What tools should I get and how do I do this?

[edwardmorris]

Hello All, this is my first post here. I'm new to leather work and have been reading and watching videos to get the basics right for a while now. I feel I'm at the stage where I can start practicing so I ended up buying some leather and basic tools when Tandy had a sale recently. So far I have the B200 beveler, a small pear shader and one camo/border tool. I've been playing around with some of the scraps of Tandy's 8-10oz Superior Oak to figure out moisture content stuff and I've got a little ways to go :). The end goal is to be able to bevel straight lines and curved corners at some point. What I can't seem to figure out is what tools do I need to get this effect which almost looks like a round hose/pipe/tube. I've linked some images below.

And the border, almost a perfect round tube

And also how to do and what tool to get this beveling ridge right?

 And finally, what kinda tool do I need to get this effect for a background?

Any help will be really appreciated! BTW I've seen the video 'cut less bevel more', in my trials so far, this has worked the best. I will post pictures of my practice work as soon as I'm able.

[Dwight]

Well . . . first off. . . welcome . . . glad to have you aboard . . . we were all in your shoes one day in the past . . . some recently . . . some back about Noah's day or so.

But anyway . . . put that belt back in a drawer . . . and take a shot at something much simpler.  That belt is way up on the totem pole of expertise . . . and quite honestly . . . you will be a while getting there.

Wallet kits are probably the very best learning tool out there . . . many come with detailed instructions for each part . . . a tool list you will need . . . and you can get the necessary "work" feedback relatively quickly . . . to see what you are doing.

Plus they make a special gift for a brother, father, friend, etc . . . here is one that is good to start with:  https://tandyleather.com/collections/kits_wallet-card/products/premier-wallet-kit

The swivel knife (you did not say you had one) is the backbone of leather decoration.  You HAVE TO get it and learn how to use it . . . FIRST.

Then shading, backgrounding, beveling . . . they will come.

Practice makes perfect . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

 

[buzzardbait]

That rounded border can be done with a push beader or a beader blade in a swivel knife or a slicker in that profile. It takes a lot of practice to do it that nicely. the backgrounder looks like an E-294 these may be available from Springfield Leather.

[edwardmorris]

On 6/6/2021 at 1:21 PM, Dwight said:

The swivel knife (you did not say you had one) is the backbone of leather decoration.  You HAVE TO get it and learn how to use it . . . FIRST.

Thank you Dwight for the warm welcome. No I do not yet own a swivel knife, most of the work I intend to do involves straight lines and I read/saw vids saying a groover/spoon tool works better, so I have that instead. For a starting project I was thinking more on the lines of a regular old belt with a buckle, with maybe a little border/simple tooling decoration instead of a wallet. The more I look at my practice pieces (pix soon I promise, need to get them off the camera), the more I'm convinced the B200 beveler isn't anywhere near as steep enough.

On 6/6/2021 at 5:12 PM, buzzardbait said:

That rounded border can be done with a push beader or a beader blade in a swivel knife or a slicker in that profile.

Thanks! I searched for both and came up with nothing on the beader front :( but I did find the backgrounder so thanks again! Do you know a part/model/maker anything I can use to find the beader?

 

Also new question, what tool is being used here?

 

[Rahere]

6 hours ago, edwardmorris said:

Thank you Dwight for the warm welcome. No I do not yet own a swivel knife, most of the work I intend to do involves straight lines and I read/saw vids saying a groover/spoon tool works better, so I have that instead. For a starting project I was thinking more on the lines of a regular old belt with a buckle, with maybe a little border/simple tooling decoration instead of a wallet. The more I look at my practice pieces (pix soon I promise, need to get them off the camera), the more I'm convinced the B200 beveler isn't anywhere near as steep enough.

Thanks! I searched for both and came up with nothing on the beader front :( but I did find the backgrounder so thanks again! Do you know a part/model/maker anything I can use to find the beader?

 

Also new question, what tool is being used here?

 

Just a basic 1/4" beveller. The user has used a swivel knifr to impress the line just behind the rolled edge, now they're working along it to slope tjt inner edge away. The shot's been set up, because the leather's not been cased. 

[Rahere]

It's very possible a lot of the WWF work's hot-pressed, where the pattern's been made in steel.

[Handstitched]

2 hours ago, Rahere said:

It's very possible a lot of the WWF work's hot-pressed, where the pattern's been made in steel.

