Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 13,048
Had several folks lately ask me about basket stamping. I thought I'd do a lil tutorial about how I go about doing the basket stamp. Specifically I was thinking of the hourglass type stamp which I do slightly different than a straight stamp. We’ll cover that after the straight stamp.
First thing to do is to slick your leather. This helps give you a more uniform job by making the leather more uniform. This step is sometimes called glassing.There are tools made for this and they are often made out of glass with a wood handle. Mine is just a block of ligume vitae wood that has been sanded smooth. First dampen your leather. Once the color starts coming back in start slicking or rubbing the leather firmly. I like to go in two direction at 90 degrees to each other. Do it in one direction first then across at 90 degrees.
The color is coming back into this piece of scrap leather we'll be working on.
You can see after rubbing firmly on the leather how it is starting to "slick" up. I strongly recommend a product called Pro Carv in your water. This product is by Bee Natural and is available at many leather suppliers. Pro Carv in your water does a lot of things. It allows you to work sooner, allows more even absorption etc. I was turned on to it by a friend and fellow leather worker decades ago about this stuff. The water on my work bench has never not had Pro Carv in it since.
Here you see a line that has been cut with a swivel knife and then beveled and then border stamped. This is the traditional way of doing a basket weave pattern to bevel the lines that out line your pattern. I stopped doing this long ago too. Why? I'd be at a branding or something and I'd see a pair of leggings I'd made 20 years or so prior on some cowboy. I'd look at em close and several times I'd see on the yoke of the legging, if it was basket stamped often it had cracked along this cut line. So I stopped doing that line in most of my work. It seems to be working. I will still do that outline cut on something fully carved but ya just about got too in carving. Ya don't in basket stamping. For info what I call a border stamp is technically know as a camp border stamp. Lots of different ones out there with sizes and details differing.
So lay out your pattern and border stamp your corners. This is another area where I differ from the norm on basket stamping. Most folks will tell ya basket stamp first and then do your border stamp. I found a long time ago that I got a better project doing that in the reverse. I border stamp and then basket stamp. Why? When you get close to the edges you'll have to lay in the basket stamp closely to the border stamp. You're gonna miss some and have to come back with the basket stamp to make the two patterns meld together. I found less room for error doing the border stamp first and then the basket stamp.
See no cut and beveled line and I'm doing the border stamp. A lil pro tip here. Work from each side towards the center with your border stamp. This allows you to meet in the middle so to speak. This allows ya to fudge the distance on the border stamp easier and more seamlessly than if you meet at a corner.
So I'm going to start stamping from the right corner now towards the line coming from the left.
See room for two stamps yet.
I put a lil seed dot in each corner stamp and now we're gonna scribe our line for our basket stamping.
Generally you go across the widest part or close to there with your scribed line. Most projects seem to look better with an angled basket stamp pattern. The only thing off hand that I think of where I'm not angling the stamp is with a belt. That I do horizontally.
Now here is one of the most important parts of this whole deal. See how this large straight basket stamp is lined up to the right side of our scribed line? It is important to line the stamp for the rest of the initial stamping ALWAYS to that same side of the line. You can be more accurate to the side of the line than you can running down the middle of it because, where exactly is the middle?
I've lined the second step up on the right side of the line too and I will keep doing that until we've stamped along the line all the way.
This pic shows several things. First we've stamped all along the line always lining up on that right side of the line. Second, many folks tell ya to overlap the prong of your stamp by about a 1/10 of an inch. I don't do that and I don't know anybody that does this for a living that does either. Most pros are gonna overlap the prongs all the way. Why? because as you are stamping along what's exactly a 1/10 of an inch. It's much easier to get a nice pattern when you overlap completely which gives you a consistent spacing, than guessing each time you stamp. Guessing sets your pattern up for wandering for sure. Third, when you get close to your existing border stamp your going to have to start leaning your basket stamp away from the border stamp to get it to fit in or mesh well with the existing border stamp.
So you can see that the next row of stamping is basically filling in the spaces on the prior line of stamping. Work on one side first then we'll turn the project over. I like to work with the project mostly horizontal now while I'm filling in. When I'm doing my first alternating line, lining up to the scribed line I like to do that vertically. Thereafter I like it like this. Consistent on that scribed line will give you consistency throughout. Usually at each end you are gonna have to angle away from the border stamping.
Be happy with your placement before you strike the stamp.
Here you can see what I mean by angling away from the border stamp.
