Wanting Feedback On A Tooled And Dyed Belt .

[Tom Biesinger]

Mm second belt that I have ever made, loving the process wanting a bit of feed back on my work and all that jazz...

[Rohn]

Very nice looking belt. Looks good to me.

[stu925]

Tooling looks good, a very nice belt.

Stu

[Thor]

Being known for upfront comments... Your leaves and acorns are good. The acorns could benefit from additional cuts on their tips. The background was far too wet when tooled. To me it looks mushy. Especially on the second picture it's very visible. You should have let it dry for at least another 6 hours. Review hidepounder's explanation on casing and you'll understand what I mean.

[Bonecross]

Nice belt. Thor what was the the "tell" that the leather was not cased properly... is it the wrinkling?

Also, what type of fasteners were used near the buckle Tom?

[JLSleather]

That looks like a line 16 "segma" snap.

But I'd be willing to hear about the casing, too. "Casing" is one of those terms people like to throw to appear to sound like they know something. Like "burnish" and "walk the tool". I can tell if something was tooled wet. I can tell if your leather is currently too wet. But I don't believe ANYone can tell you HOW LONG it's been wet.

[Thor]

I should probably say my own experience of messing around with too wet leather. He's probably used a Craftool backgrounder stamp and if you inspect the background thoroughly you'll see how it bulged around the individual impressions. Happens if the leather is too wet and the casing process not completed or if people think they have to re-wet the leather and have no patience to wait until it settled and distributed evenly throughout the leather.

[Tom Biesinger]

Ill remember to leave it longer ... how long? Your comments are helpful

[Thor]

As Jeff in his bright enriched wisdom said, it's hard to tell for how long leather has been wet or how long it takes to have the right amount of moisture throughout the leather. Various factors such as room temperature, thickness of leather as well as the initial amount of water etc make it hard to give a proper estimate on time. The six hours I mentioned are based on my personal experience and definitely not based on any scientific facts... Usually I'm wetting my leather on the evening, bag it and let it sit over night before I touch it for cutting. After cutting I'm bagging it again, let it sit until it almost returned to its natural color and bevel it then and so on... If I get to a point where I have to re-wet it I'll do so with a slightly wet sponge from both sides of the leather and bag it again. Wait again until returned to its natural color and continue to tool. Yes this is time consuming, but there's always something else to do in the meantime.

This link takes you to hideponder's write up on casing http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121

Just remember that each time you're adding water to your project you'll always remove some oil from it as well. Use as little as possible and as much water as needed and don't forget to oil it once you're finished.

[Tom Biesinger]

As Jeff in his bright enriched wisdom said, it's hard to tell for how long leather has been wet or how long it takes to have the right amount of moisture throughout the leather. Various factors such as room temperature, thickness of leather as well as the initial amount of water etc make it hard to give a proper estimate on time. The six hours I mentioned are based on my personal experience and definitely not based on any scientific facts... Usually I'm wetting my leather on the evening, bag it and let it sit over night before I touch it for cutting. After cutting I'm bagging it again, let it sit until it almost returned to its natural color and bevel it then and so on... If I get to a point where I have to re-wet it I'll do so with a slightly wet sponge from both sides of the leather and bag it again. Wait again until returned to its natural color and continue to tool. Yes this is time consuming, but there's always something else to do in the meantime.

This link takes you to hideponder's write up on casing http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19121

Just remember that each time you're adding water to your project you'll always remove some oil from it as well. Use as little as possible and as much water as needed and don't forget to oil it once you're finished.

the part about the oil I didn't know, that's helpful, does anyone know how to make that background more uniform? Or is that the casing that we are all talking about?