Tooling English bridle leather

[KingsCountyLeather]

Hi all,

Can waxed English bridle leather be carved and stamped like regular veg tanned tooling leather?

[Ferg]

Sometimes you can imprint, with an Arbor Press for instance. I believe carving would be a crap shoot although I haven't tried it.

 

Ferg

[KingsCountyLeather]

Thanks Ferg,

Didn't think so... My brother wants a another shotgun sling and asked for some tooling on it, I have some nice old English bridle and I thought about using it.

[buko]

You can tool un-cased bridle by heating the tool prior to tooling. Make sure you have a leather glove on for the hand you are holding the tool in and heat the tool with a heat gun. Takes practice and patience but it works.

[KingsCountyLeather]

25 minutes ago, buko said:

You can tool un-cased bridle by heating the tool prior to tooling. Make sure you have a leather glove on for the hand you are holding the tool in and heat the tool with a heat gun. Takes practice and patience but it works.

Interesting.... but sounds like a lot of work.

I ended up making a simple belt after and he was happy..

thanks.

[buko]

1 minute ago, KingsCountyLeather said:

Interesting.... but sounds like a lot of work.

I ended up making a simple belt after and he was happy..

thanks.

It is. I regularly stamp bridle with my maker's mark using this procedure but I'll never do any significant tooling again. Took too long and I made too many mistakes. Its a good method for really deep monograms though.