First carving...

M

mt_hangglider

Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
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So after being into leather for right around a year, I've made a fair amount of things. The focus in the past has been mainly knife sheaths and holsters which I love but now have too many of :). Decided to switch it up a little this past weekend and try my first ever carving. First time using a swivel knife, first time with an edge beveling tool, lots of firsts. Anyway, of course I jumped in with both feet rather than trying something simple to start. This ended up being a really long and tedious job. It's called a Celtic Tree of Life and figured it was fitting to pay homage to my Irish heritage. When finished, it'll be antiqued with "Sheridan Brown" and should really pop with the contrast. Planning on making it a legal pad cover with pen loop and pockets. I'll follow up and share when finished. Pretty happy so far though... oh yeah, the knot in the tree has also been carved like the leaves since this photo was taken.

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Also just finished the border which will have two lines of stitching and a double opposing stamp in between (also destined to be antiqued with Sheridan Brown for high contrast):

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Beautiful mt-hangglider. Wish my first carving turned out half that well. I do love the go big or go home attitude you showed in tackling something so large. Congratulations! rtmind/randy
 
Thank you guys! I appreciate the kind and encouraging words! I'll be sure to follow up when it's finished. I was able to work on it a few minutes last night and got one of the three inside pockets done. Hoping to get the other two finished and all of them sewn on tonight. Then it'll be a matter of edge work, sealing, antiquing the tree and border and sealing again.
 
Very very nice Chad and an extremely ambitious first time carving project. Ya got it done very nicely. Nice depth on the bevelling. What weight leather did ya use?
 
Again, thank you all so much for the very kind comments!

Dave- Thank you sir, this was done on 7/8oz Herman Oak. Seems just about right for tooling. Not too thick and heavy but not too thin either.

Finished it up last night, just need to take photos. Had a bunch of blank space on the inside cover and thought - I really need to tool something else for that. After giving it some thought, I decided to use part of our Irish family crest which happens to be an oak tree so it lent itself well to the whole family heritage, tree, and irish theme. Here's a work in progress shot from yesterday on the inside cover. This was just after stitching the inside pockets to the outside which has the tree of life from my original post. I was about 3/4 of the way done applying my neetsfoot oil when I took this photo.

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This was the cover page before being sewn in and sans neetsfoot. Shows the oak tree crest a little better.

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Wow, that is just gorgeous.

Have you reached the point where you never want to pick up a needle and thread again? (I'm in the middle of making a portfolio for my dad... So. Much. Stitching. Ugh)
 
WhiteKnuckle said:
Wow, that is just gorgeous.

Have you reached the point where you never want to pick up a needle and thread again? (I'm in the middle of making a portfolio for my dad... So. Much. Stitching. Ugh)
Click to expand...

Thank you sir! Yeah, since I got my Cobra Class IV machine December of last year, I have absolutely no desire to go back to hand stitching. None whatsoever. I am glad I learned to do it (as there will come a time where the machine isn't an option) but you are right, something like this would have taken 3x as long stitching by hand.
 
That is Fantastic work!!

Did you use anything besides leather to stiffen the outer cover?

Thanks for posting!
 
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