Conditioning Leather Before Tooling

[brooklyncowgirl]

Hi everyone. I'm pretty much a newbie. I just got some new leather I'm planning to use to hone my tooling skills. The stuff is very thick and stiff. I'd like to condition it before I start working with it but I'm cconcerned that applying oil or a conditioner like Lexol might make it less useful for tooling. I've already worked it over with glycerin saddle soap and that seemed to help a bit. Any suggestions?

[electrathon]

You do not want to soften it, if you did you would not be able to "dent" it propery. That said, I usually use Lexol before the knife cuts to make the knife slide smoother.

Aaron

[brooklyncowgirl]

You do not want to soften it, if you did you would not be able to "dent" it propery. That said, I usually use Lexol before the knife cuts to make the knife slide smoother.

Aaron

Thanks, Aaron. That sounds like a good tip.

Debbie

[Randy Cornelius]

You can case your leather real good with your casing solution, then apply a few drops of Lexol and a few drops baby shampoo, that will help the knife slide through.

[Bluesman]

Question. Do you add the Lexol to the casing water? Or do you case the leather and then spead on a couple of drops to the leather?

[gtwister09]

Debbie,

You can search for casing/Lexol and such but here are some for you to look at.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=455&view=findpost&p=26112

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=20264&st=0&p=133199&hl=+lexol%20+casing&fromsearch=1entry133199

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=843&st=0&p=28036&hl=+lexol%20+casing&fromsearch=1entry28036

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15493&st=0&p=156435&hl=+lexol%20+casing&fromsearch=1entry156435

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Ben