Burnish Marks From Wet Molding

[TwinOaks]

Proper casing for tooling should include wetting the leather, then letting it set for a long while for the moisture content to equalize throughout the fibers in the entire piece. Many people bag the item and place it in the fridge overnight. Then, the leather is removed and allowed to dry until it looks dry i.e. it's returned to it's original color, but is still cool to the touch. That is when the leather is cased.

As to securing it to a board for tooling....you don't have to use cardboard. If I have a lot of tooling to do.....once it's cased....I stick it to my granite block. Or the next time you get down to Lowe's/Home Depot, get a piece of plexi-glass. It's just a firm surface to which to attach the leather. The reason for this is that tooling distorts the leather....kind of like rolling out dough. If you press one part of it thin, it tends to spread out. What you're trying to prevent is getting the whole piece out of shape/distorted. If it looks to be drying out too quickly, you can place something over the leather (Saran wrap) to delay the drying, and can even give it a light spraying with water ($1 'utility' spray bottle) to keep it moist.

DO NOT TOOL ON A RUBBERIZED SURFACE. Your tooling surface needs to absorb the impact of the tool without moving - hence the common practice of using a large piece of granite or marble. It has enough mass to absorb the energy of the tooling without shifting or rebounding. If you tool on a rubberized surface, you'll probably get double strikes from where the tooling surface has 'bounced' the leather back into the tool.

You can put a rubber pad under the tooling block, but that's just to help absorb sound transmission from the block to the the table.

[SooperJake]

The rubber surface I meant is a very thin material that would substitute for rubber cement.

So, you are saying you use rubber cement and bond the leather directly to the granite, after it has been properly cased. TO?

I really appreciate your indepth answers, and everyone's answers here. Experience beats the stuffing out of any book!

Jake

[particle]

Personally, when I tool my small leather pieces for holsters, I put a few pieces of double-sided tape on the grain side, then stick it to a piece of 12" x 12" x 1/4" hardboard that came in an old Tandy beginner's kit. I'll wet my leather from the grain side, then turn it over and let it rest face-down against my granite slab to give the water a little more time to absorb into the leather. The benefit to the double-sided tape is it can be removed and usually the sticky residue rubs right off if you rub it firmly with your fingers. So, for example, if you're tooling a journal cover, you can still have exposed flesh side if you prefer. This won't necessarily help with or prevent stretching, but I'm mostly just concerned with keeping my leather from sliding all over the place while I try to tool it.

[TwinOaks]

I'll have to admit that more than once I've tooled everything I needed, THEN cut the piece out of larger piece of leather.....stretchus non-existus.

[SooperJake]

Thanks all, for the ideas.

Jake