Brand New At Tooling, Lots Of Questions

[cjdevito]

Hello everyone. I recently was bitten quite hard by the desire to take up leatherworking and to that end I ordered one of the deluxe kits tandy offers (this one: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/Beginning-Leather-Kits/55510-00.aspx ) a couple weeks back. I also had the presence of mind to order a quantity of remnant tooling leather ( http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/Beginning-Leather-Kits/99500-02.aspx ) to practice on first.

Last weekend I tried my hand at it for the first time and clearly have a long road of practice ahead of me before I can produce anything I'm happy with. Which is okay by me, I got real enjoyment out of it and expect to continue to do so as I learn. But I think I'm a bit hamstrung by the fact that all I have in the way of instructional materials is the booklet tandy includes in the kit and the dvd they provide. Some things are not shown clearly and some results of my own were not what I was expecting... so I'm thinking I need a little personal input, here, to set me straight on where I'm going wrong.

I'm attaching a photo of the piece I worked on this weekend, cringe worthy as it is. Don't get me wrong, considering it was the first time I'd ever held any of these tools I feel pretty good about the results. But I can plainly see all the places I made mistakes and went wrong... and I'm not entirely sure where the problems are entirely my lack of skill with the tools or where they stem from other factors as well.

1. Is it possible to tell from the photo if I used too much or too little water when casing the leather? I wet the top side with a damp sponge several times, letting the water absorb into the leather a bit each time. When it got to the point where the leather held the wet color I put it aside for about 20 minutes before starting to work on it. Not sure I got this step right at all.

2. For this piece all I had for a work surface was a flimsy wood cutting board. I've since ordered a granite slab from tandy that I'm waiting to arrive, but I wonder how much of a negative effect using the wooden cutting board had.

3. Relating to the first two questions, I see a lot less burnishing than I was expecting. Is this more to do with improper casing/work surface than how I'm using the tools, or is the fault with how I'm stamping the tools?

4. When watching videos of others work they seem able to glide the tool across the surface of the leather while tapping consistently. I find when I try this the tool either gets held up by the surface of the leather due to being too close, or it feels like I have it too high and I don't have good control over it. I suspect that what I'll hear about this is it's a knack that I'll pick up with enough practice, but is there any trick to it I should know?

5. I've since practiced using the beveler on a few lines carved on scrap and gotten better at leaving fewer tool marks, but it also seems if I tap it lightly enough to leave less tool marks the bevel doesn't appear as pronounced. Is it just a matter of practice til I find a happy medium, or is it something that will improve with better casing/work surface/tools?

6. Speaking of tools, I've read a number of disparaging remarks on this forum about the quality of the stamps in the tandy kit. Unfortunately, the posters making the remarks that I've seen haven't really said why. Is it because they're flimsy & don't last? Poor construction? Or do they not work as well as they should?

7. With a stamp like a basket weave I can gather that you'd want to hit the stamp with the mallet once lightly to leave a shallow mark and then hit it harder in the shallow impression to get a good, deep impression. But I'm not sure with the other stamps how deeply I should be pounding them. For some reason the video tutorials are all recorded close up on the stamps so the mallet hitting them is taking place entirely off-camera, which makes it difficult to judge what kind of force I should be using. Half the time I feel like I'm not using enough and the other half I feel like I'm using too much.

8. I can see I'm going to need to spend a lot of time practicing with the swivel knife. A few questions about it's use, though....

a. Just how deep should cuts be when first cutting your pattern?

b. In videos of others using it, it appears to glide like a hot knife through butter. It certainly doesn't for me, but I'm guessing this is a combination of lack of skill on my part and the knife not being sharp enough? I did strop it on a piece of cardboard with jewelers rouge as the dvd in the kit advised, but in retrospect I think I probably didn't do enough of it.

Any other nudges in the right direction you think I need after looking at the photo? I've no illusions on the quality of the work, and this is the only place I can get a constructive opinion and guidance. The nearest tandy is too far from me to be feasible to visit, and searching on this forum for leathercrafting resources in NYC seemed to pull up a general opinion that there weren't any. I do have a granite slab, protecto board and copy of Stohlman's 'Tech Tips' ordered, but if there's anything else I should grab please let me know. My goals for now are simple tooling on small items; eventually I'd like to do some construction, but one step at a time.

I appreciate any responses you can provide.

[terrymac]

Hello everyone. I recently was bitten quite hard by the desire to take up leatherworking and to that end I ordered one of the deluxe kits tandy offers (this one: http://www.tandyleat...s/55510-00.aspx ) a couple weeks back. I also had the presence of mind to order a quantity of remnant tooling leather ( http://www.tandyleat...s/99500-02.aspx ) to practice on first.