Yep

My very first purchase of new stamping tools was  a ' basic 7 piece set' , that included some basic stamping tools and  a swivel knife .  But I also  bought some S/H tools from the same shop for a few bucks each, a few modelers, stamping tools, edge bevellers  etc.  I already had a sharp knife .  You don't  have to go for new tools if you don't wish to, depending on your budget, and how far you wish to go . 

HS

[Rahere]

1 hour ago, Handstitched said:

Yep

My very first purchase of new stamping tools was  a ' basic 7 piece set' , that included some basic stamping tools and  a swivel knife .  But I also  bought some S/H tools from the same shop for a few bucks each, a few modelers, stamping tools, edge bevellers  etc.  I already had a sharp knife .  You don't  have to go for new tools if you don't wish to, depending on your budget, and how far you wish to go . 

HS

Money can't buy you experience or skill, though. Far better to start simple and get what you need once you know what it is you need. And note, need is not to be confused with want.

[edwardmorris]

Thank you Rahere! The pix I posted in the first post are the work of a famous individual, and its all by hand (guy is amazing). I don't expect to get that good on a project budget and timeline but I will pursue something good looking and close to those designs. Basic tools aside, for specific ones that will me achieve that specific look, I will likely end up buying them as I do plan on using them for a few smaller projects as well. Just want to be sure before I buy things :) I need help figuring out a beveler that will give me steep slopes, and also a part number for the push beader mentioned earlier on this thread, I can't seem to find anything that looks like it will do the trick.

[edwardmorris]

Here are some pix of the practice scraps, I will do my best to describe the experiments.

1. Is the best results I've had so far. For this, I tried the "cheat" to get to the right water saturation by spraying the back and wetting the front with a damp (not full wet) sponge, then tooling within the next few mins once the surface dried enough. Had the best results with this method, and even tried a small/mild curve.
2. Is the piece that I wet in a similar manner, but then beveled small areas as they started to dry up, going from still wet to nearly dry, with the best result happening leaning towards nearly dry (on top at least)
3. Is the piece that I submerged till the bubbles stopped (few seconds) then left it alone for 24 hrs on a flat glass sheet. The outside line came out dead straight but then the piece became too dry. I wet it again to do the inner (left) line and that wasn't as perfect (probably my haste). I also beveled the corner with the tandy #3 edge beveler and gently sanded with extra fine grit just a little to get a nice rounded edge (still not the tubing effect).
4. Is the first practice piece, submerged wet then worked on it in about 4hrs as it had already dried out quite a bit somehow. The lines came out mostly ok, then the piece warped funny after drying and look horrid now :D

[buzzardbait]

Barry King makes push beaders and beader blades for a swivel knife.

[Handstitched]

On 6/8/2021 at 9:55 PM, Rahere said:

Money can't buy you experience or skill, though. Far better to start simple and get what you need once you know what it is you need. And note, need is not to be confused with want.

Very true.  Thats why I didn't spend a fortune on tools  etc. in case leather work wasn't for me, glad it was though   If it wasn't, I'd sell or donate the tools to local community group.

 I borrowed an AS  pattern book from a local  and photo copied it, I also borrowed a book from our local library....the only book on leather in the entire library   

HS

[edwardmorris]

On 6/9/2021 at 4:41 AM, buzzardbait said:

Barry King makes push beaders and beader blades for a swivel knife.

Thank you! That does look like the right tool, but wow is BK stuff pricey! I might just have to go for it as I need to achieve that look. BK also has some steep bevelers, but I can't quite figure out what size to get as their website is somewhat user unfriendly for people not "in the know". Any suggestions?

[buzzardbait]

Contact BK and ask them to send you a sales flyer, the stamps are shown actual size in the flyer.

[edwardmorris]

On 6/11/2021 at 5:31 AM, buzzardbait said:

Contact BK and ask them to send you a sales flyer, the stamps are shown actual size in the flyer.

Thank you! I was able to speak with someone over there and I've sent them pics with details, hopefully I'll hear back soon and get what I need. In the meantime, I will move the conversation around my practice pieces to the getting started forum (seems appropriate). Thank you all for the help!

[edwardmorris]

Continuing here

Continued input and advice would be much appreciated!

