Doubleojedi Report post Posted May 27, 2019 Hello I'm after some help. Carving and tooling leather terrifies me. Every time I try, it just doesn't go right. Deciding to practice I did a flower on a holster. If you look at the picture I've uploaded you can see my attempts at bevelling. I seem to have a small line of unfinished leather in all of the lines realise that this isn't good But I don't know what has gone wrong to produce this fault and can't for the life of me find anything similar online. Can anyone tell me what I did wrong? Is my cut too shallow or too deep, is my knife not straight or too blunt? Is it my tooling? I really am stumped any help or advice is truly welcome. Thanks in advance. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
garypl Report post Posted May 27, 2019 My guess is your cuts are too deep. Have you tried practicing with the same leather and bevel shallower cuts? I see lighter leather at the bottom of cuts when they are too deep. Gary Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mattsbagger Report post Posted May 27, 2019 (edited) I’d say cut to deep. Immiketoo has a video titled. Cut shallower bevel deeper or something along that line. Edited May 27, 2019 by Mattsbagger Add to post Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TargetRockLeather Report post Posted May 27, 2019 (edited) I agree with garypl. I had the exact same problem. I learned that I was cutting too deep with the swivel knife and I wasn't beveling deep enough. I did the tooling while the item was flat, then when I folded the tooled section slightly my cuts opened wider and exposed the "core" of the leather. From your picture it looks like the same thing happened to you. I found the solution on learnleather.com. The concept is "Cut Less, Bevel More". I can't find the article now, but they have an excellent youtube video that explains the whole thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZp_ZI2XnzM After watching that I practiced cutting less deep and that solved my problem. Take a look and practice on some scrap to see if that helps. Edited May 27, 2019 by TargetRockLeather mistake Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doubleojedi Report post Posted May 29, 2019 Thanks very much for the advice. Much appreciated. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robs456 Report post Posted May 29, 2019 Cuts too deep? Leather too wet? Pounding too hard? Holding tool tilted? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oltoot Report post Posted May 29, 2019 In addition, leather too wet Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
johnv474 Report post Posted May 31, 2019 Skip the cuts. Improve your work by setting down your swivel knife. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DV8DUG Report post Posted May 31, 2019 Good advice... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Doubleojedi Report post Posted May 31, 2019 14 hours ago, johnv474 said: Skip the cuts. Improve your work by setting down your swivel knife. I'm sorry but I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean, Don't use a swivel knife? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
johnv474 Report post Posted June 4, 2019 Yes. Give it a try, using your swivel knife only for decorative cuts. You may like the results. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
