Cell Phone Case

[mojave]

Hey everyone,  I have a question.  When would you tool a phone case, before, during, or after wet molding?

Howard

[Northmount]

Wet molding mushes the tooling.  I have photos of saddles where the tooling was done before wet molding, and others that were tooled, or touched up after the swells were installed.  You may need a block of wood or something to fit inside while tooling.

[Handstitched]

G'Day, 

 I have done this, but on a knife /leatherman case. Once molded  , let dry*, but before I take the wood template out, I  tool / stamp  the pattern as you normally would,  but  when the wood is in , then take the wood template  out after tooling  and continue making the other parts, the back piece, a belt loop etc. 

With the  knife case, I tool the flap as well . 

* I have tried tooling straight after molding while its still wet, but its a bit messy. 

 

Hope this helps  

HS

[Squilchuck]

I tool first and assemble then wet mold.  Mostly basket stamp or some initials. Neither gets mushed.  I don't soak the leather. Just a 5-10 second dunk in warm water to get soft enough. Sometimes I'll dunk quickly again. Let it soak in a minute after taking it out. Not sure I'd do that for floral carving. -John

[mojave]

Hey,  thanks for the reply.  It helped a lot.  I make 3 holders, basket stamped, than molded.  First one was a little to wet.  The rest turned out OK.  I also watch a video on UTUBE by Denny & Liz at Springfield Leather, that subject came up while he was making a phone holder.

Thank you for helping me.

Howard