Wet Stamping? Dry Stamping? Wet Carving? Dry Carving?

[Uncle Chan]

Hi All!  Been awhile! 

I've a question I'm hoping any and all might help with.  I'm curious about wet stamping & carving VS dry stamping & carving.  I've read much that say wet your leather first, I've read some posts on this and other forums that say do it dry.  Just as a test, I made two holsters this week with the same pattern, dye, etc.  One I did with the leather wet, the other dry.  After they were stained (black), I saw no difference between the two.  The stamping depth was the same.  The carving (gouging) depths were identical.  So, what do you all think?

Uncle Chan

[Marshal Will Wingam]

It depends on what kind of design you are doing. If it's just a stamped pattern, it really isn't too important. When it gets to floral designs or a design that needs to be set into the leather deeply, it will do better by wetting it. Wet leather takes the impression much easier and produces a deeper design that will stay in the leather better. Remember, it's all about compressing the top grain of the leather. Wet will compress easier and make a more lasting design, from my experience. I always wet the leather first.

[Nolan Sackett]

I'm sitting here scratching my head because I can't think of any of the great leather artists such as Al Stohlman, Clint Fay, Bob Douglas, et a that "dry carved/tooled" - in fact this is the first I've heard of it??? I'd be curious to see the comments you mention about dry tooling??

In my experience properly cased aka dampened leather will take and hold a stamp MUCH better than dry leather - when I say properly cased I mean just that - too often newbies when first learning to tool will get the leather too wet which will leave a "mushy" impression - properly casing is one of the hardest things for the newbies to learn.
Also I've found that the newer and cheaper tools being offered these days which are the ones often used by newbies don't give the depth and quality of impression that the older and/or custom stamps do - yep the custom stamps such as those made by Bob Beard are not cheap, but can make a huge difference in the quality of ones work. You can also get less expensive tools such as the older Craft tools (pre-1980), those by C. S. Osborne, and those by a bunch of other old time makers can often be found at second hand stores or on EBay, etc, or at garage sales, and are usually much better quality the current crop of beginner tools........... 

[Buffalo]

I agree with Nolan. I have never heard of any good leather worker using dry leather. Case it good and get good results. And yes good tools are hard to find. The junk tools sold nowadays do not leave near as good of a finished product. A lot of the cheap leather is not worth putting your time into either. I only use Wicket & Craig or Herman Oak.    Just my opinion.
Buff

[Uncle Chan]

Gents, thanks all for your replies.  Nolan, I'll try to find it here on the forum.  I know that that is where I first heard of it.  After some searching on the WWW, I found a couple other posts, enough to intrigue/entice me to give it a try.

Here are the holsters mentioned above in progress.  One is done completely dry, the other cased and damp.  I found the labor to do either to be the same.  And, the tools are basic Tandy.

Uncle Chan