Using A Mule Foot As Petal Lifter

[Suicide]

Hi guys,

I think I heard somethere what it is possible to use mulefoot stamps almost in a way as pro petal tool. Well, probablu do not undercut but at least to lift a petals.

Can you please tell me IF it is possible , how mulefoot can be used for it?

Thanks iun advance!

Edited January 13, 2012 by Suicide

[pete]

in a word- no. Get one from Grey ghost- I have 4 of them. well made- if price is an issue call Springfield leather and get the TLF model. I used one for many, many years with great results. Still do.

pete

[Suicide]

in a word- no. Get one from Grey ghost- I have 4 of them. well made- if price is an issue call Springfield leather and get the TLF model. I used one for many, many years with great results. Still do.

pete

Thanks, pete!

[Chavez]

Hi!

As I'm only a beginner carver, I wouldn't know how to use a petal lifter properly even if I had one =) And as I'm struggling for cash to get the basic tools (£40 is ok for a quality tool but when you need 30-50 tools and leathercraft is just a hobby, that's an outlay I can't afford), I just took a couple of steel rods (happened to have some lying around - surprised my mrs did not throw them away , looked at a few pics of petal lifters, filed the rods to a required width and angle, polished them and voila! - I've got two basic undercutters that do the job for me and are filed exactly to the sizes I need for my current carving.

I'm sure I'll get pro lifters when I get better, but the homemade ones are doing a decent job at the moment, and would shurely be better than the mulefoot

PS The money saved went towards a dixon pricking iron

PPS: Having said the above, I just recently learned that an undercutter is more of a knife than a stamp, so my lifters are more like the craftool B-series lifters. I just angle the cutting edge in a swivel cut and tap the rod with my mallet.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Chavez

[Suicide]

Yep, you right. I read a lot here on the forum bunch of people usung screwdrivers, big nails , whatsoever to make petal tool off it.

There are the only small trick you have to do with tool's heel - to ground a bit heel's edges and round em up for tool won't leave a marks by it's heel.

Unfortunately all I have here around are just diamond sharping stones and files for such (possible) workout, and I doubt if I such a superhero to ground down the screwdriver with stone only. Maybe if I take Chinese screwdriver I could accomplish this in 1 or 2 minutes.... But with all the screwdrivers I have here its not the case.

As for using gurus say it is pretty easy Put toe into cut and strike by mallet... The only you should care about is do not punch leather all way through...

[Chavez]

I happened to get the steel rods (12cm long, 5mm in diameter) from a broken paper tray holder that was going into the bin at work. Got a few surprised looks, but who cares =))

Just used a general-use file and a bit of elbow grease to do all the work and then sandpaper to polish. Some rouge polishing is in my todo list. That's a very good workout btw so you also save money on the gym =))

[Suicide]

I happened to get the steel rods (12cm long, 5mm in diameter) from a broken paper tray holder that was going into the bin at work. Got a few surprised looks, but who cares =))

Just used a general-use file and a bit of elbow grease to do all the work and then sandpaper to polish. Some rouge polishing is in my todo list. That's a very good workout btw so you also save money on the gym =))

Sounds promising for both saving money on tools and saving money on gym. I definitely must give it a try

[Chavez]

lol,

Well, of course you're not going to get an amazing quality for you lifter, but it saves some money on more important tools.

After I bought a good quality round knife and felt the difference that a great tool makes, I'm focussed on getting high quality essentials, and a lifter is not on that list.

I just thought that a very slight improvement that I would get from pro lifters is going to improve my work less than a pricking iron or a good qualty clicker (I've been using cheap chinese "hobby scalpels" so far and they sometimes bend.)

[Sylvia]

I just thought that a very slight improvement that I would get from pro lifters is going to improve my work less than a pricking iron or a good qualty clicker (I've been using cheap chinese "hobby scalpels" so far and they sometimes bend.)

:confused:

What in tarnation does a scalpel and a clicker have to do with each other? Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't a clicker a cutting press you use with dies to cut out leather? And please help me with this "pricking iron" you speak of... what in the world is that?

Is this one of those Bum pack/Fanny pack ... Brit/American things?

[Suicide]

Is this one of those Bum pack/Fanny pack ... Brit/American things?

Yep, seems like that.

AFAIK in Britain and by some reasons in Japan they often refer to (american) stitching(mostly) / thoning chisels as "pricking iron".

You can see for instance here. Just close to the bottom of the page you'll see pricking irons.

What in tarnation does a scalpel and a clicker have to do with each other?

They both definitely can be used to get a cut piece off the hide I think.

Anyway I am also confused a bit unless Chavez meant he switched to using dices instead of these chinese scalpels he bent while cutting. But lets wait for his explanations on this

[Chavez]

Oh, I was referring to a clicker's (clicking) knife

Apologies for confusion, I forgot about the clicker press =)

[Sylvia]

Oh, I was referring to a clicker's (clicking) knife

Apologies for confusion, I forgot about the clicker press =)

Oh no apology necessary. I am just always curious about the verbiage and semantics of other cultures. So to you a clicker's knife is what we would call a box knife or a utility knife right? Like one of these knives.

http://www.uline.com/product/AdvSearchResult.aspx?view=ALL&SubGroup=1169&Source=28

[Sylvia]

Yep, seems like that.

AFAIK in Britain and by some reasons in Japan they often refer to (american) stitching(mostly) / thoning chisels as "pricking iron".

You can see for instance here. Just close to the bottom of the page you'll see pricking irons.

Ah yes. That does make sense. Thanks Suicide, even though Brits, Americans, Canadians and even Aussies all claim to speak the same language, sometimes the words are familiar but come out as "code." My husband tells a story of being in the Navy and getting to stop in Melborne, Australia and getting liberty ashore. Of course it was all about the beer drinking... he was sitting at a table with a bunch of newly made friends and this woman says something like "crikey, I'm pissed" while staring right at him. He said "What did I do?" The others said "No, Mate, ... she's just saying she's really drunk."

"Pissed to an American, means VERY angry." LOL I'm always running across these differences. I find them intriguing.

Anyway thank you for the disambiguation of the terms.

[Suicide]

Ah yes. That does make sense. Thanks Suicide, even though Brits, Americans, Canadians and even Aussies all claim to speak the same language, sometimes the words are familiar but come out as "code." My husband tells a story of being in the Navy and getting to stop in Melborne, Australia and getting liberty ashore. Of course it was all about the beer drinking... he was sitting at a table with a bunch of newly made friends and this woman says something like "crikey, I'm pissed" while staring right at him. He said "What did I do?" The others said "No, Mate, ... she's just saying she's really drunk."

"Pissed to an American, means VERY angry." LOL I'm always running across these differences. I find them intriguing.

LoL Funny

For me as for non-native english speaker, one friend of mine born in Scotland has told "You can count you know english very well if you can understand what the Irish and Aussie guys talking about around you"

Edited January 15, 2012 by Suicide