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For many years leather carving was a closely guarded trade secret, Cowdry points out. Only skilled craftsmen who began as apprentices to master leather carvers were able to learn the art. But, in the last twenty-five years, books have been published about leather carving, opening how-to-do it material on the skill to anyone who wishes to search out the knowledge.

"The Lucky-7 Kit Book," published by the Craftool Company, 3917 Wisconsin St., Los Angeles 37, California, is a book recommend by Cowdry. Articles about seven men who were the foremost leather carvers of our time make this book extremely interesting to the hobbyist. Another book recommended by him is "How To Carve Leather," by Al Stohlman. These two books are usually available at hobby shops. Books generally available in all public libraries on leathercraft contain much practical information on tooling, carving, and on articles to be made by hand from leathers.

COWDRY, WHO is also a gifted gardener, works as a landscaper on a California estate. In his spare time he turns out beautiful hand-carved leather items, such as belts, purses, holsters, wallets and other pieces, which usually sell as fast as he can make them.

In carving leather the leather is actually cut, then a large assortment of tools are used for the many different effects, such as the background, and the outlining of the carved or cut portion of the design.

A swivel knife is used to cut the outline of the pattern, and then the background is pounded out with different pattern tools to give the outstanding raised appearance. This backgrounding is done in carving in order to raise and highlight the design, bringing it into prominence.

Only heavier leathers can be carved, and the fact that the design is actually cut into the leather and the background hammered down is what causes a carved leather piece to last much longer than ordinary tooled designs. Some carved leather pieces in museums are known to be more than 100 years old. The De Young museum in San Francisco has a saddle which was carved in Old Mexico about 1855. Hard usage and years have not obliterated its rich design.

On the other hand, in the tooling of leather, lighter leathers are used, since tooling processes are simpler. Usually only two tools are needed, the tracer and the spoon. The design is traced on the leather, then pressed down and smoothed around the design with the spoon. Tooled designs have a tendency to fade away with time since leather will stretch, obliterating the tooled effects. Therefore, it is obvious that carved leather pieces are much more desirable.

Every Monday night Cowdry teaches leather carving in a Palo Alto, California, hobby shop. He receives a regular hourly wage from the shop for teaching the craft. Lessons are free to its customers who, of course, purchase their materials and tools from the hobby shop. Cowdry does not, at the present time, have private students. However, his earnings from teaching at the hobby shop pay for the materials he uses in making his saleable items, and the shop displays and sells them on a percentage basis, a very satisfactory arrangement all around, he states.

COWDRY LIVES in Sunnyvale, California, and emphasizes that in his area there are many outlets for his hand-carved leather items. He displays his work, when he has enough pieces on hand to make an interesting group, in nearby luggage shops, shoe stores, children's shops, men's clothing stores, hobby shops, pet shops, department stores and gift shops, according to the type of articles he has.

Some very good outlets for his carved leather items are hobby shops. In order to increase sales of leathercraft tools and kits, they show Cowdry's items as examples of the work which may be done with the tools. Sports shops or western wear stores display his items in groups near to related merchandise featured by the particular store. If the group of leathercraft items is large enough, however, it is quite common for the store to feature them in a display by themselves.

Cowdry advises that the best procedure to follow when you have items of leathercraft to sell is to become acquainted with the owner or manager of a store and obtain his permission to display your items on a consignment basis. Usually the store gets ¹/3 the sale price as its commission. An attractive display of purses and other items arranged in a window facing the street will bring customers into the store.

With skill, experience, and above all, speed in turning out items, George Cowdry believes that a profit of up to 150 per cent on leather carving is possible. His own part time leather work often brings him from $200 to $300 a month, and he hopes some day to open a shop of his own where he will make, sell, and teach the art.

More of the wide array of objects which he has made with leather and ornamented with carving are: briefcases, hunting knife sheaths, sales book pad covers, coin purses, billfolds, coasters, children's purses, jewelry and cigarette box covers, dog leashes and harnesses, book covers, book ends, toys, trinket or game cases, comb sheathes, military brush cases, photo albums and desk pad sets.

Some of these items may be found already cut in hobby kits for beginners, and Cowdry also cuts items from large pieces of leather bought for that purpose. The latter may be quite difficult for the beginner to handle at first, and Cowdry feels that perhaps it will be easier for the beginner if he starts off with a kit. In a kit the item is already cut out of the blank leather and comes with the carving pattern ready to be drawn on. Lacings and other parts are provided, ready to be put together. The hobbyist may buy the blank leather in most hobby shops for cutting the pieces and for purse linings, and so on, at a small savings, but the ready-cut kits have it figured pretty closely, Cowdry says.

PROFITS IN leather carving are immediately discernible from figures George Cowdry keeps of his own costs and selling prices. A small zipper purse may be purchased in a leathercraft kit, completely ready to carve, tool and assemble for $6.75. Finished, it sells for $17.

