Leather carving

This article describes leather carving in detail. For information about leather craft in general, see Leather crafting.

Leather carving is the process of giving a three-dimensional appearance to leather craft objects or works of art by a process of cutting and stamping the surface.

The only type of leather suitable for carving is vegetable tanned, full grain leather. This is because the vegetable tanning process allows the leather to absorb water, which is used to soften the leather before the carving process, and the grain of the leather is necessary to allow the leather to hold the shape after the carving process is complete. Other leathers lack these two essential qualities. While the process of cutting into the leather and pushing the edges of the cuts in is relatively modern, marking wet leather has been around since the Roman period. There are some beautiful examples of Roman leather at Vindolanda near Hadrian's wall and the book "Purses in Pieces" is very informative with some lovely examples of medieval carved leather work. Historically, tools for stamping leather would probably have been made out of bone, but would not have been too different to what we use today.

Three main tools are used in leather carving:

This tool, which creates an impression similar to that of a sea shell, is used to add emphasis to areas of a carving, often in the stem or down the centre of a leaf in a floral design. It is used in a similar way to other stamping tools, by holding it vertically over the leather and striking with the rawhide mallet. When using the Camouflage tool, the impressions created should be equally spaced, starting from the centre of the design and working out towards the tips of the stems or leaves in the design. The impressions should get progressively lighter.

The Pear shader is used to press down areas of the design that need to appear curved. The action of the pear shader causes the leather tooled by it to appear slightly darker. The pear shader is slightly unusual in that it may be tilted during use to provide the desired effect. It should be moved only slightly between each tap with the mallet so that it creates a consistent shading of the leather.

These tools create a curved impression of a series of short, closely spaced lines. They may be used interchangeably, the only difference being that the veiner creates a simple curved line, while the shell tool has a pattern resembling the edge of a scallop along the inside edge. They are used to continue to create the impression of depth created by the beveler, and to create the impression of a curved surface. These tools are used in the usual way, but like the pear shader, may also be tilted to help create the impression of depth where they are used beside a cut.

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