Last weekend I tried my hand at it for the first time and clearly have a long road of practice ahead of me before I can produce anything I'm happy with. Which is okay by me, I got real enjoyment out of it and expect to continue to do so as I learn. But I think I'm a bit hamstrung by the fact that all I have in the way of instructional materials is the booklet tandy includes in the kit and the dvd they provide. Some things are not shown clearly and some results of my own were not what I was expecting... so I'm thinking I need a little personal input, here, to set me straight on where I'm going wrong.

I'm attaching a photo of the piece I worked on this weekend, cringe worthy as it is. Don't get me wrong, considering it was the first time I'd ever held any of these tools I feel pretty good about the results. But I can plainly see all the places I made mistakes and went wrong... and I'm not entirely sure where the problems are entirely my lack of skill with the tools or where they stem from other factors as well.

1. Is it possible to tell from the photo if I used too much or too little water when casing the leather? I wet the top side with a damp sponge several times, letting the water absorb into the leather a bit each time. When it got to the point where the leather held the wet color I put it aside for about 20 minutes before starting to work on it. Not sure I got this step right at all.

You want the leather to be almost natural in appearance when tooling, but still cool to the touch. I am guessing it was a little mushy when you did part of your tooling.

2. For this piece all I had for a work surface was a flimsy wood cutting board. I've since ordered a granite slab from tandy that I'm waiting to arrive, but I wonder how much of a negative effect using the wooden cutting board had.

Granite will help greatly

3. Relating to the first two questions, I see a lot less burnishing than I was expecting. Is this more to do with improper casing/work surface than how I'm using the tools, or is the fault with how I'm stamping the tools?

Burnish is the result of proper moisture content in the leather, and working on a hard surface. You must have really pounded hard to get what you got on that wooden cutting board.

4. When watching videos of others work they seem able to glide the tool across the surface of the leather while tapping consistently. I find when I try this the tool either gets held up by the surface of the leather due to being too close, or it feels like I have it too high and I don't have good control over it. I suspect that what I'll hear about this is it's a knack that I'll pick up with enough practice, but is there any trick to it I should know?

No tricks, just practice, practice and then practice some more. Study the book by Al Stohlman carefully, and he will show different tool are used and the correct manner.

5. I've since practiced using the beveler on a few lines carved on scrap and gotten better at leaving fewer tool marks, but it also seems if I tap it lightly enough to leave less tool marks the bevel doesn't appear as pronounced. Is it just a matter of practice til I find a happy medium, or is it something that will improve with better casing/work surface/tools?

Beveling will give you more trouble than all the others. You want your bevel line smooth with no tool marks. If you end up with a mark, go back over it lightly. Again, practice, practice.

6. Speaking of tools, I've read a number of disparaging remarks on this forum about the quality of the stamps in the tandy kit. Unfortunately, the posters making the remarks that I've seen haven't really said why. Is it because they're flimsy & don't last? Poor construction? Or do they not work as well as they should?

The impressions are not as distinct as some ot the higher priced brands. Having said that, your Tandy tools will work fine for you learning. The better stamps will not make you a better tooler, only practice will do that. As your skill level improves, you may well wish to upgrade, my personal preference are Barry King tools.

7. With a stamp like a basket weave I can gather that you'd want to hit the stamp with the mallet once lightly to leave a shallow mark and then hit it harder in the shallow impression to get a good, deep impression. But I'm not sure with the other stamps how deeply I should be pounding them. For some reason the video tutorials are all recorded close up on the stamps so the mallet hitting them is taking place entirely off-camera, which makes it difficult to judge what kind of force I should be using. Half the time I feel like I'm not using enough and the other half I feel like I'm using too much.

8. I can see I'm going to need to spend a lot of time practicing with the swivel knife. A few questions about it's use, though....

a. Just how deep should cuts be when first cutting your pattern?

b. In videos of others using it, it appears to glide like a hot knife through butter. It certainly doesn't for me, but I'm guessing this is a combination of lack of skill on my part and the knife not being sharp enough? I did strop it on a piece of cardboard with jewelers rouge as the dvd in the kit advised, but in retrospect I think I probably didn't do enough of it.

I will be willing to bet your knife is no where sharp enough to glide thru butter. One of your best investments would be a quality sharpening stone, and one of the sharpening guides sold by Tandy to maintain the proper angle on your blade. It seems most of my cutting is somewhere around 1/3 the depth of the leather, but that can vary according to the pattern.

Any other nudges in the right direction you think I need after looking at the photo? I've no illusions on the quality of the work, and this is the only place I can get a constructive opinion and guidance. The nearest tandy is too far from me to be feasible to visit, and searching on this forum for leathercrafting resources in NYC seemed to pull up a general opinion thbut it at there weren't any. I do have a granite slab, protecto board and copy of Stohlman's 'Tech Tips' ordered, but if there's anything else I should grab please let me know. My goals for now are simple tooling on small items; eventually I'd like to do some construction, but one step at a time.

