Casing And Backing For Tooling

[NoName]

Mlapaglia is right.

Rubber cement your project down to Hot Press (Crescent) Illustration board prior to casing and tooling. The leather will emboss into the hot press board slightly and the tooling will appear deeper. Wait until completely dry to peel up so that your leather does not stretch out of shape. You will have rubber cement residue on the flesh side.

[Chief31794]

Ken - why do you leave it overnight in the bag? I assume there are benefits to this method and

Its one of those things i see many mention, but as i have only ever wet the leather then left it a few minutes to return to its normal colour before tooling, and never had a problem with the tooling i'm intrigues by the need to leave it so long.

adam

Adam,

Sorry, I've been busy and it took a while to answer. Not to beat a dead horse, X2 on reading Bob Parks article on casing. The idea in casing is to get the core of the leather wet and that takes some time. If I'm stamping designs, then I don't worry about the overnight, wet it on one side well, wait about 10 -30 min depending on the humidity and when it starts to return then do your stamping. Carving is better done with leather cased as Bob describes in his paper. I wasn't clear, I also like to let it dry to some before putting in the bag or under glass but sometimes I don't have the time on the front end so I have to let it dry a little longer when I remove it. Remember there is a differnce between thouroughly wet and "soggy", soggy is too far and is better used for forming leather as opposed to casing for carving. Hope that make sense. Try casing as Bob says and see if you see a difference, most people do see a significant difference in how the leather carves and works. Keep in mind, in a bag you don't have to take it out in 24 hours, that is about what I leave it sometimes I leave it for 48. Longer than that and I put the bag with the leather inside in my small refrigerator in the shop (I keep diet drinks in there as well).

Like I said try it main thing is if you're happy and happy with the results.

Ken

[lightningad]

thanks Ken,

i did read the article months ago, so will have to go back and read it again.

I will be trying the overnight method tomorrow as i have been experimenting with using bicarbonate of soda to darken some leather by dunking it for an hour before removing it. I'll be tooling it tomorrow, so looking forward to seeing what its like.

rgds

Adam.