The Full Carve - How do you do it?

[Go2Tex]

OK, for all you pros out there, here's a topic that oughta get the juices flowing.... Now, obviously, carving a saddle takes time and carving a saddle completely takes lots of time. I'm mostly interested in how ya'll go about carving the seat. It has 3 panels that need carving and I have been starting out with a fully cased seat leather and keeping it wet with seran wrap where I'm not working. But, DAMN! It takes me about 5 hours to carve one panel, give or take an hour. Does everyone have this experience, or, do you just do it quicker? It just seems to me that there's gotta be an easier way......... like, maybe wet just the area where you're working and then do the other panels the following day.

I like this stuff, but is there an easier way?

[Leerwerker]

This thing of keeping leather cased at all cost is grossly overstated, I think. When I do a big project I always wet the whole piece of leather I am working on to prevent water stains. I wet the leather, give the water time to penetrate well, top it up now and again with a sponge as the surface dries out and too much moisture is wicked out of the leather.

Then when I stop for the day, the leather simply dries out and returns to the state that it left the tannery in: DRY! This repeated wet and dry cycle cannot take any oils out of the leather - the water does not leach anything out of the leather - it evaporates from the leather and leaves everything non-water behind in the leather.

When you are finally done, you have to put the oils and fats back into the leather in any case and I am sure the leather does not know whether it has been wet once or twice or five times since it left the tannery. It is that replacing of the fats and oils of the leather that I feel is far more important in the process.

Just my humble opinion and a few big projects worth of experience ....

[Go2Tex]

Thanks for your thoughts. Always good to hear what others have experienced. I just know that with heavy skirting, a good soaking and then let it dry slowly works the best. It just takes FOREVER and with saddle construction, the seat gets wet and shaped and dried and then wet the second time for refit and then carved. I like the first wetting, if possible, for carving but it's been almost impossible for me to manage it on a saddle seat.

I have to say, though, last night the leather gods were cooperating and the leather dried nice and slow for me. I had all the time I needed...... and I needed plenty. 4 hours to cut, bevel, detail and background one side! 9 flowers, a few leaves, a couple acantha features to fill in some dead ends and lots of vines and pedals and more background than I like, but that's just how it worked out this time.

[robert]

I dont make saddles, and the thickness and sheer size is a factor in the casing/carving discussion, but I was taught to case the entire project, then wet it from the back side as it needs it. If you add too much moisture to the carving, the fibers swell and you lose definition. By adding moisture from the back, it wicks up to the top and wets the carving surface more uniformly.

I know others that let the leather dry and then re-wet it later and it works fine for them - perhaps it is simply a factor of not adding too much moisture at one time.

[Hilly]

Thanks for your thoughts. Always good to hear what others have experienced. I just know that with heavy skirting, a good soaking and then let it dry slowly works the best. It just takes FOREVER and with saddle construction, the seat gets wet and shaped and dried and then wet the second time for refit and then carved. I like the first wetting, if possible, for carving but it's been almost impossible for me to manage it on a saddle seat.

I have to say, though, last night the leather gods were cooperating and the leather dried nice and slow for me. I had all the time I needed...... and I needed plenty. 4 hours to cut, bevel, detail and background one side! 9 flowers, a few leaves, a couple acantha features to fill in some dead ends and lots of vines and pedals and more background than I like, but that's just how it worked out this time.

Beautiful carving! You must have tons of experience doing this because it would probably take me at least 5 times that long to do one side. Seriously, one of those sides would take me at least 20 hours to get it finished with all that beveling. I guess I'd never be a good saddle maker.

[ClayB]

Well, however you did it, it sure worked out nice. I really admire people that can create patterns like that. I really like the way it all intertwines togeather. You also did a really nice job of carving it.

I think there is a lot of difference in carving leather. Some leather can take repeated wettings and drying out in between without to many ill effects. Other leather when let to dry and rewet seems to swell and erase previous carving, turns to mush, turns hard as a board, etc, etc. On a lot of the pictures I carve, especially the embossed ones, my leather dries out between steps because it has too. On a flat picture, or something like a seat on skirting, the old method of casing (soaking completely and letting it sweat in a bag for awhile) is probably going to give the best results, and covering parts of the seat with plastic is going to keep the parts you aren't working on at the time from drying out. When I cant finish at one time (which is almost always) I cover the piece with plastic and if it's going to be a long time before i get back to it, stick it in the fridge. I also spray water on the piece I am working on as it dries out, from the back if it's not glued to something, or from the front. That has worked best for me. I will be interested in hearing what other do to solve your problem.

[Go2Tex]

Thanks. The pattern was cut down from a previous one for a 16 inch seat. This one was 14. I spent tons of time on the original working out the flow and several hours making it work for this seat. Everytime I do one I think it's the best and then the next time I pick it up to use it I end up redoing much of it. I guess that's natural. Once I carve it, I see problems and things that didn't work well. The intertwining vines, or overlaping vines, allows for the flower circles to be placed closer and makes it easier to adapt to an odd shape, like a seat or cantle or whatever. Once you have a the basic pattern of flow for the overlap from one circle to the next, you just keep repeating it from one circle to the next. I use a piece of viewfoil film with my circle pattern on it and a few other cheater features, like the swirls and leaves. Mylar drafting film works the best for making patterns, by the way, but is sure is expensive, now that I'm buying it myself.

[ClayB]

Thanks for sharing some of how you go about developing your patterns. Someday I'd like to see a thread here on the different ways people go about doing that. Maybe even some step by steps, hint, hint

[Ian]

Man, you saddle guys are the true artists of the leather world. I'm trying to think of any other single item that involes as much work and detail, and I can't. Amazing work indeed.

[BrianHochstrat]

You have already received some good advice, but here is how I go about it, after I have fitted the seat I flatten it and let it dry overnight, I rewet the whole thing( not saturated, just some color) and cut my design, and then just rewet the areas as I tool. However, once the area is tooled I try not to get it wet again, even when I block the seat in I only dampen it in the areas I have to, in the blank areas I can go ahead and saturate it. This will help protect the crispness of the carving. Hopefully that all makes sense. -Brian