Push Bevel and Creasers

Was recently asked to explain the difference between

EDGE CREASERS

and 

PUSH BEVELERS

The video explains it best:

Starter Tooling 101

I want to do this post to help anybody that is just starting off and has limited resources.  There is much more that can by added to this, and I have some of those in the mini videos at the bottom of this blog post.  But the main focus will be on using just a swivel knife and the six stamps you see in the photo above.

You can download the pattern I am using at DOWNLOADS

First, get the leather very damp. This is called "casing the leather". The first video in this blog post deals with casing: 

Spray or sponge apply water to the surface until the water do not sink in immediately.

When the leather still has a dark color from the water, you can start doing swivel knife cuts. When the leather is almost at its natural dry color, you can do all the stamp tooling.

You keep the leather at this moisture level with an occasional light spray or wipe with a damp sponge.

 

When I want to get up for dinner or any time less than 12 hours, I have a smooth plastic/acrylic sheet I cover the leather with, and when I come back, I just update the moisture content again.

Trace the design with a permanent pen like a sharpie onto tracing film.  Then put the tracing film over the leather, making sure it does not shift and with something pointed (not piercingly sharp), trace your design down onto the leather.

With a stropped (polished) swivel knife, start cutting the traced lines.  RULES for the swivel knife:  Do not lean it sideways (it will undercut), lean it slightly forward to that the front tip of the blade does the cutting, cut towards yourself only while it is comfortable for your hand - keep turning the leather so that you can do this.

One of the first additions you should try to acquire, is jeweler's rouge, so that you can strop your swivel knife blade.  Here is a video about that:

This is what your cut lines should look like - about ⅓  into the thickness of the leather.

Look carefully - when lines touch with 90° or less, leave the smallest of space between them - a sharp tip can work itself loose and not look good.

Identify entities on the design, like a leaf, and cut them from top to bottom  (if a leaf is on top of a flower, cut the leaf first).

The first tool you start the carving with, is a pear shader. No big rules - it can be leaned in any direction.  Walk it like a beveler so that you get a smooth flowing surface. 
For the most part, do not use a pear shader close to the lines that you have cut.

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One more tool you might want to use before beveling, is a camouflage tool.  Personally I seldom use it, but here is the correct way to use it (it is not just the banging out of a few impressions on your floral carving).

Lean it over sharply and put one of the tips on the cut edge of the stem / leaf.

Later you will obliterate the marks the camo tool caused on the outside of that line, as you see indicated on this photo:

Now to bevel.  Rules for the beveler are: 

* keep it totally upright (it can NEVER lean back)

* keep the toe towards you so that you can see that you have it directly on the cut line

* move it slowly sideways while your mallet taps it numerous times jackhammer style

* rest your hand on the leather so that you have a lot of control.  After beveling ¾" or 20mm, lift your hand and do the next little piece.

Pick the item that is on top in your design, like the flower petal in this one  (#1) - bevel that first on the side of the line that I indicated with the blue lines.

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More Mini videos for this post:

Oxidise / Oxidize

Many leatherworkers use Vinagroon to get leather black or grey. 

 There is another option:  getting the leather brown using Potassium Permanganate. 

 Here is a volume cover I only decorated with this method  -  I used a split, so the work was all done on the "flesh" side of the leather.  

Keep in mind I made this cover in the eighties - no fading, because there is no pigment involved.

The back is just a flat colored silhouette.

Here is a short video showing it being

used:

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Basketweave Around Something

Large areas of basketweave always look good.  

But if your design calls for an initial or something right in the middle of a field of basketweave, like an island, the problem arises:  how to keep those basketweave stamp impressions straight and still aligned when you get to the other side of the "island". 

 I mentioned it a few times to my friend Gary Arvidson and last week he came up with this very simple, elegant and fail-safe solution!! 

 I use Chan Geer's method of basketweave - you can see that explained in this
  BLOG POST (second video).

 So here is my first line done and you can faintly see the circle where I am going to place an initial.  

 The second line done.

   

 

You prepare a thin 2oz piece of leather as big as the area that you do not want to basketweave on:   

Gary used rubber cement (not permanent) on the back of his thin piece, but for my first try, I used Eco-Flo water based contact cement - it acts much like rubber cement if only applied to one piece of leather.   

I let that contact cement dry overnight - still tacky enough. I also flipped the project around so that I can now do the rows that will flow around that island.  

 I am going to do a circle on the front and rectangle on the back of this journal cover. 

 Put the thin piece of leather on the "island" where you are going to put the initial, glue side down.  Have it somewhat damp as well.  And start stamping! 

 Where the stamp goes onto the thin leather, do not whack the stamp that hard - all you want to do is to mark the outlines of the basketweave stamp where it would have been if you did not have the island.

   

 

 Do one row at a time as you would have done, just with light pressure on the thin cover for the island.  You can see when I peeled back my thin cover that I had a little bit too much pressure on the stamp - it got through underneath.

 

But then, when I tool in the initial and the basketweave edge, all those marks disappear!

   

 In this video I do the back of the cover, basketweaving around a rectangle.

   

 After I am done with the back of the journal cover, I will add more pictures here.

Starter Tools #1

TOOLS FOR STARTING LEATHERCRAFT

 

 The above is my box of starter tools from 1978.  

It is not for sale - you don't have enough money.  

 And it is NOT the starter set of tools I am going to recommend in this blog - you will have to read further down.... 

 This post is going to be a continuous effort to advise new leather crafters.   I will first discuss the very basics, and then go on to a second tier of tools that can be expanded to.  

