Wet leather

[dewi]

I've been carving a design into a piece of leather, roughly 9" x 6" veg tan shoulder. Its a medium thickness (marked as =72)

Started today about 1pm... finished carving around 4pmish... but 2 1/2 hours later the leather is still moist.... is there a way of drying it out evenly without distorting the leather? Is it a waiting thing, or can I speed it up in some way?

Currently have a lamp hovering about it, laid it on a flat surface... but I want to get on with the stitching prep and dying it... can't really do that while its still wet

 

[Dreadhead]

I leave all carvings for 24 hours to dry naturally, often with a sheet of paper on top with a light slab of marble atop that to keep them from curling as they dry.

 

[Angst]

hi dewi....as the man dready says, best to leave 24 hours and let dry naturally....patience grasshopper!

s

 

[dewi]

Just itching to get to the next bit.

Thank you both though... I nearly reached for my heatgun earlier... but I figured after spending so long carving, I don't want to wreck it because of impatience.

 

[Angst]

no no no....nasty heat gun, bad heat gun!

Just itching to get to the next bit.

Thank you both though... I nearly reached for my heatgun earlier... but I figured after spending so long carving, I don't want to wreck it because of impatience.

 

[dewi]

no no no....nasty heat gun, bad heat gun!

lol I've put some plain paper onto it, then a plastic bag with books on top to keep it flat overnight... spent some time practising my stitching instead this evening.

I have much to learn

 

[Dreadhead]

that's the way; cutting, tooling, and dyeing in the day and stitching at night. The tricky part is when you have 20 different things all in varying stages

 

[dewi]

I may have been optimistic when I said it was moist... it is still wet in places now, well over 24 hours later.

Another day I think... I really need to start planning ahead if I want to make useful things out of my carvings

I've progressed a little from my original oak leaf a month or so back... I'll post up my latest oak leaf attempt when I'm brave enough to photograph it.

 

[Wayland]

Let it dry naturally and do some work on something else while you wait.

Multitasking is the key to patience in my book.

 

[John Fenna]

I have sometimes used my food dehydrator to speed up drying times - but in a carefully controlled manner. One side effect is the leather goes bone hard (which has usually been just what I wanted from the method) which could be a drawback for most leatherwork...
For most circumstances I rely on patience and natural drying....