A larger shoulder bag kit costs $11, and he sells the finished bag for $25 to $35 according to how much finish work he puts on it. Dress belt blanks cost him around $1.50. Carved and finished off with a buckle, the belt sells for from $8 to $10. A western gun belt and holster set for men comes in a kit costing about $7.50. Ornately carved and fitted with sterling silver mountings, Cowdry collects $100 for it. If a leather craftsman could find a sheriffs posse or other horse club group to give him a commission to do a number of fancy belt and gun holster sets, he would make a pretty penny.

Most hobby shops have stamping tools in beginners' sets. A fine leather modeling tool set sells for about $2 and has six modeling points, the small ball modeler, large ball modeler, deerfoot, tracer, curved liner, and the spoon. The swivel cutter set with three blades costs $3.

Cowdry works on a large black marble slab because marble makes the best possible working surface for cutting the softened leather. He found the slab in a junk shop and purchased it for very little.

When a kit is not used in making a carved dress belt, like the one shown in the drawings, Cowdry first cases the belt blank, turning it face down with the unfinished or flesh side up, wetting it thoroughly with a sponge. When casing, he does not saturate the leather, and tries not to get water on the finished, smooth side.

If no kit is used, he selects a strip of leather 1¼ to 1½ inches wide of steer hide from the shoulder side of vegetable tanned leather, free from blemishes. If he is casing a large piece of leather, as for a purse, he wraps it in a thoroughly moistened bath towel and allows it to remain overnight before working it. The dampened leather by then has become pliable and soft, taking the tooling impressions easily and permanently. Before working it, he unwraps the piece and lets it dry fifteen to twenty minutes until the leather begins to return to its normal color. A piece of leather 1¼ to 1½ inches wide and about thirty-eight inches long will be the right size to make the following belt.

THE PATTERN used on this belt blank is Cowdry's own original design and was marked on freehand with the stylus. Because of his long experience and skill, Cowdry does not always use a pattern to transfer his designs onto the leather, trusting to his own freehand application with the stylus. This takes a very steady and knowing hand, however, and Cowdry urges the beginner to use a pattern drawn especially for the object being tooled.

When using a pattern, Cowdry places it directly on the smooth finished side of the belt, transferring the pattern with a tracer modeling tool or dull-pointed scriber (stylus). He turns up the corners of the pattern from time to time to see if he is missing any of the parts of the design. He is careful to get the impression heavy enough to make a good imprint, but not too heavy. After the pattern is drawn on, he makes lines down both edges of the belt for the borders.

The design may also be transferred, says Cowdry, from a leather template or stencil. This is a piece of leather which has been carved and dried, and which is the complete unit of a design. When this template is laid face down on the dampened, soft leather and tapped with light hammer blows, the designs will be printed on the blank leather. The unit designs are repeated to the end of the belt and the motif then is touched up with the backgrounding tool, shader, or other tools. Many commercial pieces are made in this manner as it can be done much more rapidly, but Cowdry points out that the piece is not considered as valuable as an item completely hand-carved.

After the design has been drawn on, Cowdry cuts in the pattern with the swivel knife. He traces the design carefully, holding the knife at a ninety-degree angle, leaning it away from him and pressing it forward with a pushing motion for the cut. The border lines should be cut first, says Cowdry; then he cuts the entire design outline, being very careful never to allow two cuts to cross each other. He cuts the leather through about half its thickness. Much practice is needed to become as proficient with the swivel knife as Cowdry is, but skill can be attained. He controls the point with his thumb and forefinger for ease in following the design, using his index finger in the saddle for pressure.

He next uses the beveling tool to straighten the edges and bring out the design on the leather. This he does by beveling on the outside of the design edges, particularly on the outside of curves. He holds the beveling tool perpendicularly and taps it lightly with the tapping hammer or mallet. He continues the beveling thus until all of the design to be beveled is finished.

Next he uses the overlay tool on all of the petals which he wishes to look as though curled at the edges. He uses it in the same way as the beveling tool, tapping it lightly with the tapping mallet.

FOR THE ornamental carving which comes next, Cowdry again uses the swivel knife. In this process, he cuts the veinings in the leaves and the ornamental markings in the flowers. Then he uses the pear shader, holding it perpendicularly also and tapping it lightly. This he applies to any space that should be emphasized or brought out and leaves a shadow mark.

Backgrounding comes next and he uses the bar grounder for this, holding it perpendicularly to the work and striking it harder than the other tools. He works the background down sharply so that the flower motif will stand out clearly in relief. If the leather has become dry by this time, he may find it necessary to sponge it during this process.

The last step Cowdry uses is the camouflaging, which is the decorating of the plainer parts of the design, such as the petals, stems and leaves. He uses a mules-foot tool for this, which makes a U-shaped impression. Other surface decorations which he may use are seeds, dots and other patterns.

The edge of the belt is edge-creased with the creasing tool as the very last finishing procedure, and then the buckle is attached. Sometimes he likes to dye the belt, and in that case he applies the dye with a cotton swab or brush. Dye is most effective, he says, when used on the background only, leaving the design in the natural colors.

The special tapping mallet he uses Cowdry carved out of hardwood, making the hammer head five inches long, two and one-half inches wide and one and one-half inches thick. He covered the mallet head with a plain rawhide cover, lacing it with thongs.