Leather work help

[Doc]

On certain sculptures baldrics are seen where the edges are raised like a border leaving a channel effect in the center between the borders. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make these raised borders?

Thanks in advance

[Vindex]

Is it raised borders or tooled out centres??

[richsc]

Have an image in mind?

[Maximus Atreus]

The leather strap may have been edged with a thinner piece of leather or cloth sewn on.

Like [===]

[PhilusEstilius]

Paolo.

It is at tmes very like what Vindex has mentioned the leather can be tooled with a fine rounded scribe, I have done a lot of this kind of work in the past.
In fact many leather type chamfrons were done in this manner very like this one I did some time back where each row of sruds are within a tram line effect in the leather.
[attachment=5117]100_0093Small.jpg[/attachment]

[M. Demetrius]

There are not enough superlatives to express how wonderful that work is, sir.

Summis laudibus!

[Doc]

I agree David that is a masterpiece.

The baldric raised edges and low middle channel that I am referring to can be found on this statue. Sorry for the poor quality but it renders the idea nontheless. If you have a close look, you can see that the edges appear raised or rolled over leaving a shallow channel. I think, as pointed out, that it could have been edged with thinner leather. Better yet, roll the edge of the same strap and then sew it to hold it in place. The stitch and rolled edge will give that raised appearence....I think.

Thank you all for your replies. Keep them coming.

[M. Demetrius]

You are right about the possibility of a rolled/sewn edge. That should show the stitch line, though.

[PhilusEstilius]

David.

Thank you for your very kind comments and here is a picture of how it would wrap around the face of a horse, and where it says Ala I Thrac I have included a Thacian Bull lower on the nose area. It also shows how the pole piece goes over the head of the horse with the ear guards to protect the horse or maybe just decorative.
[attachment=5126]100_0089Small.jpg[/attachment]

[Crispianus]

You are right about the possibility of a rolled/sewn edge. That should show the stitch line, though.

I might suggest this may be a way of protecting the main stiching itself assuming the baldric consists of more then one layer of leather and the stiching is intended to hold the pieces together, in anycase no stitching would be visible and liable to wear by chafing if thats what you wanted.. its difficult to make it clear without a pic...
Imagine you have your two or more layers of balric leather, place a narrower piece along the edge, flesh side out, stitch the pieces together along the edge s = stitch

front

_s____Loose edge____s_ stitched edge
_s__________________s_
_s__________________s_

Back

Then take the loose edge of the strip pull it over the stitching around the edge to the back of the baldric and whip stitch in place, if you wish this can also be hidden and not subject to wear...

:wink:

[PhilusEstilius]

There is another way of making the edges to appear to stand out and even the centre area raised, this is done by in fact useing three pieces of leather such as I have done here with the leathers of the cuirass that I made for the late Douglas Arnold when he was with the II Augusta.
This was where I had the outer front piece with an inner piece glued to the back of the front piece, the inner strip was about 1 inch narrower than the front piece so that 1/2 an inch was wrapped around the edges and glued.
Then at the rear there is another piece that is completly glued to the back and then stitched at about 1/4 inch from the edges both sides.
This way you get the leathers of the cuirass looking the way they are and also the gold braid is also glued and stitched in.
[attachment=5127]cuirass1Small.gif[/attachment]

[M. Demetrius]

That armor is made from leather?! What sort of paint gives such an accurate rendering of metal?

Astonishing as always, Mr. Stobbs

[PhilusEstilius]

David.

I made this cuirass from what is known as guilding metal which is a nice soft type of bronze it is copied from a statue of Drusus in a museum in Cagliari Sardinia, I did of course put a bit more decoration onto it.
It is a short type that allows one to ride a horse as the late Doug' Arnold did here when he took the part of Varus in a filming session
[attachment=5135]00001109Small.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=5136]point1Small.jpg[/attachment]

[M. Demetrius]

Beautiful work, sir. That metal is available in the US, too, with the spelling gilded metal. Sheets like that are pretty expensive, since the price of copper has escalated in the last year or two, but the material is available. Might be just the thing for standard discs, phalerae, etc. But I've caused us to drift off topic.

Back to leather work...

[PhilusEstilius]

David.

We have drifted just a little off topic however the leathers on the cuirass had to be explained so we are ok I think.