The tools that will work well for each person will vary a bit depending on the projects that you mostly engage in.   I am going to focus on working with vegtan, or tooling, leather.

   MARKING THE LEATHER 

 I see the surface of vegtan leather as very vulnerable, until you have it sealed or conditioned.  

So I never bring pen or even pencil close to the leather surface (not even greasy hands). Therefor all the marking I do, is done with a scratch awl.  The photo below shows a big red handled one I used until I acquired the small model, that is still available.

 
 With the scratch awl you can easily trace around templates, poke holes where your pattern indicates holes to be punched and you do not have to be scared that ink will smear in places where it can ruin your project.

 
 I seldom use the big red one any more and do most work with the smaller one.  

 CUTTING LEATHER

 There is a gazillion cutting instruments out there with a gazillion and ten opinions about what works best.  

But let us focus on starting out. The breakoff blade knife at the top of the photo is the one I started off in 1978 - it is semi retired now and just used for the sake of sentiment.  The second white one, also with the breakoff blade is new at Tandy.  This is my absolute go-to knife for the following reasons:

• It is always sharp - you simply break off the dull tip and carry on cutting.  I do strop my blade from time to time to be a bit more frugal and give the blade a slightly longer lifespan.
• It is not very expensive.
• You have a lot of control over this tool, because you hold it like a pencil.
• You do need a cutting surface like a self-healing cutting mat, under it.  This does add to the stability with which you do cutting. TIP: do not use stone or wood as the cutting surface.  Hard plastic that does not grip the blade, seems to work the best.  

There are other breakoff blade knives available - the one I bought at a hardware store however, had a too wide opening for the blade and so the blade would "flap" from side to side and make accurate cuts difficult. 

 The third knife in the picture is a recent gift from a good friend - it is a very old knife with a removable blade.   The blade has the same shape as the other two, which makes it easy to cut with and I almost have it honed to the point where it cuts soundlessly, and as if it is going through soft butter!  It will have to be stropped regularly to stay a joy to cut with.

 

WORKING STRAIGHT

 Two tools I keep within reach, is a square and a compass.

The square is not a big one, but serves its purpose most of the time (a bigger one comes in handy, but needs a big work surface as well). 

 I don't want to say too much about how to use the tools - that is probably a few separate posts - just what they are for. The compass has two fairly sharp metal tips and is used for drawing lines parallel to edges.  This has various purposes.

 EDGES 

 On the photo and edge beveler at the bottom - used to round off the square 90 degree corners where leather was cut.

 

 The other two tools - slickers - are then used to smooth the edges of the leather.  The plastic circle has been around for a very long time, but the multi sized wooden one is the only one you need to start with.   

Edge burnishing is quite a science / religion with many leatherworkers, often with impressive results, but if you master the basics first, you will continue to get good results. 

HOLES 

 Many projects require holes - for rivets, snaps and other hardware attachments.   

To start I propose a set like the one shown here - a handle into which your screw the tip you desire, depending on the hole size. 

 The advantage of this set over a revolving head hole punch is that with this you are not limited to a throat depth (with the pliers-like tool you can only punch holes about inch and a half from the edge or less). 

It is also cheaper, because if you do want to get a revolving head hole punch, you need to buy the top end solid steel handle punch - the lower end models will only last if you do ten very careful holes a year....;   the frames of those tend to bend easily. 

 Also note the accompanying plastic cutting board to use underneath the leather when you punch holes through.  To do this on wood would dull your punches very fast.   

 And I think that concludes this post! I will start a new one looking into the starter tools for tooling and a different one for starting with lacing and stitching. 

 I hope this helps!

Color 101

[Originally published August 2008]

 This is probably the aspect of leathercraft where there are as many opinions as there are crafters, and most of them will swear by their own methods as gospel truth. 

So, I want to give you my opinion as well, but with the hope that it will clarify some of the confusion that exist around dyes, stains, finishes, dressings, conditioners and oils. 

 This whole discussion will center around vegetable-tan (treebark tanned) leather. This is the only leather to be treated with the products I will discuss.

 

The basic sequence in any project will more than likely be as follows:

1. The project is cut out and tooling / stamping is done.
2. The leather is dyed - either completely or selectively. This step can be left out if you want the natural color to remain.
3. A optional choice is made between 
1. a) not using an antique stain, 
2. b) lightly using an antique stain just to highlight tooling or 
3. c) making heavy use of an antique stain in such a way as to drastically add to the color of the leather.
4. A finish, sealer or conditioner is added to the leather to waterproof and lubricate the leather fibers. This step can NEVER EVER be left out!!!
5. The project is assembled.

Putting a dressing on leather will bring out the color of the dyes (make it glow), "waterproof" the leather (your best defense against stains) and make the leather softer (if you have not treated it for the making of armor).

X1 DRESSING

X1 was a top sealer/dressing sold by Tandy a few years ago - it was a follow up of Darke's dressing.

It had the advantage of doing a very subtle "antiquing" effect on tooling. 

 GOOD NEWS:  Realeather now sells it as One Step Leather Dressing!   We do not have to be without it any more. 

 On this piece I first dyed the darker patches with water-based dye; then applied the One Step dressing on the whole piece:

 

 You can see how it only enhances the burnishing that happened during tooling (look at the border stamping). 

 I recently experimented with a mixture (50/50) of X1 (that I still had left from before - I bought a whole box full when it was discontinued)  and Eco-Flo Hi-Lite Stain. Before:  

This video shows the effect it has and how easy it is to apply: