ISO Recommendations, Leatherworkers - Tooling/Carving

[Robert of Canterbury]

I'm looking for recommendations for leatherworkers who do good tooling/carving* work.

Considerations are,

Demonstrable portfolio of previous work,
Good grasp of medieval aesthetics,
Heraldic literacy (i.e. Can understand blazonry)
Reliability/ Good business history.


*Or the proper medieval equivalent thereof.

Regards
Robert

[Maeryk]

your * there is rather important.. the levels of tooling and carving we go to today are primarily the result of the Stohlman school of "western" carving. Medieval examples I've seen are fairly crude, compared with what we accept as "moderately good" today.

Just another of the problems of trying to recreate medieval life-implements from a modern artistic and aesthetic mindset.

That said, good luck.

[Vitus von Atzinger]

Duh, Kilkenny.

[losthelm]

there are a few people depending on what you want done.
for tooled armour kilkenny or Torvaldr
for cases and such Cat, and Mac also do great work.
it all depends on what you want made.

another person if you want somthing complicated try
https://www.shopnetmall.com/www.merimask.com/
not on the archive but had some impressive tooling at pennsic last year.

[Kilkenny]

your * there is rather important.. the levels of tooling and carving we go to today are primarily the result of the Stohlman school of "western" carving. Medieval examples I've seen are fairly crude, compared with what we accept as "moderately good" today.

Just another of the problems of trying to recreate medieval life-implements from a modern artistic and aesthetic mindset.

That said, good luck.

I have to sort of nit pick here. You're right, the period pieces that have survived are, generally, a bit on the crude side compared to modern work.

Some of that I have to attribute to the age and condition of the leather. Some aspects of the appearance of tooling don't survive well as the leather ages. You can see the effect in pieces only 50 to 75 years old where the leather is drying and the tooling has degraded.

Modern "Western" style carving has distinctly clear roots in medieval examples. I find it really fun to locate period examples of tooling where I can practically lift the design from modern western floral pattern sheets.

Overall, lots of medieval art has a sort of "primitive" quality. Poor perspective, distorted forms, etc. Getting a handle on this different aesthetic is a huge part of doing work "in the style of" whatever time and place you're trying to embrace.

As to the specific request of the OP, I have a decent grasp of heraldic language and imagery, a working grasp of medieval aesthetic (and the fact that it varies over the period and from place to place, as well as among different media) and a modest body of work.

My flickr page has images of most of my projects, ranging from a recent "celtic tribal" piece to an early effort at armour decorated in a 14th century aesthetic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/80888788@N00/

As to my reliability and business practices, perhaps some of my past customers would speak to that. I think I do pretty well, but that's not necessarily for me to judge

[Kilkenny]

there are a few people depending on what you want done.
for tooled armour kilkenny or Torvaldr
for cases and such Cat, and Mac also do great work.
it all depends on what you want made.

another person if you want somthing complicated try
https://www.shopnetmall.com/www.merimask.com/
not on the archive but had some impressive tooling at pennsic last year.

Andrea (merimask) is a brilliant artist and I am obscenely jealous of her talent.

The work Cat is doing with cases is likewise brilliant. I know of no other artisan matching her craft in the specific arena of leather cases after medieval styles.

[Maeryk]

you aren't nit picking me as much as you think you are, Gavin.

Modern leathers tend to be thicker (for use in saddles and such) than that which was used in the medieval period for small goods. For that reason, you can get a much more defined, and relieved, tool out of it.

We tend to look at the really shallow intricate work done in the Medieval period as being, well, shallow, compared to the Boy Scout wallet project or Flowered and Seeded gaucho holster we have modern aquaintance with.

Plus, the sheer number of tools available to us today, chromed so the leather can remain happily brown, rather than stained and tanniced into black, offers a much wider range of "intro level" tooling which is really, really good.

I'm not saying medieval tooling sucketh.. it certainly does not. I'm saying we have to be really careful when judging what is "good" or "equivalent" that we are comparing apples to apples, and not expecting a paint by number kit to look like a rembrandt.

