tagglewing Report post Posted February 5, 2011 Hi all I have not worked any leather for many years and when I did was nowhere near a "pro" Just started again here are a couple of my projects the billfold came out much darker than I wanted. I used oil based cordovan dye Im thinking I should have put several "light" applications till achieving the darkness I was looking for. please give any advice, criticism etc. it willl all be appreciated Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TinyL Report post Posted February 5, 2011 Hi I think your lacing is tight and neat which is great, because inconsistent lacing can really impact the looks of a project. In my opinion, it looks like you need to carve deeper into the leather. It doesn't look like your beveler is set deep enough into the cut, hence the beveling seems on the shallow side. I think if the beveler sits deeper at the proper angle and you hit harder, you'll get that visible difference in your outline. Once that's done, you can use a modeling spoon to smooth the bevel out so it's less choppy. I sometimes run the beveler over what I have just beveled to help smooth the leather as well. On the sheath, it's hard to tell with the lighting, but from the really nice sheaths that I've seen, I think you need to put in a stitching groove. It makes it look so much neater. Plus I think it will cut out the puckering in the leather when stitches are pulled tight. As I said, this is my opinion. I did a sheath without the groove and it was really sloppy looking. The next sheath I did with the groove looked so much better. I think it's great you've come back to leather again and hope you enjoy rediscovering it. Chris Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kevin King Report post Posted February 6, 2011 I am no expert on sheaths, so i'll leave that one alone. I agree with TinyL on his advice. Deeper cuts, proper angle, and smoothing out the bevel. If you can't get it smooth during the initial beveling, run your beveler over it again. Also, try using an iverted bevel on the text. I personally hate tooling letters, but I have found that inverting on text makes it much cleaner looking. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tagglewing Report post Posted February 6, 2011 please explain inverted inverted bevel and if you have a pic that would be great thanks for your input I have never taken a class or had anybody to teach me. Just teaching myself from books and now you all Please keep em coming Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
