Is The Leather I Am Using, Right?

[Jax]

looks to me from the pics that there could be some rawhide in the centre of the leather, it looks darker through the centre to me

[Natalie O]

The center does appear a bit darker.

And i did the test with the water....there's bubbles coming out of everywhere so i guess it does take in water well.

Jax if it is rawhide is it ok for tooling?

[immiketoo]

Yes Natalie you can tool it no problem. I'm glad the floor worked better for you. You NEED a thick slab of smooth stone though. It will help your impressions and your noise.

[immiketoo]

Chrome latino? ha ha ha ha!! I think you meant, Chrome Latigo. I've tooled Chrome tanned, too, before I learned it "couldn't be done." lol It looked ok at first but it eventually just looked embossed. My Grey chrome tanned changes color with water... it gets darker. Mine doesn't feel as though it has a burnished or finished surface. It almost feels like suede... but not quite. But it sounds as if Natalie is pretty certain she got Veg Tanned.

Syl, that guy was PISSED...

[Sylvia]

LOL I think I would be too. I've known some Latinos that were tools but never have seen one that had been tooled. ha ha ha.

[Natalie O]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice. I have been working on the floor this morning (since its sunday and all stores are shut to buy a piece of marble) and soaked the leather a bit better and it did wonders. The tooling looks very good. I only have one last question. Is there anything i can use instead of contact cement to keep my leather from stretching during tooling? Any tips on that? (i dont believe i can find contact cement here).

[immiketoo]

Natalie, thanks for coming into chat. Let me know how it works out for you.

[LNLeather]

Is there anything i can use instead of contact cement to keep my leather from stretching during tooling? Any tips on that? (i dont believe i can find contact cement here).

I just read a post where the gentleman said he used painters tape on the back

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I have read of others using tape also... like 2 layers going opposite directions.

Sounds like that would be much easier to remove when you are done tooling.

Hope this helps...

[REDTAILHAWK]

If you are talking about glueing the leather piece to a piece of cardboard or something to prevent stretching while you are tooling, I always use rubber cement so the cardboard or whatever can be peeled off fairly cleanly afterwards.