Reporting A Pathetic Attempt At Freehand Letters

[BeUnico]

It's a bit of a vicious circle... I don't want to spend the money on an alphabet set just yet, but I'd like to be able to personalize wallets/ dog collars etc.

so I tried by cutting (swivel knife) and using a beveller for the first time. Only a scrap piece but I can see it's never going to look professional enough if I have to rely on my 'skills' at this moment at least ( hoping to improve!)

I'm in an area of southern Italy where there are no workshops or the like, so I have to rely on tutorials and books ( I prefer a good old book) actually I don't think there are many leather crafters on the entire island

And they definitely would not be tooling leather.

Is there any one book that might help me understand more about bevelling?

Thanks for any title suggestions.

Edited February 16, 2016 by BeUnico

[Wild Bill46]

For a relative Newbe, Your freehand letters are just great !

Your Basketwave stamping ? yes, needs work, but thats where you have to begin your learning curve.

Go ahead buy an Alphabet set, you'll use it alot, even later on !

Al stohlman books are helping many ! keep up the practiceing regemen. --- Wild Bill46

[BeUnico]

For a relative Newbe, Your freehand letters are just great !

Your Basketwave stamping ? yes, needs work, but thats where you have to begin your learning curve.

Go ahead buy an Alphabet set, you'll use it alot, even later on !

Al stohlman books are helping many ! keep up the practiceing regemen. --- Wild Bill46

Many thanks for the encouragement I have been bitten by the bug and I'm loving it. Will definitely look for Mr Stohlman books

[HondoMan]

If it's still needed...I've created a method that works rather well. Depending upon the needed font, I print off the letters or phrase (recently done for a sheath) from word or powerpoint then trace it onto a piece of manila folder. Bloody expensive those in Germany. Regardless I then use the thicker manila paper onto the leather which is easier to trace. Printer can't handle the size of the manila folder so that is my method. Perhaps a step too many but the end result works.

[Boriqua]

The pic you posted isnt very large but from what I can see it looks like perhaps the leather wasnt cased properly. It lead to you not getting a good deep clean cut with the swivel knife and so the letters edges got a little mushy when you went in with the beveler. If my edges on a carving get soft like that I know I didnt carve deep enough and it is usually the result of messing up on the casing.

I also dont own a letter set since I cant seem to find a letter set I like. LW Leather has many fonts so I will probably end up buying one of theirs. In the mean time whenever I am asked to do initials or lettering I actually like to do a reverse so that the surrounding area is smooth and my letters are carved in.

I dont do a lot of lettering and discourage people who ask for it so I dont hold this example out as being great but just another way for you to think about doing lettering. I go through the fonts in my office program until I pick one that feels right, I size it on the computer and then transfer it to tracing film and then mark it on to cased leather then with my wide swivel blade I carve it in. This one was for a female marine and I wanted something a little swoopy.

If you did it in reverse you could have run your basketweave up to the area you now have depressed and left that high instead and then went to town carving in your initials. Just a thought?

Edited February 28, 2016 by Boriqua

[BeUnico]

Fantastic advice from all, thanks so much for sharing your own methods and ideas

Hondoman Manila paper is s great idea, will get hold of some 👍🏼thanks

Boriqua, yep mushy is definitely the perfect adjective here! I think you've got exactly what happened. Thanks for the advice 👍🏼