Carving Days

[Randle P McMurphy]

Going to try to carve a bigger Sheridan piece about 14x16in

I know I can not carve it all in one day.

So my question is how do you all keep that piece in a cased state?

I was thinking just plastic bag and moisten the flesh side only on the next day

to resume carving?

Just wondering if that the right way to go on a bigger 2-3 day carve?

[Chief31794]

Going to try to carve a bigger Sheridan piece about 14x16in

I know I can not carve it all in one day.

So my question is how do you all keep that piece in a cased state?

I was thinking just plastic bag and moisten the flesh side only on the next day

to resume carving?

Just wondering if that the right way to go on a bigger 2-3 day carve?

That's what I've always done, typically I carve smaller pieces but have on occasion carved a bigger one and I try to maintain the moisture content as much as possible with light dampening to get where I need to be from time to time. There may be a better way, some of the saddle carvers etc, may way in and give you a good answer, I can't see anyone carving a whole saddle in one setting so there must be ways to do it.

Ken

[Bob Blea]

I rarely carve anything in one setting. Too much other stuff going on, so sometimes it can take weeks to get the time together to finish something. My projects stay in a bag when not on the bench, and I have a small narrow space in the refrigerator they stay in to prevent mold. When carving, I try to keep parts I'm not working on still in the bag, so they don't dry out. When adding water, I usually do it with a spray bottle so the water gets down into the cuts and tooling evenly. If you can add water from the flesh side that is great. It works really well and I think it may be the ideal way to keep moisture in the leather. But in my case, it's always thin leather that has tape on the back to keep it from stretching during tooling, so I have to add water from the front.

Bob

[kseidel]

Randle,

Keeping leather cased in a plastic bag works well for several days. The refrigerator will slow mold growth, but will not prevent it. The real complication comes when re-wetting. It is important to keep the temper even throughout the leather, not too wet in the center and dry on the surface or vice versa. Sweating your leather in plastic promotes uniform moisture content throughout the entire thickness of the leather. When removing from the plastic, the surface will dry rapidly. However the core of the leather will still have proper temper. You want to re-wet only the surface as necessary. The core will maintain its temper for quite some time. After the leather is carved, it is best to re-wet with a sprayed mist. This will wet the surface without getting the water deep into the core. When using a sponge, the raised cuts strip more water from the sponge and deposit it directly into the core where you do not need more moisture. This also takes much longer to dry back and by then the surface is too dry again. So use a sprayer for re-wetting after your leather is carved. I prefer a pump up pressure sprayer that delivers a uniform mist. Wetting from the back side does not work well. It over saturates your core and makes your tooling shallow and have a mushy feeling. It also promotes stretching. Case your leather however you like; once you have carved the leather, re-wet with a sprayer as necessary. Store in plastic and again use the sprayer lightly on the surface when resuming your work.

Regards,

Keith

[B Milla]

I have a question along these same lines. Is it better, if time is limited, to do one step on the entire project (ie cutting it in or beveling) per session? An example would be such as one a belt, i have done it where the entire belt was wrapped in saran and i stamped my way down it, unwrapping as i went. I have also done it where i cut the entire design in, then beveled the entire belt, and so on and so forth. I guess my thought would be that as someone who is probably not as consistant from day to day, a person would be able to tell the start and stop points.

[Bob Blea]

Randle,

Keeping leather cased in a plastic bag works well for several days. The refrigerator will slow mold growth, but will not prevent it. The real complication comes when re-wetting. It is important to keep the temper even throughout the leather, not too wet in the center and dry on the surface or vice versa. Sweating your leather in plastic promotes uniform moisture content throughout the entire thickness of the leather. When removing from the plastic, the surface will dry rapidly. However the core of the leather will still have proper temper. You want to re-wet only the surface as necessary. The core will maintain its temper for quite some time. After the leather is carved, it is best to re-wet with a sprayed mist. This will wet the surface without getting the water deep into the core. When using a sponge, the raised cuts strip more water from the sponge and deposit it directly into the core where you do not need more moisture. This also takes much longer to dry back and by then the surface is too dry again. So use a sprayer for re-wetting after your leather is carved. I prefer a pump up pressure sprayer that delivers a uniform mist. Wetting from the back side does not work well. It over saturates your core and makes your tooling shallow and have a mushy feeling. It also promotes stretching. Case your leather however you like; once you have carved the leather, re-wet with a sprayer as necessary. Store in plastic and again use the sprayer lightly on the surface when resuming your work.

Regards,

Keith

Thank you Keith, that is good to know about wetting from the back. I've only been able to try it twice and it seemed to work OK, but what you say makes sense. Just more reason to stick to using the spray mist technique.

Bob

[Bob Blea]

I have a question along these same lines. Is it better, if time is limited, to do one step on the entire project (ie cutting it in or beveling) per session? An example would be such as one a belt, i have done it where the entire belt was wrapped in saran and i stamped my way down it, unwrapping as i went. I have also done it where i cut the entire design in, then beveled the entire belt, and so on and so forth. I guess my thought would be that as someone who is probably not as consistant from day to day, a person would be able to tell the start and stop points.

Hi B Milla,

That is an excellent question. I have struggled with keeping belts moist and they are hard to keep in the bag while tooling. For me I decided to try to complete a section at a time so I wouldn't need to re-wet as much, but I have very little experience at belts, and would love to know the best practice here too.

Bob

[Sylvia]

Somewhere I found a set of "Daddy's Rules for Leather Carving" One of them was to wrap the leather in brown paper bags before you put them in the plastic.

Ah... here it is.

http://www.legendsandlies.com/docs/pdfs/Ben_Greg_Moody_Rules.pdf

I think the purpose of brown paper is to protect the surface of the leather from sweating and creating an environment that mold loves.

[kseidel]

I have a question along these same lines. Is it better, if time is limited, to do one step on the entire project (ie cutting it in or beveling) per session? An example would be such as one a belt, i have done it where the entire belt was wrapped in saran and i stamped my way down it, unwrapping as i went. I have also done it where i cut the entire design in, then beveled the entire belt, and so on and so forth. I guess my thought would be that as someone who is probably not as consistant from day to day, a person would be able to tell the start and stop points.

One thing to consider is the commitment to your leather work. Most projects take longer than we expect and we are usually too dedicated to finishing the project. Breaking it down into steps that can be finished in the time you have is pretty important. If you do not have enough time to do a step from start to finish, sometimes it is best not to start at that time. Be conscious of the time that you need to commit to that particular step and honor the commitment.

To answer your question more specifically, When you case up the entire belt, you should be able to cut in the entire pattern. Then you can work on a section at a time without negative effect. It does not matter so much weather you do all of the steps on a small section, or do one step on the entire belt (or as much as you can with time allotted), what does matter is the temper of the leather must be right for the tool you are using. Example: beveling can be done wetter than background. If the leather is too wet to move to the next tool on the section that you are working on, it would be better to move down the belt, than progressing to the next tool. There are no real rules, but the temper of the leather dictates what can be done. The varying temper of the leather will make the start and stop points more obvious, so be very aware of this when stamping smaller sections.

Hope this helps to answer your question.

Keith

[AfroCrafter]

Hi guys,

I have just found this thread after following a link from hidepounders casing leather thread. All of Keith's comments are exactly the answers that I was looking for.

Thank you so much for your time and willingness to teach. For us clueless beginners, it is a Godsend.

Happy carving

Alex

[Toolerlass]

I second that, really interesting info! From another clueless person :-)