Because saddles are often tooled, we thought you might be interested in the processes. Tooling not only enhances your saddle, but can add to its value. Many saddles are embossed, but hand-tooled saddles are works of art and hold their value. The difference in tooling and dye methods make a difference in the price you pay for your saddle.
Tooling is the overall art of tooling leather. It is divided into four sub-categories:

• blocking, tooling, or stamping
• embossing
• carving
• relief

Blocking, Tooling, or Stamping is used to describe the manual process of tooling leather with a metal stamp. Each stamp has a small design on the end. The crafter hits the stamp with a small mallet, compressing the leather and creating a desired design. This method is most often used to create a repeating motif of a single design element, such as basket weave or border tooling. Some of the more sophisticated 2-D and 3-D stamps give the impression of hand carving because the stamp has 2 - 3 depths that it stamps to when hit.

Embossing is an inexpensive way to mass produce tooling. Machine embossed tooling replicates hand stamping and tooling or leather grains. It is not as deep or as detailed as hand carving or stamping. It is often used to cover blemishes in the leather.
Sometimes a combination of embossing and tooling is used to achieve a richer look. The leather is first embossed and then stamps are used to emphasize the mechanized work. This gives it depth and detail.

Carving, generally referred to as "hand carved", is the art of manually cutting a design into leather. Instead of being tooled or blocked, the design is cut into dampened leather. The technique consists of creating or using a pre-created design on paper. Next the design is outlined on the leather with a pointed tool. The leather is then dampened and the carver begins his creation. Various desired affects are created though the use of special knives and assorted blades. The beauty and boldness of hand carved leather is achieved through the dynamics of varying depths. Some carvers are very skilled and do not use paper patterns, but create free-hand motifs as they carve.
 

Relief - carved work can be enhanced a number of ways. One method is to bring the carving into relief by depressing the background. This is usually accomplished by stamping a succession of dots very close together into the leather with a pointed tool.
Although not a tooling technique, antiquing is another way to achieve depth and detail. Antiquing is attained by applying a darker dye over the tooling then wiping it off the high spots. The variance of light and dark gives more depth and detail to the tooling. This can be done on any style of tooling.

Examples of tooling techniques:

Small acorn and oak leaf designs are typically hand stamped (these are 2-D stamps).

   Basket stamp or basket weave is hand stamped or      
   machine embossed (this is a 3-D stamp).

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Embossed leather sometimes replicates another type of leather or enhances the grain to cover blemishes.
 

   Border tooling like barbwire is typically hand stamped.
 

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An example of carving enhanced with antiquing. Compared to the embossed example below, this work has several layers of depth. Even though the embossed example exhibits depth, it is only on 2-3 levels.
 

   Embossing can be used to make repeat patterns of all sorts. This example has   
   depth beyond the range of most embossed designs. Note that the embossed edges
   are soft and detail is lost, while the carving above is crisp and detail is enhanced.