Gonna have to leave it here for this morning. Got to go do some cowboying. We'll finish up later.
Questions and comments always welcome. Hope this is helpful.
First thing to do is to slick your leather. This helps give you a more uniform job by making the leather more uniform. This step is sometimes called glassing.There are tools made for this and they are often made out of glass with a wood handle. Mine is just a block of ligume vitae wood that has been sanded smooth. First dampen your leather. Once the color starts coming back in start slicking or rubbing the leather firmly. I like to go in two direction at 90 degrees to each other. Do it in one direction first then across at 90 degrees.
The color is coming back into this piece of scrap leather we'll be working on.
You can see after rubbing firmly on the leather how it is starting to "slick" up. I strongly recommend a product called Pro Carv in your water. This product is by Bee Natural and is available at many leather suppliers. Pro Carv in your water does a lot of things. It allows you to work sooner, allows more even absorption etc. I was turned on to it by a friend and fellow leather worker decades ago about this stuff. The water on my work bench has never not had Pro Carv in it since.
Here you see a line that has been cut with a swivel knife and then beveled and then border stamped. This is the traditional way of doing a basket weave pattern to bevel the lines that out line your pattern. I stopped doing this long ago too. Why? I'd be at a branding or something and I'd see a pair of leggings I'd made 20 years or so prior on some cowboy. I'd look at em close and several times I'd see on the yoke of the legging, if it was basket stamped often it had cracked along this cut line. So I stopped doing that line in most of my work. It seems to be working. I will still do that outline cut on something fully carved but ya just about got too in carving. Ya don't in basket stamping. For info what I call a border stamp is technically know as a camp border stamp. Lots of different ones out there with sizes and details differing.
So lay out your pattern and border stamp your corners. This is another area where I differ from the norm on basket stamping. Most folks will tell ya basket stamp first and then do your border stamp. I found a long time ago that I got a better project doing that in the reverse. I border stamp and then basket stamp. Why? When you get close to the edges you'll have to lay in the basket stamp closely to the border stamp. You're gonna miss some and have to come back with the basket stamp to make the two patterns meld together. I found less room for error doing the border stamp first and then the basket stamp.
See no cut and beveled line and I'm doing the border stamp. A lil pro tip here. Work from each side towards the center with your border stamp. This allows you to meet in the middle so to speak. This allows ya to fudge the distance on the border stamp easier and more seamlessly than if you meet at a corner.
So I'm going to start stamping from the right corner now towards the line coming from the left.
See room for two stamps yet.
I put a lil seed dot in each corner stamp and now we're gonna scribe our line for our basket stamping.
Generally you go across the widest part or close to there with your scribed line. Most projects seem to look better with an angled basket stamp pattern. The only thing off hand that I think of where I'm not angling the stamp is with a belt. That I do horizontally.
Now here is one of the most important parts of this whole deal. See how this large straight basket stamp is lined up to the right side of our scribed line? It is important to line the stamp for the rest of the initial stamping ALWAYS to that same side of the line. You can be more accurate to the side of the line than you can running down the middle of it because, where exactly is the middle?
I've lined the second step up on the right side of the line too and I will keep doing that until we've stamped along the line all the way.
This pic shows several things. First we've stamped all along the line always lining up on that right side of the line. Second, many folks tell ya to overlap the prong of your stamp by about a 1/10 of an inch. I don't do that and I don't know anybody that does this for a living that does either. Most pros are gonna overlap the prongs all the way. Why? because as you are stamping along what's exactly a 1/10 of an inch. It's much easier to get a nice pattern when you overlap completely which gives you a consistent spacing, than guessing each time you stamp. Guessing sets your pattern up for wandering for sure. Third, when you get close to your existing border stamp your going to have to start leaning your basket stamp away from the border stamp to get it to fit in or mesh well with the existing border stamp.
So you can see that the next row of stamping is basically filling in the spaces on the prior line of stamping. Work on one side first then we'll turn the project over. I like to work with the project mostly horizontal now while I'm filling in. When I'm doing my first alternating line, lining up to the scribed line I like to do that vertically. Thereafter I like it like this. Consistent on that scribed line will give you consistency throughout. Usually at each end you are gonna have to angle away from the border stamping.
Be happy with your placement before you strike the stamp.
Here you can see what I mean by angling away from the border stamp.
Gonna have to leave it here for this morning. Got to go do some cowboying. We'll finish up later.
Questions and comments always welcome. Hope this is helpful.
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