Re-inventing the wheel?

[Carnivore]

I may have re-invented the wheel but I thought I would throw it out there. As a newbe leather worker I was practicing my carving skills on small pieces of leather and getting very frustrated on how the the piece kept moving on the stone slab while I was beveling etc. I taped a piece of 150 grit sandpaper to the slab and walla!! no more moving. The tooling seemed to take to the leather as before. Has anyone else tried this??

[Rockoboy]

I have some steel blocks, about 1inch X 1inch X 2inch to stop my tooling job going for a walk whilst I am working on it.

As many people will tell you, leather can react with ferrous metals, so I used a layer of heat shrink plastic tube over the steel.

I have seen some people using a homemade weight. Two circles of leather about 3inch diameter stitched around the edge, to make a thick pancake shape, until there is a small opening remaining, then filled with lead shot and stitched closed.

One of the problems with fine sand paper is the chance of roughing the surface of your leather if your job moves for any reason.

[immiketoo]

That is actually a cool idea.  The only issue I have is if it will scratch your leather.  Sometimes I tool a lined piece so the smooth side would be damaged by the paper.  I use the lead weights described above.

[Carnivore]

Good point guys! I never thought the possibility of scratching leather if it had a finished side down on the sandpaper. So far I have only used veg-tan leather with the flesh side down on the sandpaper. I will have to try another method if I am ever working on something where I will be tooling with a good ( finished side down).

[Mark842]

I just put a small piece of double sided sticky tape on the back of what I'm tooling. It keeps it from sliding around and pulls off easy when done.

[alpha2]

These are what I use. The shotbag is new, I'd used the boxes of bullets since the beginning. Nice and heavy, and just the right size.

Jeff