the same to me as the Tandy versions. They are consistant in that: if you stamp an impression, rotate the stamp 120 degrees and restamp in the same impression: it fits fine and there is no change in the impression. In that alone; if fits the first desirable characteristic you want in any type of geometric stamp that is used in a repeating pattern (design ); that is that it is even and each half, or in this case-each third is a mirror image of the other(s).

Before we discuss the tri-weave stamping, let's discuss the border. Usually the border is cut and beveled first, then the basketweave or tri-weave stamping is done, and then the border stamping is done to cover the transition area between the ending of your geometric stamping and the border. It is very important to be aware of how much distance out from the border that your border stamp will cover so that you know where to end or fade out your tri-weave or other stamp. You might even trace in a very light guide line for this purpose. Try to make the guide line so that it will be covered by your border stamp later. This line will also give you a good idea where to fade out your tri-weave stamp by tilting it so it doesn't leave a deep impression on the side towards the border. Having beveled the border before hand will make this easier. For some very good examples on how to stamp borders you need to look at pages 11 and 12 of Al Stohlman's book TECH TIPS.

Tri-Weave Stamping

One point I would like to make: Every "Craftsman" I know; uses scrap leather for "doodling" on and learning how to use a tool to it's best advantage. They learn 90% of what they know on inexpensive scraps. The other 10 % of the time they either learn how to salvage and cover their mistakes or "they eat it" and learn from that.

Pic 1 - Left to right - A very light impression of tool, a full depth impression, and an impression where I rocked the tool in each of the three leg

directions to give a more pronounced 3-D effect. This is part of the process of getting familiar with the stamp and how it will be used. So

now I see that the six little pegs will be most useful in lining up one impression to the next. Hmmmm. . .should make it easier to use than

a basketweave which doesn't have them.

Pic 2 - First light impression, and then a few light guide lines. Of course on an actual project, one would determine before the first impression

where to put guide lines first to determine the run of the pattern.

Pic 3 - Next impression made by carefully placing the stamp's pegs into the holes from the first impression.

Pic 4 - Four rows stamped lightly just like you did. No problem so far.

Pic 5 - A couple of full depth impressions

Pic 6 - Two rows done full depth.

Pic 7 - All 4 rows done full depth. I begin to see the problem. You will notice that I experianced the same problem you had with the stamp

impression not matching up so well with the curve of the previous deep impression. From this I determined that it is very important

to place the stamp carefully and strike it straight down so that it doesn't want to skip to the side. Several lighter strikes work better

than one heavy blow. It may also work better for you to tilt the tool in each of the 3 leg directions, being sure the stamp is aligned in

the 2 peg holes, and deepening the impression with several lighter blows than one heavy one.

[Vikefan]

Hi PJ. Well you have heard some good advice here,----and some that is not helpful at all. I am not going to claim to be an expert on using the tri-weave stamps, and that is what they are - - - not basketweaves. In fact I have never made an item with them since I bought mine from Hidecrafter a few years ago when they had a nice sale. I have "doodled" around with them a bit. and with my forty years of experiance; perhaps I can give you some pointers in the right direction. Now I don't own any King or Beard tri-weaves, but theirs seem to be pretty much the same tool. I am not sure what the "experts" are talking about when they bemoan the inconsistency of the Tandy tri-weaves. My Hidecrafters are Craft Japan made ones which look the same to me as the Tandy versions. They are consistant in that: if you stamp an impression, rotate the stamp 120 degrees and restamp in the same impression: it fits fine and there is no change in the impression. In that alone; if fits the first desirable characteristic you want in any type of geometric stamp that is used in a repeating pattern (design ); that is that it is even and each half, or in this case-each third is a mirror image of the other(s).

Before we discuss the tri-weave stamping, let's discuss the border. Usually the border is cut and beveled first, then the basketweave or tri-weave stamping is done, and then the border stamping is done to cover the transition area between the ending of your geometric stamping and the border. It is very important to be aware of how much distance out from the border that your border stamp will cover so that you know where to end or fade out your tri-weave or other stamp. You might even trace in a very light guide line for this purpose. Try to make the guide line so that it will be covered by your border stamp later. This line will also give you a good idea where to fade out your tri-weave stamp by tilting it so it doesn't leave a deep impression on the side towards the border. Having beveled the border before hand will make this easier. For some very good examples on how to stamp borders you need to look at pages 11 and 12 of Al Stohlman's book TECH TIPS.

Tri-Weave Stamping

One point I would like to make: Every "Craftsman" I know; uses scrap leather for "doodling" on and learning how to use a tool to it's best advantage. They learn 90% of what they know on inexpensive scraps. The other 10 % of the time they either learn how to salvage and cover their mistakes or "they eat it" and learn from that.

