Tudor Rose Bracer Tutorial (as promised) lots of pictures

bent-stick

Settler
Aug 18, 2006
558
12
72
surrey
www.customarchery.net
Here is how I carved the tudor rose in the bracer:

This is some of what you need:

01thingsyoullneed.jpg


Theres some leather punches, antiquing wax, resoline, a small wooden mallet, a sharp knife, a grooving tool and of course some leather.

I've printed a pattern and scribbled on the back to help transfer the design:

02scribble.jpg


The pattern is then taped to the leather and transferred using a hard pencil:

03Transfer.jpg


You can just see the light pencil marks here:

04image.jpg


I've damped the leather by running under some lukewarm water. And then I use an edging tool to chamfer off the sharp edges.

05edging.jpg


wherever there is going to be an edge is taken out with a swivel knife. I guess any thick bladed knife would do but the swivel is much easier to keep under control.

06swivel.jpg


Here;s the cut design

07cut.jpg


I'm not sure the best technique but I'm going to start from the middle of the rose..

The centre will be embossed with the wedge shaped shading punch and the round punch will be used for the outer ring:

08punches.jpg


Here's the punching operation:

09punching.jpg


The detail on the white rose petals are taken out with a ball stylus:

10burnishing.jpg


The red petals are cut with a V-pinch:

11Vpunch.jpg


For the shading at the base of the leaves I'm using the small shading punch again.

12Leafshading.jpg


Some of the sharp edges are rounded off with the ball stylus:

13rounding.jpg


U'm gong to raise the design by pushing down the background with the pear-shaped punch and small ball stylus. Not shown here (I can only hold so much in two hands ;)) is a fine hatching tool that is used to push down the background.

14Edging.jpg


This is using a stitching groover to put an outline on the design:

15grooving.jpg


And here is the finished design. This needs to be set aside until it is completely dry.

16desingdone.jpg


The next job is to use the antiquing wax to bring out the design. I'll be doing that at the end of the week...watch this space.
 
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bent-stick

Settler
Aug 18, 2006
558
12
72
surrey
www.customarchery.net
Pleasure Red.

We are just putting together a meet in east sussex for easter and I'm going to be there. A bit of keather carving could be on the agenda. Along with bowmaking and field archer (a chance to use your new bracer ;)) and loads of other stuff.

I'm just waiting for 'sign off' from one of my fellow primitives but the details should be in social gatherings this week
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,894
2,145
Mercia
Sounds great mate, although I suspect I would have everything I need barring any talent whatsoever :D . Still always happy to make a fool of myself :)

This is more my projectile tool of choice :D

scout1lw7.jpg


Suspect its not really "primitive" though ;)

Red
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,894
2,145
Mercia
Aah well BB shoots better than I do and I partly bought this one for her since she didn't get on with my larger calibre cenre fires. Well that was an excuse tbh, but first time she fired it she scored a ton with 8 x bulls so I think she might adopt the Scout :D

Red
 

bent-stick

Settler
Aug 18, 2006
558
12
72
surrey
www.customarchery.net
With the carving over the next bit is to finish the carving with some wax that will seek out any crved or textured areas.

I use antiquing was from leprevo:

17radytowaxqt2.jpg


This needs slathering on with a cloth or brush and working in the the grooves of the carving. Do the back and edges too.

Then the execess needs taking off from the high spots only. To do this I wrap a cloth around a cork sanding block and wipe:

18waxedhe7.jpg


19wipeoffek9.jpg


And here it is:

20completewipeoffxs7.jpg


Antiquing wax is nothing like waterproof, as I found out when I tried to wet form an carved sheath. I water proof with Resolene. The first coat chas ti be thin and watery and dabbed on, otherwise you are likely to remove the wax. When that is dry you can be a bit more robust and put on a thiker coat. To top it off and make sure it is waterproof I then go over the whole thing with either a silicone wax like black bison or a beeswax polish like briwax, I haven't done pictures of that process it is entirely dull.

Happy to answer any questions I can.
 
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ESpy

Settler
Aug 28, 2003
925
57
54
Hampshire
www.britishblades.com
Nice work - both the bracer and the tutorial. One thing I've found when casing leather is that wetting it thoroughly, then putting it in a plastic bag & leaving it in the fridge overnight helps immensely on getting a good impression when carving.

I also use Pro-Carve solution sometimes (usually in a plant mister) - either for a quick job, or for re-damping the leather as it dries whilst being worked.

Added - oh, and I tend to use a dead ballpoint pen for pattern transfer. The case dleather takes the slight impression extremely well.
 

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