How to Basket Stamp Leather

Leather stamping is used on Western style accessories and horse tack.

Leather stamping, or tooling, is the process of changing the surface of the leather for aesthetic purposes. Leather stamping tools are made from metal or plastic, and have a small end shaped into a specific design. Leather workers place the patterned end on the leather's surface and hit the stamp's handle with a mallet, to make the impression. One such tool is the basket-weave stamp. This tool is used in a crisscross pattern to give the leather a woven look.

Things You'll Need

• Leather
• Small bucket
• Water
• Sponge
• Ruler
• Stylus
• Basket weave stamping tool
• Wooden mallet
• Semicircular border stamping tool

Instructions

1. Fill a small bucket half full of water. Submerge a sponge in the water until it is completely wet. Then squeeze the sponge to remove excess water -- so that it is damp, not wet.

2. Place your leather, right-side up, on a flat work surface. Rub the damp sponge over the surface of the leather, until it turns a darker color from the water. Let the leather set for 2 minutes, to allow the moisture to soak in.

3. Lay a ruler along one edge of the piece of leather. Position the inner edge of the ruler along the point where you wish the border of the design to be. Trace down this straight edge of the ruler, using a stylus. Repeat this process along the remaining edges of the leather, to complete the border.

4. Place the ruler on top of the leather once more. Position one edge of the ruler so it runs from the top-right corner to the bottom-left corner of the border. Trace along this edge of the ruler, with your stylus, to create a guide line.

5. Set a basket weave stamping tool in the top-right corner of the leather. Position the tool on the left side of the guide line, with its long edge along the line. Hold the tool firmly in place. Hit the end of the tool's handle once, with a wooden mallet, to make the impression. Do not allow the mallet to hit the tool more than once, to avoid creating a double stamp.

6. Rotate the piece of leather so that the top-right corner is now pointed directly toward you and the bottom-left corner is now at the top. Place the basket weave tool on the leather, positioning it on the opposite side of the guide line as the first stamp. Ensure that the long side of the tool is running along the guide line as before. Align the tool so that its lower right-hand line is on top of the upper left-hand line of the first stamped impression. Hit the tool with the mallet as before, to make the impression.

7. Continue to stamp along the guide line, alternating between the right and left sides of the line. Position the bottom left line of the tool on the upper-right line of the previous impression, when making the stamp on the right side of the guide line. Position the tool's bottom-right line on top of the previous impression's upper-left line, when stamping on the left side of the guide line.

8. Begin filling in the left side of the leather, once the guide line is full of stamps. Position the stamping tool to left of two impressions along the left side of the guide line. Place the stamp in between the two stamps. Place the tool's upper-right line on top of the bottom-left line of the top impression. Place the tool's lower-right line on top of the upper-left line of the bottom impression. Hit the tool once with the mallet, to make the impression.

9. Continue to stamp the left portion of the leather in this manner. Alternate the stamps to create a crisscross pattern.

10. Begin filling in the right section of the leather in this same manner, once the left section is complete. Line up the stamps to the right of two stamps along the guide line. Place the tool's lower-left line on top of the upper-right line of the lower impression. Place the tool's upper-left line on top of the lower-right line on the top impression. Hit the stamp once with the mallet. Fill in the area, alternating the stamps in the same crisscross pattern as before.

11. Finish your basket weave stamp design with a semicircular border stamping tool. Position the flat side of this tool along the inside of the border line. Hit the tool once with the mallet. Continue to stamp along the inside of the border, working your way around the entire piece.

Tips & Warnings

• Use smaller basket weave stamping tools for smaller pieces of leather.