Knife Drag

[sharkeyfinn]

hi everyone, i just recieved a 1.6-2.0 double shoulder from tandy ukand im finding it quite difficult to carve, i have stropped my swivel knife several times but even after a good dampening it is still tough, i once heard someone say to put a small amount of washing up liquid in with some water to reduce drag, but even that doesnt really work.

have i chosen the wrong type of leather or wrong cut? it was the craftsmen double oak shoulder thats on sale at the moment.

any hints guys ;-)

[WyomingSlick]

LOL Must be time for some more Tandy bashing !

You know there are reasons why people pay more for the high quality tooling leather. All leather is not grown the same. Leather from range cattle, or an old dairy cow is differant from leather that comes off of a feedlot fattened steer. Then, the tanning process used can make a lot of differance. There are tanneries that use a cheaper, faster process than the premium tanneries and consequently their product is generally going to be inferior and cost less. I am guessing that the leather you bought is from South America, and perhaps it is like many foreign products.....doesn't sell at home so they export it to where it will sell.

[FlHobbyist]

It sounds like you have the wrong type of leather to carve. I know there is another type of leather that is brown/orange that looks like veg-tan but is much to difficult to carve. It is possible that our friends at tandy messed up.

[RavenAus]

1.6 is a PITA to carve at the best of times, there's just not much grain there. Unless I really need the leather that weight I get 2mm and up, it always carves easy. I have a local leather shop about an hours drive away so I don't use Tandy. Nowt against them but I can hand-pick my hides from the local store instead of online ordering - going to Tandy for me (there's only one in Aus) would be like you driving to Spain!

[sharkeyfinn]

hi guys, thanks for the advice, and sorry it wasnt meant to be a tandy bash, i just thought it may have been useful to know where it came from ;-)

[Toolingaround]

Hi sharkeyfinn

This may sound obvious but are you certain your swivel knife is sharpened and stropped well, mirror polish and all. As a user of cheep tandy leather and scraps of unknown lineage I have carved some crap in my day and can make most things work unless of course it is chrome tanned :-). Make sure that knife is sharp and maybe case the leather overnight in a plastic bag. Some brown bottle Lexol will help to condition the leather before tooling. You can add some to your caseing water if you like. I use thin tandy leather a lot. I hope this helps :-)

Cheers, Toolingaround

[Dwight]

If my math did me well, . . . you have what I know as 4/5 oz leather.

I personally find it a pain to carve, stamp, decorate, . . . but it is because I'm a bit ham fisted when it comes to that kind of work, . . . and 4/5 is just too delicate for my club fisted way of working.

Also, . . . I've found those double shoulders to be sometimes a bit hard on the outside especially. Try a piece of the leather more toward the upper neck area, but away from the edge, . . . or the spine area below the shoulder itself.

I have wonderful "luck" with them for holsters, belts, etc., but if I'm going to be doing much decoration, . . . I prefer the bends in 7/8 or thicker.

Hope this helps.

May God bless,

Dwight

[sharkeyfinn]

thanks again, i have to admit i have been using the outer edges and was working my way in, so that may have something to do with it. ;-) and yes dwight your math is spot on lol .