casing leather

New Online Leather Floral Carving Course in the Academy!

Posted by Don Gonzales

If you follow us on social media and/or our YouTube Channel, then you have heard us talking about building a new course for the DG LeatherCraft Academy. After months of gathering information, photos, and videos we have finally completed what we think is the most comprehensive online course on Floral Carving and Tooling that is available.

I will first say, there is no in person or online course that is going to make you a Master Floral Carver over night. Becoming efficient and proficient with leather floral tooling takes practice and study over a long period of time. What I wanted to do with this new course was to consolidate all the information in one place that is easy to follow and offers the best information possible. Along with this information, we created patterns and exercises that help to develop the skills and techniques needed to begin to build a quality skill set.

Our First Floral Carving and Tooling Course is Open for Enrollment!

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Properly Casing Leather

Posted by Don Gonzales
 From seasoned veterans to greenhorns, casing leather can be a trying task for many of us.  This is compounded with the fact that different brands and tannages of leather can react much differently to our standard casing process.  This makes it difficult sometimes to achieve the results that we want in our leather projects.

In this article I will discuss my process for casing leather and how I adapt for different thicknesses in order to get that perfect water content for carving and stamping.  I will also touch on casing leather during forming and how I case leather parts that require gluing during the forming process.

What is Casing leather?

“Casing” leather is the process of adding water to vegetable tanned leather.  This is done to soften the fibers of the leather to achieve many tasks within a leather crafting project.  These tasks can include carving with a swivel knife, stamping, forming and skiving or thinning down of leather.  Vegetable tanned leather has been tanned but is still in a bit of a raw state which allows the craftsman to introduce water easily into the fibers of the leather.  This is what is called “casing” and is an essential skill that must be learned.

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