 

[edwardmorris]

One more question related to what tools I may need. I need to do this kinda lettering with the leather around the text pressed back. I had seen a post from someone around here that had logo stand out crisp with a nice background but I can't find it again no matter how much I search. I made this with BK XX Steep Beveler and tandy pear checkered backgrounder I had purchased for the belt stuff, but it doesn't seem to be the right tool. While it seems to press the leather down enough, the lettering doesn't seem to stand out as much. How can I do this better? The other piece is just me trying a bunch of things. The B294 was right on the money!

[Rahere]

Carefully incise the letters so the punch creates a false repoussé effect. The letters are too large for the width of the piece though, use Golden Ratio proportions and it'll give you enough space for that top/bottom as well,  That's 0.7" lettering in a 1" belt, which may be close to what you have, if it weren't for the banding cuts top and bottom. If you're keeping those, then it's 0.7x the spave between them.

[JayEhl]

 

On 6/8/2021 at 8:26 PM, edwardmorris said:

. Is the first practice piece, submerged wet then worked on it in about 4hrs as it had already dried out quite a bit somehow. The lines came out mostly ok, then the piece warped funny after drying and look horrid now :D

On the back, be sure to use painters tape or glue to a cardboard to keep it from stretching.
 

On 6/10/2021 at 10:49 PM, edwardmorris said:

Thank you! That does look like the right tool, but wow is BK stuff pricey!

BK is pricey but well worth it. It did elevate my work (well, at least I think it did) but I did practice with the beveller tool that came with my beginner Tandy kit for almost a year before I decided to splurge on his steep bevellers.   Someone said on the forum recently that no amount of money can buy experience -- so true!    

On 6/11/2021 at 5:31 AM, buzzardbait said:

Contact BK and ask them to send you a sales flyer, the stamps are shown actual size in the flyer.

I didn't know about receiving a sales flyer.  I'll have to do that.     ~ thanks @buzzardbait

[tsunkasapa]

I bought a set of BK "steep bevelers" and have been totally unhappy. I just do not like the look that results. I have used them on several practice pieces. They have sat unused in the rack for over a year now. YMMV

[edwardmorris]

On 6/29/2021 at 6:42 PM, Rahere said:

Carefully incise the letters so the punch creates a false repoussé effect. The letters are too large for the width of the piece though, use Golden Ratio proportions and it'll give you enough space for that top/bottom as well,  That's 0.7" lettering in a 1" belt, which may be close to what you have, if it weren't for the banding cuts top and bottom. If you're keeping those, then it's 0.7x the spave between them.

Thanks Rahere! I will try another piece with the spacing recommended and incisions using a xacto.

On 6/30/2021 at 7:40 AM, JayEhl said:

On the back, be sure to use painters tape or glue to a cardboard to keep it from stretching.

Thanks JayEhl! I had read this somewhere and have been using shelf paper (almost 0 stretch) and getting some good results, but still not quite the best with the backgrounders, I have more details on my getting started thread (I really need to move all this to a proper project thread).

On 6/30/2021 at 10:17 AM, tsunkasapa said:

I bought a set of BK "steep bevelers" and have been totally unhappy. I just do not like the look that results. I have used them on several practice pieces. They have sat unused in the rack for over a year now. YMMV

It took some practice and for the look I'm after, BK tools are working out better. Tandy was great for practice and I still use it for smaller generic projects, so thankfully I'm past buyers remorse on both :D

[tsunkasapa]

I've been carving for decades, I just don't like the look the steep bevelers give.

[Rahere]

Takes me back to the first toddler steps in computing in the 60s, moving on from teletypes to pin-matrix printing, we didn't need to physically change a print head. The Golden ratio's 1:root2, = 0.7. It's also the proportion between the height of most CAPS and lower case.

The hours I spent coding letters from graph paper! Now it's almost entirely vector, spline maths which barely in its infancy then.

[SheilaOrikawaAtelier]

Personally I think it depends what you mean. I mean... If you want a single elegant line and round edge only, I would use an "Single Line Leather Edge" and you can use on veg tan leather warming it up or not. This It's the method I use. But in the intricated design it's harder to use it, of course for it's shape. 

Edited July 18, 2021 by SheilaOrikawaAtelier

[Rahere]

I've been thinking about that gold work. It looks painted, but there's no reason not to venture into gold leaf. It's not expensive, because it's white gold squeeved incredibly thinly.