Tooled Calfskin Card Case: Folded Pockets, Lined Centre and a Border Design (Boy Mechanic, 1915)

Her outfit: "two special tools costing 50 cents each, one with a narrow edge for lining patterns, and one with broad ends for tooling; and a piece of tin, plate glass, or very smooth hard wood, which should not be smaller than 9 by 12 in. A soft sponge, a triangle, a rule, tracing paper and a hard pencil are also needed." Russian calfskin is best for tooling and stamping.

Take paper 10 by 4-3/4 in and fold it in the middle, 5 in each side, then fold in 2 in at each outside edge toward the centre to make the pockets (a longer paper and deeper fold for deeper pockets). Cut the leather to the pattern with at least 1/4 in margin.

Damp the leather on the rough side. Lay the folded paper on the right side and, with ruler, triangle and lining tool, draw the vertical lines where it is to fold at the centre and at each pocket, and line all round the four sides. There are now four panels, two wide and two narrow.

Draw the whole design for the front (one of the wide panels) on tracing paper. Wet the leather on the wrong (unfinished) side with a soft sponge: pat it to moisten, not soak, it; too wet and the tool sticks and leaves an uneven background. Pin the design firmly on the leather, tack the leather down on its outer margin to the glass or board, and go over every line with a hard pencil, with firm, even pressure. Lift the paper and go over the lines with the narrow lining tool, with a strong, firm stroke. A line design can stop here.

Leave at least 1/8 in between the edge of the pattern and the design. To tool, press the background down with the broad end in even, long strokes; if it will not go down, the leather is too dry, so take it off and damp the back again. Keep the edges sharp between pressed and raised parts. To stamp instead, strike a small carpenter's nail set lightly with a wooden mallet in rows of circles; too hard a blow cuts the leather.

Line only the two centre rectangles, with skiver leather or silk cut about 1/16 in less at top and bottom and 1/4 in wider on each side. Leather: paste its back with library paste, smooth it down and dry it under a heavy weight. Silk: paste only about 1/4 in round its edges, and weight it. Fold the case and sew it at top and bottom; cut off the surplus leather about 1/8 in from the stitches. Stitch on a sewing machine with a long stitch, a large needle and silk as heavy as the needle takes; try it on a scrap first, and put tissue paper over the leather if the foot marks it. Without a machine, prick holes with an awl and sew with needle and silk, running or over-and-over; going over-and-over to the end and back gives an X stitch.

From Mary C. Scovel, "Arts-Crafts Leather Work", in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 2**, Popular Mechanics, 1915 (Project Gutenberg 44585; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanicbook200chic2, pp. 432-441), Part II. The tools and metric figures are ours.