[CV3]

One of the problems I had doing decorative carving on sticks or on other wood project was finding a source for small shallow relief carving patterns and how to help. A friend of mind had been doing leather tooling for years. While at his house I looked at some of his leather carving books. They offered the help I needed. These books have projects on almost everything, fish, bears, birds, big cats, horses, elephants, and human faces. Leaves, trees, flowers and bushes. They show how to shape shallow detail and have easy to copy patterns. This is an example of one book. There are many books out there. I have 6 book and have used them for many years. I do not want to make it sound simple. It takes a good amount of practice ,or it did me. But these books were a great help.

 

[cobalt]

They look useful book and not just for relief carving. I will have to check it out on amazon.

Good source material is always handy.

Thanks for posting it

 

[Rodnogdog]

Good tip, thanks.

 

[CV3]

There is a selection good on amazon.

 

[gdenby]

For awhile, I was looking at leather punches as something that might make it easy to put designs on sticks. I was uncertain if they would be hard enough to emboss wood. However, I also wondered if embossed leather would make a good stick grip wrapping. Has your friend ever mentioned the durability of tooled leather? Or would the leather eventually absorb too much skin oil, and start rotting?