The one thing you have not mentioned is your mallet. I am not sure what they supplied in your kit, but if it is one of their wooden, make fire kindling out of it, and either get a rawhide or poly mallet, or even better a maul. Hope these suggestions help.

Terry

I appreciate any responses you can provide.

Edited October 27, 2011 by terrymac

[cjdevito]

Thank you Terry, I really appreciate the feedback. As much as I'm itching to get started with another piece I'll wait til after the granite arrives before I do, sounds like it will make my life a good bit easier. I'll also order up a sharpening guide & stone.

As far as the mallet I've got, luckily the one included in the kit is poly. This one, in fact... http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/3301-03.aspx . I'm curious as to why you recommend that a maul would be even better. Having never used one I'm not sure what the difference would be? If it'd help though I could certainly order one.

[terrymac]

After using a rawhide mallet for 40+ years, I asked the same question. I finally decided there must be a reason all of these people are using so I ordered a Bearman maul, and now I know why. It is hard to explain, it just seems I have more control and better feel of what my tools are doing. Unfortunately Bearman has retired from the maul building business, but his son continues making the same maul his dad did. I can't remember what name he uses on this foorum. Barry King also makes a maul and he is an advertiser on this forum.

Terry

[mlapaglia]

I agree with all the remarks above and can tell you 2 things.

1: if you can, take a class or two at Tandy, assuming you are close to one.

2: Practice. practice, practice. All the good tools and better surfaces will not substitute for practice. I am doing a belt at the moment with a meandering boarder and I was no good at is. I cut 4 strips 30" long and 1.5" wide and did them all with the design I am going to do on the belt. The first one sucked. By the end of the 4th one it looked good enough that I was proud of it. That test piece you showed us. Do it 5 more times and see how much better the last one is to the first one. You have a good start now you just need the experience to go with it

FWIW you can also bevel with a modeling spoon and never had a tool mark. You pull or push the spoon along the groove to get the same effect. It too takes some practice but its another good tool to have.

Tandy, modeling spoon You can also get them on Ebay for less.

Keep of the work and the desire and it will all become great.

[cjdevito]

Unfortunately my nearest Tandy is 150 miles away, otherwise I'd be first in line signing up. I hear ya on "practice, practice, practice", just waiting for the granite to arrive first as it sounds like it's going to give me a different working experience. Last thing I want to do is pick up bad habits from compensating for working on the wood cutting board I'd used. Was hoping I'd have it for this weekend, but I haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet despite having placed the order back on monday.

Terry, thank you, I'll have to look into picking up a maul. Funny thing, I'd noticed even in the videos on the DVD from Tandy that came with the kit I got, the narrator uses a maul and not a mallet. Considering everything else shown in the video comes in the kit, I'd say he was pretty attached to his maul

[GlenH]

Unfortunately my nearest Tandy is 150 miles away, otherwise I'd be first in line signing up. I hear ya on "practice, practice, practice", just waiting for the granite to arrive first as it sounds like it's going to give me a different working experience. Last thing I want to do is pick up bad habits from compensating for working on the wood cutting board I'd used. Was hoping I'd have it for this weekend, but I haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet despite having placed the order back on monday.

Terry, thank you, I'll have to look into picking up a maul. Funny thing, I'd noticed even in the videos on the DVD from Tandy that came with the kit I got, the narrator uses a maul and not a mallet. Considering everything else shown in the video comes in the kit, I'd say he was pretty attached to his maul

I bought the deluxe kit from Tandy about two years ago. One thing I found is that the stamping tools that come with that kit are made of softer metal than the ones you buy by themselves. After a few months of use, the camouflage tool, the pear shader, and (I think) the basketweave were bending. II ultimately took them back to Tandy and he replaced them with regular tools for me. I was amazed not only in the difference in metal, but the difference in the pattern. The C431 that came with the kit only resembled the C431 that you get standalone.

I was never satisfied with my backgrounding. I could never get it to where there were no tool marks showing. As it turns out, the backgrounder was not flat on the bottom, so when I held the tool straight, the pointed end of the backgrounder would go in deeper. When I finally replaced that tool, it made all the difference in the world.

I also replaced the mallet with a rawhide mallet that my dad used back in the 70's (I also got a few of his tools as well).

So the deluxe kit is a good way to get started, but I think you'll eventually want to replace the tools...

Glen

[terrymac]

Unfortunately my nearest Tandy is 150 miles away, otherwise I'd be first in line signing up. I hear ya on "practice, practice, practice", just waiting for the granite to arrive first as it sounds like it's going to give me a different working experience. Last thing I want to do is pick up bad habits from compensating for working on the wood cutting board I'd used. Was hoping I'd have it for this weekend, but I haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet despite having placed the order back on monday.

