Tooling with carbon is an old technique used to create designs or lettering on a book cover in black rather than traditional gold. Originally this was done by collecting soot from a candle on the brass hand tool and applying it to the binding. Some binders still do it this way, but an alternative and perhaps more straightforward method is to use old carbon paper. Here I show the basics of how to use this approach on various materials. I hope you find it of interest.