Wetforming and carving order of work

[Rasmus Kristens]

Hi guys.

Long time since i visited here.
I have at question.

Is it possible to do carving and modelling on a sheath and also do wetforming?

I cant really figure out in which order to do the different tasks or if its even possible to do both??

Hope you can help 🙂

[Crex]

Yeah it's possible. You have to be very careful about depth of cut and placement. Bends in the right/wrong places can open up and split a carving. Most carving/modeling/stamping needs to be done on a hard surface to work the details. Then you would wet form. Normally there is still some "wet" left after tooling a small panel to be able to wet form around a knife, but a lot depends on your technique.
In some instances I have formed first to get the bends where I want them then go back and do a little tooling. However that doesn't work out well on larger panels of work.

Best bet is to do some trial and practice on scrap leather - much cheaper than ruining a whole sheath and the work that has gone into it.

[Rasmus Kristens]

Thanks Crex

Okay so the modelling and the forming is in the same go.
I'm worried that the modelling would lose its shape and definition when doing the wetforming. I will have a try on some scrap :-)