Hand-Tooling?

There's a lot of confusion when it comes to images on leather. Like with anything in life there's many ways to skin a cat, as they say. A LOT of what folks find readily are pieces with the image on the cover that has been embossed. The process of embossing is taking a big stamp, or plate, and pressing it down with pressure, heat or both. There is also, a digital etching process which I do not offer because I believe it should be tooled by hand!

What is Hand Tooling you ask? 

Hand tooling is the process of decorating leather by hand, using metal tools and a mallet. Each design is created by pressing shapes, lines, and textures into the surface of the leather, one mark at a time.

The leather has to be slightly dampened first, so it becomes soft and easily takes and impression. Then, with a ton of care and even more elbow grease, I use different tools to carve and stamp patterns into it. Whether its your initials, a family brand, your dog, some flowers...You get it. The sky is really the limit to what we can tool into leather.

Completely by hand, every piece is one of a kind. Its a slow process and takes practice, and patience, but the result is something with depth, character, and a human touch you that machine's can't achieve.

Although, for belts, I do offer a few exclusive embossing rolls that we can press into the leather for a small fee!