[DeCalmont]

I would like to speak up for both his Grace Gavin and Cat as a customer of both. I would highly recommend either as both are exemplars of good business' and both are outstanding craftsmen. If they say they can build what you are looking for I don't think you could go wrong with either choice.

[Cian of Storvik]

I'll buy some of what Maeryk is selling.
A lot of the "tooled" leathers we see from places are actually reliefed using a mold that the leather is pressed into. As Maeryk notes, you can use a thinner piece of leather which gives a deep relief result like someone performing a stoleman type of tooling.
Neary a piece of leather exists from the medieval period that didn't have some form of embelishment on it. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an extant square inch of leather (other then a utility strap), that didn't have relief pressed/incised/gilding or stitches on it.
I'm not saying that medievals didn't tool leather, just that surviving examples don't display the same characteristics of a thick bevel cut followed by hundreds of individual tooled impresses.
Also, if you've ever tooled with a sharp knife blade, the result is drastic to that done with a swivel knife. Of course it could just be written off to variation in technique as well.
To summarize, I agree with Maeryk that the results you get from tooling with swivel knives and beveling tools is going to look drastically different from that of someone using tools like we see leatherworkers using in period illustration/artwork.
-Cian

[Kilkenny]

I'll buy some of what Maeryk is selling.
A lot of the "tooled" leathers we see from places are actually reliefed using a mold that the leather is pressed into. As Maeryk notes, you can use a thinner piece of leather which gives a deep relief result like someone performing a stoleman type of tooling.
Neary a piece of leather exists from the medieval period that didn't have some form of embelishment on it. In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an extant square inch of leather (other then a utility strap), that didn't have relief pressed/incised/gilding or stitches on it.
I'm not saying that medievals didn't tool leather, just that surviving examples don't display the same characteristics of a thick bevel cut followed by hundreds of individual tooled impresses.
Also, if you've ever tooled with a sharp knife blade, the result is drastic to that done with a swivel knife. Of course it could just be written off to variation in technique as well.
To summarize, I agree with Maeryk that the results you get from tooling with swivel knives and beveling tools is going to look drastically different from that of someone using tools like we see leatherworkers using in period illustration/artwork.
-Cian

And then there are pieces like the bracer from the Mary Rose.

Yes, they definitely did a good deal of embossing, and lots of that was done with plates and obviously that makes for a process that lends itself to industrialization. You can mass produce book covers and decorative panels for furniture and the like. A very intriguing process that I haven't got around to - yet. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish this from incised and stamped tooling, but generally only in cases where the leather is in sad condition. The processes are readily recognized when the leather is reasonably intact.

A swivel knife is just a matter of convenience. The blade profile is distinctive, and nothing that couldn't be produced easily by a period blade maker. I have several swivel knives, and also two solid knives with the same angled blade profile as the "swivel knife" blades. I find that I can do anything with the solid knives that I can do with the swivels, and will reach often for the solid as a matter of preference.

I think the biggest distinction is not that they didn't do what we do today, but that we do much, much less today than what they did then

[Uilleag]

Here is an example of a rebrace I did a while back.

<IMG src="http://www.houseofthewolf.com/progress45.jpg"> This was made based off of the extant piece in the British museum. I'm not taking orders at the moment...but something authentic would be fun. What's your required time line?

[Magnus Ulfgarsson]

I haven't been around the archive as long as some of these folks, but I'm extremely confident in my tooling.

Can take a look at my portfolio site, (which I should update soon) if you're so inclined.

I'm $30/hr though, it's one of my specialties and I'm pretty proud of where my skill level is in that regard.

If you want to see more work than what's on my website, give me a shout, I've been tossing stuff on facebook for a while without actually updating my website, bad me.

[img]http://www.dark-horse.ca/gallery/medieval/images/book_01.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.dark-horse.ca/gallery/medieval/images/sporran_celticdragon.jpg[/img]

[Cat]

Well, I'm booked solid for a good while but if you are looking into this for future reference, I am posting a pic of one of my cases and the original it's based off of. Really, anyone mentioned here could probably do what you are looking for.

Cat

[Cat]

Oh wait....I'm out. I am "heraldry illiterate". I have no idea what any of that stuff means.

Besides, the others have far more experience than I do.

Cat