Used Leather Jacket

[bcflyguy]

I bought a leather jacket from a second hand store and thought that I could use it to practice my tooling. HOWEVER I can not seem to trace a pattern on either side of the leather. What am I doing wrong??? Could it be it is the wrong kind of leather or is what I am trying to do not possible? Any advice for this newbi would be greatly appreciated

thanks in advance

bcflkyguy aka Neil

[electrathon]

Wrong leather, you want vegetable tanned. Generally light tan and hard/stiff.

[ramrod]

its the wrong type of leather. garment leather is chrome tanned leather. it has already been "processed" and finished, for lack of a better term. it's in it's final state. you can't do anything with it. you need to buy a piece of vegetable tanned leather. it's the only type of leather you can tool and carve.

[stanly]

Usually only veg-tan leather is used for tooling, know from experience that chrome-tan is Very difficult to make an impression on. Chrome-tan where it hasn't been dyed will have a blue/grayish color (u would probably have to cut into an edge and even then on thin leather u may not see a undyed part).

[susiek]

You need a tooling hide - veg tanned hide, most jackets are not that

[Dwight]

One thing you can do, . . . determine what it is you want to put on the jacket, . . . buy enough corresponding vegetable tanned leather, . . . cut the pieces to the shapes you want for your jacket.

You can then tool, . . . stamp, . . . paint, . . . stain, . . . whatever you want for your jacket, . . . to your heart's content.

THEN, . . . get those pieces sewn onto your jacket.

Virtually all motorcycle folks, . . . military folks, . . . and others wearing "stuff" on their leather jackets have also done it this way.

May God bless,

Dwight