Help: Small Pieces Curl While Tooling!

[LeatherNerd]

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to tooling, and I notice that when the pros do their tooling they tend to work on big pieces of leather and they stay nice and flat while they're being tooled. I'm working on tiny things like fobs and patches, and about halfway through a project I find the leather curling up so bad it starts slapping the stone when I hit it anywhere but where I'm holding it down.

I apologize if this is a well-answered problem--I've tried searching this forum but didn't find anything. Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

Dave

Example attached. 8oz leather, approx 2.5" x 5", halfway through tooling.

[King's X]

Tape them down. I have used rubber cement and mat board, packaging tape and shelving paper. Try not to remove it until you are ready to line or done dyeing it.

Good work....keep it up.

[LeatherNerd]

That... seems pretty obvious in retrospect. Thank you!

Do you tape/cement directly to your slab, or do a piece of board? I'm worried that a piece of stiff cardboard might absorb some of the tooling impact.

Then again, what am I worried about? I have the little 1' square quartz block from Tandy. I can turn THAT just fine. I'll just tape or cement directly to the stone, and then clean thoroughly after removal.

Thanks again!

Dave

[penguineer]

It will attempt to curl. Tooling is basically mashing and stretching different parts of the leather causing it to be longer in the middle the the outside.

Simple solution is to use masking tape(the paper stuff) on the back or stick the leather to some perspex(apply rubber cement to one surface only so it can be peeled off).

Cheers!

Cardboard would probably absorb some impact, but you're able to look at the work as you're doing it and can adjust......

Cheers!

[King's X]

Ditto

[LeatherNerd]

For the record: slathering wet cement on the back of damp leather and then tooling it before the cement can set... doesn't work. More details as I try other experiments.

It occurs to me that I am doing a set of practice toolings (the same design over and over) so I could probably cut a window in a piece of cardboard, slide the leather under it, and attach that to the stone, then carve inside the window. Not a generally workable practice but for repetitious stuff, it maybe could work.

What I'm hearing is that this is sort of like casing leather: it's a well-known problem and everybody has a different way of doing it.

I'll experiment. Thank you!

[huffdad]

I apply packing tape to the back of the piece before casing to prevent distortions while tooling. While in progress, I use bean bags to help me hold it down - especially useful on tiny pieces. When I say bean bags, I mean I made small pouches from soft scraps filled with BB's that I sewed closed as weights.

[Billsotx]

I always save a few cereal or cracker boxes for what you're describing. I apply packing tape to the back of the leather; say a key fob, or wallet or checkbook cover, purse, etc. The tape keeps the leather from stretching, esp. thin leather, and becoming distorted. You don't want to tool a mouthband on a holster only to find out it won't fit the scabbard you designed it for. Anyway, after I have laid strips of tape to completely cover the backside of the project, I trim the tape, leaving about 1/2" overhang all the way around, then I lay a few strips of packing tape over those pieces of tape that I left sticking out - this is applied adhesive side to adhesive side - and now, at the same time it is taped down solid onto the cardboard box. If some of the adhesive side up, that is the first applied happens to stick to you fingers while you're tooling, cover it with a small piece of tape. Cut the cardboard piece of the box to a handy size and shape so you can handle it easily and/or lay your shot bags around on the edges to help hold it in place while you work. When you're done pull the cardboard and tape off and proceed with however you want to finish it. I would not use corrugated cardboard as you've pointed out, it may be too much of a cushion. You should not have any problem with thin dense cardboard like aforementioned boxes if you are tooling on a solid surface like a piece of marble or granite. I've also taped it down in similar fashion to pieces of plastic boxes, wrappers, etc. and even pieces of butcher paper. I prefer Scotch Brand tape, but that's mainly because it's easiest to get where I frequent. I haven't had as good luck with cheapo dollar store packing tape, but I'm sure any name brand will work. Make you some shot bags if you don't have any. As mentioned you can use BBs, I prefer #6 birdshot because it's easy to get and pour into the bags. You can pick up lead shot at any gun/sporting store that sells reloading equipment. I also have some lead ignots which I glued a thin strip of leather to for weighting down projects when shot bag is a little awkward to use. Small shot bags are handy when you go to the rifle range too, making them dual purpose - you'll find lots of uses for them after you build a few.

You doing good on you tooling. Stay after it. Looking good.

[Greybeard]

When I first started, I used the rubber cement on cardboard method. Then I learned about adhesive shelf paper/ contact paper (actually plastic / Vinyl) can be found at Walmart / Home Depot....this stuff is great!

Cut it to size, peel and stick, trim excess. When done tooling, peel off. No Mess.