Help needed for first time tooling

[stelmackr]

On 9/16/2019 at 6:02 AM, JuntoPi said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. you've convinced me to keep tying.  @JLSleatherI'm in Everett, WA and I got the leather from a Tandy Leather store.

Go to PSLAC.ORG and go to one of their meetings.  They are south of Seattle.

[YinTx]

On 9/11/2019 at 4:40 PM, JuntoPi said:

To case the leather I submerged the piece it until there were only a few bubble coming out and then let it dry on my slab for about an hour.

This equates to "soggy" leather around here.  I'd have to wait a week for that to dry out enough to tool.  I can't imagine it being dry enough in an hour unless I set it outside in the sun on a summer day in the desert southwest.

Try a bit less water.  In fact, a lot less water.  Don't even submerge it.  Just spray it until it is plenty wet, let it soak in and even the moisture out a bit.  It will begin to return to it's original color - it'll cut and tool much nicer that way.  For me, that is a few hours minimum, overnight in a bag to really even the moisture out, and another hour or two on the table to get it right.  And I am sure there are others that understand moisture content a lot better than I do with better methods.

There is even the wet sponge method:  wipe it on, let it soak in, wait 5 minutes, get to work.  But sop it in a bucket of water until it stops bubbling?  A bit much water in my opinion.

Let us see the next version.  Make small things, like 5 different squares of leather, with different stages of dryness, cut on them and tool/stamp them, and you'll begin to find what level works best for you.

YinTx

[chuck123wapati]

i would also suggest you download all the free books from tandy while you can. Great info!

[JuntoPi]

OK.  I made an adjustment in how I case the leather and got some results I was expecting. The right side and bottom of the M were done after whetting the leather but not saturating it like I did the first time.  Same with the longer piece. Interestingly enough it started to dry out as I was working it and you can see in the third line the burnishing is not as pronounced.  This is encouraging, so I'm going to continue experimenting with moisture levels.  And trying to get nice straight lines.

[Sturme]

1 hour ago, JuntoPi said:

OK.  I made an adjustment in how I case the leather and got some results I was expecting. The right side and bottom of the M were done after whetting the leather but not saturating it like I did the first time.  Same with the longer piece. Interestingly enough it started to dry out as I was working it and you can see in the third line the burnishing is not as pronounced.  This is encouraging, so I'm going to continue experimenting with moisture levels.  And trying to get nice straight lines.

that's looking a lot better. keep up the work

[dougfergy]

Great progress in a short time!  Way to go!  Different leathers act different too, so I always try to trim a small piece off and test stamp some to see how it acts, how much water it needs etc.  The last piece of Tandy leather I bought is hard as a rock and doesn't stamp very good.  As someone else said, the leather makes a world of difference.  Good leather is a dream to work.  Springfield Leather is cool because you can order small pieces of most leathers to give you some less expensive trial work.  I ordered as small as 1 sq ft of Hermann Oak my first time to try it.  Dang good stuff!

[TonySFLDLTHR]

Here is a couple different remnant options we have to get you some practice pieces.

https://www.springfieldleather.com/2lbs-Heavyweight-Veg-Tan-Scrap
https://www.springfieldleather.com/Pieces-Tooling-2-lbs-Bag