Pic 1 - Left to right - A very light impression of tool, a full depth impression, and an impression where I rocked the tool in each of the three leg

directions to give a more pronounced 3-D effect. This is part of the process of getting familiar with the stamp and how it will be used. So

now I see that the six little pegs will be most useful in lining up one impression to the next. Hmmmm. . .should make it easier to use than

a basketweave which doesn't have them.

Pic 2 - First light impression, and then a few light guide lines. Of course on an actual project, one would determine before the first impression

where to put guide lines first to determine the run of the pattern.

Pic 3 - Next impression made by carefully placing the stamp's pegs into the holes from the first impression.

Pic 4 - Four rows stamped lightly just like you did. No problem so far.

Pic 5 - A couple of full depth impressions

Pic 6 - Two rows done full depth.

Pic 7 - All 4 rows done full depth. I begin to see the problem. You will notice that I experianced the same problem you had with the stamp

impression not matching up so well with the curve of the previous deep impression. From this I determined that it is very important

to place the stamp carefully and strike it straight down so that it doesn't want to skip to the side. Several lighter strikes work better

than one heavy blow. It may also work better for you to tilt the tool in each of the 3 leg directions, being sure the stamp is aligned in

the 2 peg holes, and deepening the impression with several lighter blows than one heavy one.

Very nice tutorial on the Tri-weave... By the way; what brand stamp is utilized in the pictures you have posted? Doesn't look like a Tandy tool to me...I have a couple.

Thanks,

Vikefan

[scottyslife]

Hi PJ. Well you have heard some good advice here,----and some that is not helpful at all. I am not going to claim to be an expert on using the tri-weave stamps, and that is what they are - - - not basketweaves. In fact I have never made an item with them since I bought mine from Hidecrafter a few years ago when they had a nice sale. I have "doodled" around with them a bit. and with my forty years of experiance; perhaps I can give you some pointers in the right direction. Now I don't own any King or Beard tri-weaves, but theirs seem to be pretty much the same tool. I am not sure what the "experts" are talking about when they bemoan the inconsistency of the Tandy tri-weaves. My Hidecrafters are Craft Japan made ones which look the same to me as the Tandy versions. They are consistant in that: if you stamp an impression, rotate the stamp 120 degrees and restamp in the same impression: it fits fine and there is no change in the impression. In that alone; if fits the first desirable characteristic you want in any type of geometric stamp that is used in a repeating pattern (design ); that is that it is even and each half, or in this case-each third is a mirror image of the other(s).

Before we discuss the tri-weave stamping, let's discuss the border. Usually the border is cut and beveled first, then the basketweave or tri-weave stamping is done, and then the border stamping is done to cover the transition area between the ending of your geometric stamping and the border. It is very important to be aware of how much distance out from the border that your border stamp will cover so that you know where to end or fade out your tri-weave or other stamp. You might even trace in a very light guide line for this purpose. Try to make the guide line so that it will be covered by your border stamp later. This line will also give you a good idea where to fade out your tri-weave stamp by tilting it so it doesn't leave a deep impression on the side towards the border. Having beveled the border before hand will make this easier. For some very good examples on how to stamp borders you need to look at pages 11 and 12 of Al Stohlman's book TECH TIPS.

Tri-Weave Stamping

One point I would like to make: Every "Craftsman" I know; uses scrap leather for "doodling" on and learning how to use a tool to it's best advantage. They learn 90% of what they know on inexpensive scraps. The other 10 % of the time they either learn how to salvage and cover their mistakes or "they eat it" and learn from that.

Pic 1 - Left to right - A very light impression of tool, a full depth impression, and an impression where I rocked the tool in each of the three leg

directions to give a more pronounced 3-D effect. This is part of the process of getting familiar with the stamp and how it will be used. So

now I see that the six little pegs will be most useful in lining up one impression to the next. Hmmmm. . .should make it easier to use than

a basketweave which doesn't have them.

Pic 2 - First light impression, and then a few light guide lines. Of course on an actual project, one would determine before the first impression

where to put guide lines first to determine the run of the pattern.

Pic 3 - Next impression made by carefully placing the stamp's pegs into the holes from the first impression.

Pic 4 - Four rows stamped lightly just like you did. No problem so far.

Pic 5 - A couple of full depth impressions

Pic 6 - Two rows done full depth.

Pic 7 - All 4 rows done full depth. I begin to see the problem. You will notice that I experianced the same problem you had with the stamp

impression not matching up so well with the curve of the previous deep impression. From this I determined that it is very important

to place the stamp carefully and strike it straight down so that it doesn't want to skip to the side. Several lighter strikes work better

than one heavy blow. It may also work better for you to tilt the tool in each of the 3 leg directions, being sure the stamp is aligned in

the 2 peg holes, and deepening the impression with several lighter blows than one heavy one.

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg

Edited May 31, 2014 by scottyslife

[scottyslife]

Actually didn't mean to post on this topic twitchy fingers on a kindle fire lol but I did learn a lot the basket weave tool came in the mail yesterday now to practice what I just learned

Thanks for the help,

Scott