Mom's Bible Cover

[fire]

Hello everyone, I'm posting pictures of a Bible cover I built for my mother as a Mother's Day gift.

The cover was made for a Bible my parents recieved as a Christmas gift 46 years ago.

Mom loved it! I think I'm her favorite now! ha ha

The cover is made of 6/7 oz. Hermann Oak with a firm chap leather interior. Fiebing's black dye for backgrounding and Fiebing's mahogany antique. I dyed the edges with Fiebing's mahogany and burnished with saddle soap, water, and a piece of denim.

I appreciate any comments or constructive critisism. Thanks.

[Kayak15]

Very nice cover, I really like it, especially the front side. Did you make up the design or is there a pattern somewhere?

Kayak15

[Spider]

Yeah this is really nice. That sure is a big bible. Very nice cover to protect such a large book.

[gtwister09]

Overall it looks nice. A few things jumped out at me.

• There are no decorative cuts on the front and spline.
  
• The letters all show the tracks of the edge of the stamp. You could use a modeling spoon and feather out the marks or possibly modify the stamps to keep from doing it.
  
• The basket weave stamp is too steep. I think that the angle should have been less drastic.
  
• The flower on the spline appears to have beveling tracks but that may just be the picture.
  

Regards,

Ben

Edited May 14, 2008 by gtwister09

[Regis]

Fire,

I like it a LOT. Your design, tooling, basketweave, and border are excellent. I would have great difficulty basketweaving such a large un-interupted area.

Thanks for sharing.

Regis

[tazzmann]

Fire, the few things that gtwister mentioned were what jumped out at me too. As for the floral on the front, I am NO judge! Overall it looks really good though! Great job and keep stamping!

[fire]

Overall it looks nice. A few things jumped out at me.

• There are no decorative cuts on the front and spline.

• The letters all show the tracks of the edge of the stamp. You could use a modeling spoon and feather out the marks or possibly modify the stamps to keep from doing it.

• The basket weave stamp is too steep. I think that the angle should have been less drastic.

• The flower on the spline appears to have beveling tracks but that may just be the picture.

Regards,

Ben

Hi Ben, thanks for your input.

I didn't put any decorative cuts on because I forgot to do them before I antiqued...I'm not that great at them anyways so I figured it wouldn't be a great loss. haha

You're right, the edge of the letter stamps are very visible...I didn't even think about it until the antique made them stick out like a sore thumb. I'm hesitant to modify them too much because the edges of the stamps are pretty important for lining them up and spacing. Any suggestions?

I never actually put much thought into the angle of my basketstamping...I can see what you're saying.

The "beveling marks" you see on the flower on the spine are lifter marks...usually I can hide them under the bargrounding but no such luck on this one.

Thanks again for your comments, this is an invaluable resource for leatherworkers.

Steven

[gtwister09]

Hi Ben, thanks for your input.

I didn't put any decorative cuts on because I forgot to do them before I antiqued...I'm not that great at them anyways so I figured it wouldn't be a great loss. haha

You're right, the edge of the letter stamps are very visible...I didn't even think about it until the antique made them stick out like a sore thumb. I'm hesitant to modify them too much because the edges of the stamps are pretty important for lining them up and spacing. Any suggestions?

I never actually put much thought into the angle of my basketstamping...I can see what you're saying.

The "beveling marks" you see on the flower on the spine are lifter marks...usually I can hide them under the bargrounding but no such luck on this one.

Thanks again for your comments, this is an invaluable resource for leatherworkers.

Steven

Steven,

Decorative cuts are generally considered some of the hardest portions of the work. A lot of time is generally expended performing those cuts or practicing. I have had several say to spend time each and every day performing some swivel knife practice.

On the stamps....sometimes the underside near the outside edges can be relieved. Other things to try are to use a modeler to smooth the lines out or a matting tool faded out as you move away from the letters. Some people even use a smooth matting tool to perform smoothing function. I don't do that. The same could be done with the lifter marks.

One quick and dirty method for basket stamps is a rise over run angle. Likewise Bruce has shown some methods that he uses for angles. I personally use a calculated method of the height/width to determine the angle (tangent). Here's a few ones that I have compiled

ID Height Width Angle

498 0.27 0.73 22

500 0.15 0.29 33

501 0.14 0.54 15

534 0.31 0.55 36

Regards,

Ben

[fire]

Steven,

Decorative cuts are generally considered some of the hardest portions of the work. A lot of time is generally expended performing those cuts or practicing. I have had several say to spend time each and every day performing some swivel knife practice.

On the stamps....sometimes the underside near the outside edges can be relieved. Other things to try are to use a modeler to smooth the lines out or a matting tool faded out as you move away from the letters. Some people even use a smooth matting tool to perform smoothing function. I don't do that. The same could be done with the lifter marks.

One quick and dirty method for basket stamps is a rise over run angle. Likewise Bruce has shown some methods that he uses for angles. I personally use a calculated method of the height/width to determine the angle (tangent). Here's a few ones that I have compiled

ID Height Width Angle

498 0.27 0.73 22

500 0.15 0.29 33

501 0.14 0.54 15

534 0.31 0.55 36

Regards,

Ben

Awesome! I will play with those angles.. Thanks for all your help.

[Apholsters]

absolutley gorgouse!

Very nice work.

[Beaverslayer]

Great looking work. Other than the few things GT has pointed out the overall cover is very nice looking. This will be a real hierloom now.

Ken