How to Use Double Action Tools in Leather Working

Video Transcript

"Okay so now I want to talk about a different kind of tool for, that's more involved in the carving aspect of working with leather. That is an no longer just making impressions with a single action tool that has a design cut into it. But now you are going to use tools that kind of at to mold the leather into deeper areas and more raised areas we can really start to get kind of more a 3 dimensional look. Kind of like this design I did sometime last year. So for a lot of this you use what's called a double action tools and here are some examples of double action tools. The first thing you notice is that they have smooth tips. Okay so there's really not a design in these tools at all. They just kind of smooth and shinny on the top. They come in different shapes again like some of the single action tools like the vainer and the camouflage stamp they do have a heel and a toe. Remember the toe is the thicker part of the tool. So on this one the toe is going to be on this side cause it's thicker and there's the heel and on this one here's the toe and there's the heel the toe is the thicker part okay. But yeah they're smooth on top for use of doing kind of 3 dimensional patterns. The reason they are called double action tools is because instead of striking them firmly to make a single impression into the leather and sort of or maybe overlapping them kind of the way we did with the backgrounder, remember the backgrounder stamp was this sort of tear shaped on right. What a double action tool does is it's used to make kind of a 3 dimensional affect over larger area using sometimes what's called the jackhammer affect. Which means it's doesn't only move downwards when you strike it, but you do it in such a way so that it recoils a little bit and bounces back up. And it is in sort of in position for the next stroke. So in order to achieve that you have to hold kind of loosely and you're a lot less concern about what it's staying where you want it to be and every time you hit it you want sort of allow it to rebound a little bit and then so your next stroke is right next to where the first on was. And then you just kind of move down the area that you're working in and so this is why it's called double action. Because it has action as it is moving downwards but also has action as it's coming back up on the rebound. I guess sort of like the difference between a 2 stroke and a 4 stroke engine."