let's discuss tooling leather....

I'm getting bored with stamping the barbed wire pattern. I'm ready to step my game up when it comes to sheath making. I went to Tandy today and picked up the deluxe tooling kit simply because it was cheaper than buying everything separate.

today I traced a leaf off a tree and I'm going to try my hand at tooling it, just looking for any pointers at this point.

pics of your work are worth a thousand words to me.

thanks.

My first try. Lol!

That's not too bad Kevin. Oak leaf is about my favorite pattern. My first one looked like a wadded up post-it-note. The good thing about leaves is that none are the same. My carving is by far the best but it gets better each time. If you bought a Tandy swivel knife, I guarantee you it needs to be sharpened (that goes for all of their cutting tools)and make a strop to keep it polished sharp. If it feels like you are drawing with a felt tip pen, it's not sharp. You'll know when it's sharp enough, you will barely feel it cutting. The standard blade is OK but I like the hollow ground blade much better. Practice making cuts and feathering the ends of the cut. This is more important that what stamps you use for the tooling.

very nice work my friend. Thanks for the advice. I over did it on the veins I guess?

Thanks brother.
Use a large lined beveler for the veins but don't cut them in with the knife(I think it is a B202L and B202R)Once you get them beveled, use your swivel knife to make decorative cuts.
Bruce Chaeney has several vids on YouTube. One of them shows him cutting wheat stalks, great practice for decorative cuts. Plus he is just an all around Bad Dude, in addition to saddles he makes spurs, buckles and makes his own conchos. I would love to spend a week in his shop. He's up in Gainsville.

Nice work Dink Dodger.

the more I look at those sheaths I'm like wow! Those are awesome!

Bruce is the man, plus he's from Texas,but his videos are short.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the kind words.

They are short but they show good technique.
Knife Sheath Making: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL67GVf_YNcylPkJSuaZ87yW_k1D2gTRDT

Hopefully this link works

Nice work, Gents...