Hi, I'm Jim Linnell at Tandy Leather.
I'm going to be showing you how to make a wallet,
and I'll be going through each of the steps,
with each of the tools in enough detail,
so you'll know how to get the best results out of your leatherwork.
As we get ready to do the decorative cuts,
we need to moisten our leather again.
We've let it dry out pretty good with the backgrounding step.
So let's dampen it down again, one last time making sure
that our moisture's down in there real good.
This needs to have about the kind of moisture content in it
that it did when we were doing the initial cutting.
And so we're going to let that start to dry back a little bit.
But as it's doing that, make sure our swivel knife
is ready to go again.
Let's get that blade all polished up,
working good and smooth again.
And it might be a good idea to even do a couple of practice strokes here,
just to make sure we know what we're going to do.
Decorative cuts-- there's no lines on the leather to follow.
Everything we've done so far, there's been lines
that we traced in there, which we followed when we cut.
There's been lines that we followed with the beveler.
There's been areas that we kept the pear shader within.
But when it comes to the decorative cuts,
there's really nothing on there for us to follow.
These are done free-hand.
They are put in to add some decorations to your design.
So what do those cuts look like?
As a general rule,
the decorative cuts are done with the swivel knife.
And you'll start out with a lot of pressure
at the beginning of the cut and then as you, again,
pull that knife towards you,
you'll lighten up on that pressure so that those cuts fade out and disappear.
So you'll see a lot of tapering.
It'll look like when you do a series of cuts in a flower petal.
It'll look like all of these cuts will eventually come together
and meet if they went far enough,
but as you get towards the center of the flower or whatever,
they actually gradually fade out and disappear.
So practice a little bit if you've got some scrap leather.
This is something that always is good to do.
Make sure that you can make those curving cuts
running both directions.
Work on this tapering, this fading out,
so that you can give it a nice flow to your design.
When doing the decorative cuts,
these will generally follow the flow of your design.
For example here, the flower petals,
they will sweep toward the center of the flower,
toward those seeds with the same kind of curves
and the same kind of flow as the petals themselves have.
If you have one that's curling the other direction,
you might put a little bit of a bend the other direction.
The important thing again, is to remember to have
your knife working real smoothly.
Obviously we don't want to be having to fight the knife right now.
We sure don't want it to slip at this point.
And then the taper, the flow of those cuts,
remember they start out with a lot of depth
at the beginning of the cut,
and then as you pull that blade toward the center of the flower
they gradually fade out and disappear.
So it looks like they would all eventually come together,
but they never actually do.
The decorative cuts really are the final dressing
that your piece of leather gets.
It is what makes the-- it gives it almost like a signature.
In fact, you can tell one person's decorative cuts from another
by the style that they do.
And you'll find that they're are cuts that you like to do
that are easier for you to do.
And you'll develop your own style as well.
But the main thing is to make sure
that you've got good control over this knife.
I've seen some folks that rush this step.
They think that these cuts have to be done with a flourish--
they have to be done with a snap or something like that.
But you can see that I'm going very slow,
and very deliberately with these cuts.
I don't want them to go somewheres I don't want them.
I don't want any mistakes.
There's really no steps coming along here now
that would cover up a mistake made at this point.
So we really need to make sure that we've got this knife
well under control.
On these large, broad leaves, if we just left them plain--
even though they'd have some contour, some shape,
because of the work of the pear shader,
it'd look pretty plain if we didn't add some decoration to them.
Even like on the stem of the flower here,
we can put a little bit of additional decoration.
Plan your cuts out.
Make sure you know where you're going to go with each cut
before you actually start on the leather.
Again, if you've never done a scroll like this before,
then look at the photo card pattern.
You can see where I put these cuts, how I put them in there.
But it's a good to have an idea where you're going to go
rather than just take the knife and see what happens.
That's usually not the best idea.
And these take practice as I mentioned earlier.
If you've got a scrap piece of leather, you should be working with your knife,
learning all of the things that are important.
How's wet the leather has got to be.
How hard do you have to press.
How do you taper out and make those cuts feather out.
All of these little things become very important at this stage of the game
when you're ready to put these final decorations on your design.
But as with every step that you've watched
as you've watched us do this project,
everyone of them takes practice.
There's a little technique with every one of them.
There's some things that make them work better.
And if you will work on those techniques,
your leather work will get better.
I've seen folks that are in a hurry to get good.
And the only way I know that you get good at it
is learn how to do it right.
And that's hopefully, what I've been showing you here--
is the right way to use these tools.
If you can use these tools that we've used on this design,
you can use any of the tools that are available.
The technique of using them is the same.
I've used for the most part, the basic tools that are available
that most people get started with.
And I would encourage you to learn to use those tools first.
I've had many people ask me,
"Do I need to invest in some more expensive tools?"
Or, "do I need a different swivel knife than the one I'm using?"
And my answer is always the same,
that how much you spend on the tool in your hand
doesn't affect the work that you do as much as how much experience
that hand has had.
Spend some time with these. Learn how to use these tools.
See how much life that these cuts give to this design.
If there's a part where there's a little bit of artistic flair
that you put into your design, this is where you get to do it.
Believe it or not, there's even people that will sign their name
with a swivel knife.
They get that good at it.
Moisture content is important for the decorative cuts.
Obviously we want these cuts to open up nice and wide.
We don't want them closing back up.
We want good depth with them.
So by having that leather at that just right amount of moisture
is real important.
Make sure we didn't miss anything.
And once this dries out,
we'll be ready to move on to the dyeing and finishing.
Thank you for joining me today.
Be sure to check back often here at our blog,
and we'll show you more tips and ideas
on how to get the most fun out of your leatherwork.