What is Leather Tooling

The History

Leather is as natural as it gets and an ancient material used for a number of goods and products.  There is evidence of hide working and tanning from 400,000 years ago, and the earliest confirmed leatherworking tools date back to the Stone Age in 5,000 BC. During this time, leather was used for shelters, clothing, and shoes. The oldest known pair of leather shoes were discovered, dating back to 3,500 BC.  Since leather is a durable material and lasts craftsmen began finding a number of ways to decorate leather over the years. During the renaissance of leather working, the art of tooling was born.

What is Tooling

Leather tooling is the art of engraving leather with an image, patterns, words, or designs. It entails using metal implements to compress moistened leather in such a way as to give a three-dimensional effect. The surface of the leather is not intended to be cut through. The object is to add further definition, texture and depth to the cut lines made by the swivel knife and the areas around the cut lines. After the design is hand chiseled onto the leather it is then hand painted with waterproof leather dyes. This kind of artwork is time consuming and takes a high level of skill, patience and practice. Some pieces can take up to 50+ hours to complete.

This process is done 100% by hand utilizing the tools and mallet to carve your desired artwork into the leather. At GEN1901 we can bring any special idea of yours to life with tooling and painting. We can guarantee that each art piece is a 1 of 1.

The Steps of Making the Art

There are a number of steps and processes to creating these pieces of leather art. GEN1901 artists will help you create a piece that will fit and look incredible in your final product. Tooling can be used on almost anything made of leather, but a tooled art piece on your sneakers is rare to see and bringing tooling into the 21st century.

Step 1: Design Piece
Together with our designers you will describe what aesthetic and design you are looking for. The artist will then sketch the drawing to scale to make sure that it fits and is spaced properly.

Step 2 : Prep the Leather
Tooling leather needs to be soft enough to be cut and impressed with stamps and tools. The process of wetting the leather is known as casing, and it is necessary in order to stamp and shape it. Casing makes the fibers swell and soften. The artist applies water evenly and lets it set.

Step 3: Outline Design
The artist starts blocking out the area and creating an outline with an awl. This will give the artist an idea of the outside boundaries for tooling and shaping.

Step 4: Cut the outline
The artist uses a swivel knife to create a groove in the leather about half the thickness of the leather. They do not want to cut all the way through the leather.

Step 5: Bevel and Shape
Using a mallet and tools the artist will pound the cut lines giving the leather its 3D effect.

Step 6: Fill Shapes and Outlines
The artist finishes up the tooling process by really adding depth, emotion, shadow, and fades with stamping and impression tools. At this point you can apply some conditioners and be finished with the piece, or continue on to the next stage.

Step 7: Painting and Highlights
The artist will now have to access another totally different skillset, painting and dying the leather piece. Utilizing special waterproof leather dyes and small brushes and sponges they will bring the art piece to life with color.

Step 8: Applying to Product
Now that the piece is finished our cobblers cut the silhouette of the finished tooled piece into your final leather product. Then place the tooled piece behind it as an inlay. The cobblers will stitch around the tooled art and hole fixing it to your shoe permanently. See the finished image below as an example.

Below is an example of a tooled overlay adhered to the heel of the shoe.

Below is another example of tooling in a shoe. The entire plug toe section was tooled and painted for this design.

Each piece of tooled leather is one of a kind. The sky is the limit when it comes to design and color of your artwork. Our artists and craftsmen are at the expert level and have spent a lifetime developing their skills. I hope this article will help you get inspired and excited to create a tooled piece for your custom leather goods. All the pieces seen were commissioned for past GEN1901 clients.

References:

www.abitape.com
www.libertyleathergoods.com
buyleatheronline.com
https://theleatherguy.org/