First One

[RParson]

So I made my first leather shield today. I am very new to any kind of leatherwork. I have made a few radio harness and straps with stamping and paint but no tooling.I only have a few tools for tooling, three to be exact. this took me a while to say the least. Any guidance would be appreciated.

[WinterBear]

Which three tools do you have RParson?

Are the lines cut? I can't tell from your picture.

[RParson]

I have a swivel knife, B203 beveler and a P217 pear shader. Yes I cut the outlines. I just dont know how deep is deep enough. I also wet the leather as well and let it dry a bit before I started. I know I obviously need a few more tools. From what I have read, better ones also help.

[WinterBear]

Well, the general rule of thumb is that the cuts should be 1/2 the thickness of the leather. And I think if you were to "walk" your bevelers a little more, and maybe smooth and round the numbers a bit with a modelling tool, and use the modeler to smooth the beveling a bit too, you'd be surprised with how much definition you'd get. I have a sneaking suspicion that the water content of the leather wasn't quite right, as the tool marks don't look like they've burnished very deeply or darkly. I'd say you're on the right track though.

[RParson]

Finished product...

[WinterBear]

That turned out pretty good. Really nice paint. You better look out, you're going to be getting a lot of requests when the others get a load of that shield.

[cst]

Cool