Tooled "Dark" Geometric Leather Desgn

This simple tooled geometric leather design has been hand tooled since the late 1970's. Mom and dad tooled the design on handmade leather belts and dad called it the "dark" design. The name was based on the way he dyed the belt over 35 years ago.  Today, we dye the full grain leather using Fiebing's Mahogany dye, and we highlight the hand tooled design using black "antique" stain.  Learn more about how we dye our handmade leather goods.

The picture above shows the simple handtools we use to create our dark design handmade leather goods. We use the dividers to scribe a faint line down the center of the piece we are tooling.  The line acts as a guide for the leather tooling.  The Craftool USA Veiner and Seeder are V7412 and S347.  The tool in center, Basic Tool #23, is quite rare.  In the background you can see my favorite hammer with a slightly chewed leather handle... dang puppies.