Terry, thank you, I'll have to look into picking up a maul. Funny thing, I'd noticed even in the videos on the DVD from Tandy that came with the kit I got, the narrator uses a maul and not a mallet. Considering everything else shown in the video comes in the kit, I'd say he was pretty attached to his maul

One additional suggestion is to study what others are doing and how they do it. When Hidepounder or Leatherworker post something, really look at what they are doing. If you can, purchase the "Sheridan Style Carving" book (available at Tandy) not because you may not be interested in this style, but you can really study what the masters accomplish. You can see what a background area should look like and how decorative cuts feather at the end. There is also a section on how to use different tools that can be applied to any style. Mainly, just study the finished work, it is amazing. Good luck and did I mention, practice.

Terry

[cjdevito]

Finally got my granite slab delivered and played around with it this past weekend. While my work is still very much that of a raw novice, I found the granite made a very real difference over what I'd been using before. For comparison, this is the first piece I did with the granite (and only my fourth piece, over all):

Some improvement, at least.

[robertmeco]

Finally got my granite slab delivered and played around with it this past weekend. While my work is still very much that of a raw novice, I found the granite made a very real difference over what I'd been using before. For comparison, this is the first piece I did with the granite (and only my fourth piece, over all):

Some improvement, at least.

looks to me that you might want to slow down take a little more time with your work

[Sylvia]

Hi CJ:

I've recently returned to leather working (hobby) after 30 some years away from it. My first piece looked much like your first piece, and I said to myself, "@#$@#%! What the?!" . I discovered that I had too much water when I cased the leather which made it kind of mushy and the impressions, no matter how hard I pounded, just didn't seem to take.

I found a lot of visual aids and help on Youtube. Some are from Tandy and may mimic the DVD you got with your kit. But there are plenty of others on there that have helped me quite a bit.

I found that a heaver mallet works best for me. I have confiscated my husband's dead blow rubber mallet and that works pretty well for now. The thing weighs a good 6-8 lbs and as long as I don't grip it too hard and just let the tool do the work I get some nice impressions without having to beat the living daylights out of the tool. (I have to remind myself about my grip, since just like playing guitar... there's no need to strangle the python.) LOL

I think you are well on your way...

Edited December 3, 2011 by Sylvia

[cjdevito]

Thank you Sylvia. I keep experimenting with water content as I go and I'm finding I'm definitely getting better results with less water. Don't think I'm quite finding the 'perfect' spot just yet, but I'm definitely getting closer each time. And yeah, I'm also finding that between the granite slab and the less wet leather, I can get good impressions without having to pound the hell out of the leather. While I still have a long way to go, I do feel like I'm starting to get there.

[jdwintx]

First I want to say welcome, you will find a lot of advice and help here to build on. As we all started from similar beginnings I wouldn't worry to much about how your first or fiftieth piece turns out as you will improve as you practice. Second, living in NYC you should be able to get almost anything you need to get started without relying on Tandy for to much. You will find if you look around you can get suppliers for everything. Case in point, the granite slab you ordered. I picked up my granite slab from a headstone maker, it was broken in shipment, paid 10 bucks for a 4"x36"x24" slab, you don't have to use granite though, any solid industrial steel plate (have to be careful that it doesn't discolor the leather so I would coat it with either contact paper, sealant or something along those lines) would work as would any of the New England heavy stones from some of the quarries.

The point is that you can find the materials you need to set up a workshop without having to rely on "traditional" suppliers.

As for preparing your leather, there are some excellent articles here on how to "Case" the leather. Myself I usually submerge my leather in a few drops of Dawn dishsoap, with a couple of tablespoons of Lexol conditioner and a few tablespoons of Listerine for about 30 minutes in warm water, then I wrap it in Press N Seal overnight in the fridge and the next day uncover it a few hours before I start tracing and cutting my patterns. As stated, you need to wait until the leather is almost it's original color and cool to the touch, this will take a few trial and error scenarios before you have it right for you. Also if you are tooling a large piece you can keep the section you are not working on covered in the press n seal to prevent it from drying out while you work on another section. I also keep a spray bottle with my soaking mix handy to spritz the leather in the event it does become to dry. Also, apply contact paper or tape to the back of your piece to prevent stretching if you are tooling a large amount on the leather.

Another thing that worked for me is that I don't do Sheridan carving, I've practiced at it but it's not my style, so don't feel that you have to be good at Sheridan to carve effectively. The principles apply but if you are not a flower/oak leaf/acorn kind of person then find some images you can trace and do those. Myself I like skulls, dragons, celtic and mythological items so those are what I used when I started out.

Just my thoughts on starting out, good luck.

Edited December 31, 2011 by jdwintx