Tooling maul or mallet?

[Colt W Knight]

How are you casing the leather? 

Did you rewet the leather while tooling?

[Tjstewart]

16 hours ago, MADMAX22 said:

Thanks madmaxx22, the leather is from Tandy I bought for $80 a side. Figured it would be good to practice on. I did have to re-wet once I believe 

 

[Colt W Knight]

Too me, your tooling impressions do not look crisp because 1. The leather wasn't cased properly, and 2. When you rewetting the leather, it causes the leather to swell and loose definiton. 

[MADMAX22]

What thickness leather is it? 

I have rewetted leather for tooling during the process because some of the projects you just cant finish in time, its usually not a big deal. I dont notice any problems with it. Just dont over wet it, damp sponge usually works well for this. 

It could not be cased properly but it also looks like the typical tandy leather that has that rough hard skin side that just doesnt take tooling very well. I remember the first time I switched over to some good leather and the ability for it to hold impressions was like night and day. 

Not saying that hide isnt good to practice on. I would start trying to do simple patterns at first though. 

[Boriqua]

I used a rawhide mallet and a tandy yellow for some 20 yrs or there about. A year ago I bought a Tapered 27oz maul and will never go back. I found it for about 50 bucks. Its not very pretty but works well enough. If you have the scratch I would recommend one but in all honesty I dont know that you are far enough along to really get the benefits of the extra control. I know its not directly an answer to your question but I might suggest spending that $100 on more practice leather, a swivel knife sharpening guide and perhaps a new swivel knife blade.

As an analogy .. I was once seriously into bicycling. Yup a bike weenie. I rode a steel frame fuji for 3 years before I started to notice where it was letting me down and before the benefits of a better stiffer frame would actually make a  difference in my power transmission and speed.

 

Oh here is a link to where i got mine .. their pictures show mauls with handles finished much better than the one I received so buyer beware but .. how pretty the handle looks doesnt affect how it works.

http://www.wrising.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7&zenid=1f8a020cf7263721dea838c01cb7afe6

Edited July 17, 2016 by Boriqua

[Tjstewart]

On 7/17/2016 at 0:11 PM, MADMAX22 said:

What thickness leather is it? 

I have rewetted leather for tooling during the process because some of the projects you just cant finish in time, its usually not a big deal. I dont notice any problems with it. Just dont over wet it, damp sponge usually works well for this. 

It could not be cased properly but it also looks like the typical tandy leather that has that rough hard skin side that just doesnt take tooling very well. I remember the first time I switched over to some good leather and the ability for it to hold impressions was like night and day. 

Not saying that hide isnt good to practice on. I would start trying to do simple patterns at first though. 

It's 4-5 oz so not very thick but has lot of blemishes and what looks like stretch marks in it. At first thought it was gonna be better than what it really is. But way I figure it now if I can make that look good then should be able to tool just about anything