https://i.imgur.com/4tczjmx.png Shown here is a typical layout of tools used when working with leather mostly to make small goods. I'm quite new to Tildes, but I haven't seen much content here...
Shown here is a typical layout of tools used when working with leather mostly to make small goods. I'm quite new to Tildes, but I haven't seen much content here related to this particular craft.
When working with leather, some of the tools used are commonly found in your average household (Hammer, xacto/utility knife, ruler, scissors) and many that are specialized, used only (or largely) for leather work. Below I'll go into some detail about what each numbered item is, and what it's used for.
Spreader - This is a thin plastic spreader, primarily used for applying glue in a thin, uniform layer
Aquilim - This is a water based, thin viscosity glue which dries clear. Generally it is applied, given some time to get tacky, then pressed together with another coated piece which it will then adhere to, very tightly.
Seiwa Glue - Another water based, but thicker viscosity glue. Used similarly to Aquilim, but with less propensity for running or getting squeezed out of edges.
Seiwa Tokonole - This is a burnishing compound, similar to gum tragacanth. It's used to make it easier to create smooth, slick edges by applying some compound followed by friction - typically using a shaped piece of wood (Burnishing stick), a canvas rag (my preferred method) or really anything else that will get it heated up.
Layout guide - this was made for me by a fellow on the /r/leathercraft discord. It's used to approximate stitch spacing in the middle of a line - to close up gaps between two areas where the stitch holes have been made mostly.
Precision ruler - A small 6" ruler from GEI, marked in both MM and inches. Pretty self explanatory. I glued a thin backing layer on mine to prevent it from moving around
Indicated dividers - This is a pair of dividers with marks indicating up to 20mm for quick and easy small measurements or marking
Starrett dividers - More robust pair of unmarked dividers, used for marking and measuring - Precisely.
Bone Folder - This is a smoothed over piece of acrylic (traditionally made of bone as the name would imply) used for creasing over folds and slicking out scratches or mistakes.
Barry King Edge Beveler - Made by Barry King Tools, this is used to create a bevel, rounding off sharp corners or burrs from sanding on the grain side of leather. This is useful for edge finishing mostly
Kevin Lee french skiver - This tool is used for removing thin layers of leather from the back of a piece in order to thin it out. This is done so that the edges of things with many layers of relatively thick leather don't end up super thick, as well as for many other reasons.
Osbourne Creaser - This tool is used to make a creased line a set distance from the edge of a work piece, in the case of this one the crease is made roughly 1.5mm away from the edge. This creased line is then often used as a guide for stitches, or just decoration.
PaloSanto Awl - This is my favorite awl, with a handle made of lignum vitae and shaped so that the awl can be held while stitching. An awl is used in conjunction with pricking irons (more on those soon) or a pricking wheel. The irons or wheel are used to 'prick' holes in the surface of the leather, which are then gone over with the awl and pierced through all the way.
Kevin Lee and KS Blade Punch Irons - These are my main sets of chisels/irons - the difference is that chisels (the Stainless Steel Kevin Lee ones) are designed to be hammered all the way through the piece, whereas Irons like the black KS Blade Punch ones are intended to just mark the hole that will later be pierced using an awl. The general purpose of both tools remains largely similar - to mark or create the holes used for stitching.
Armytek Wizard Pro - This is my headlamp/work light. It runs on a rechargeable battery and allows me to work around the awful lighting in my room. The strap is also removable, and the light has a magnet in the tail cap which allows it to be placed down, used as a work light and moved around as necessary.
glass slicker - this is a piece of glass with rounded edges that have been given a very slick texture. This is used for smoothing things out to remove wrinkles/creases, pressing things down after gluing to ensure an even surface finish, and the flat surfaces can be used to skive on in a pinch (You want a surface that is as flat as possible to skive on, but this is sort of small for that)
Wax and Canvas - This is a puck made from a mix of beeswax and paraffin, used for coating un-waxed or lightly waxed threads to keep them from tangling or suffering from abrasion while stitching, but this is mostly only necessary for linen thread. The Canvas here is just used to remove excess wax from the thread.
John James Harness Needles - These are small, blunt-tipped needles that are used for the actual stitching, the type and size used depends on the size of thread and thickness of the leather
Thread - These spools are all Linen thread sold by RMLeathersupply, nothing super interesting or special here really.
Scissors - These are actually curved scissors, intended to be used for trimming fingernails. I use these for trimming thread flush, or cutting any small pieces that are best addressed using scissors, but many people have their own preferences for this.
Utility Knife - Just a plain Milwaukee utility knife, I like the Lenox Ti edge blades. This is my go-to knife for cutting out big chunks of leather, or doing anything abusive because of the convenience of being able to ditch the blades the moment they start to get dull. Leather is right up there with cardboard on the list of "Things that wear down blades fast" so the ability to swap blades for this is quite handy
Japanese Skiving Knife - This paint-scraper looking thing is used similarly to the french skiver above for thinning out bits of leather with the added advantage of being a more versatile tool (and cheap). By virtue of being a knife it can also be used instead of the utility knife above and the pattern knife below and many makers get by just fine using only this one knife.
Riven Knife - Made for me by my friend at Riven Knifeworks (https://www.instagram.com/rivenknifeworks/) this is a pattern knife, used for cutting out intricate details, shaping curves, making edges flush and just about any other kind of precision cutting. It's basically an X-acto knife on steroids.
Right Angle Ruler - This is just a basic square ruler from Home Depot, used to make sure my pieces are cut square.
Cutting mat - this is a "gem" self healing cutting mat from YelloTools and is by far superior to most of the typical (olfa, fisker etc) cutting mats in that it will never catch or chip your blades, and won't mark up your work the same way a scratched up hard plastic cutting mat would.
Pencils - These are just a couple of Rotring mechanical pencils, used for drafting and design, as well as sometimes to make marks on unseen parts of projects. The RapidPro has regular black lead in it, the 800 has blue lead for annotation and marking.
Calipers - 8" Mitutoyo Digital Calipers. More precision than I will ever need, but definitely not a tool I could live without.
If anyone has any questions about how stuff works or what something is, let me know!
Not so much a question of how it works, but I am curious... how expensive/time consuming a hobby is leathercraft to get in to? I ask because leather goods are often priced pretty insanely high and...
Not so much a question of how it works, but I am curious... how expensive/time consuming a hobby is leathercraft to get in to? I ask because leather goods are often priced pretty insanely high and I am wondering if that is largely due to the cost of the materials themselves or if it's more an expertise + time required thing that drives the cost. If it's primarily material cost then :( since leathercraft has always interested me but I can't really afford to pick up another expensive hobby. ;)
p.s. Do you have an Etsy shop or anything? I would love to see some of your work.
The cost of entry to the hobby can vary pretty significantly depending on what exactly you hope to make, and how nice you want your tools and materials to be. Like I said at the start of the post,...
The cost of entry to the hobby can vary pretty significantly depending on what exactly you hope to make, and how nice you want your tools and materials to be. Like I said at the start of the post, some of my most used tools are things that aren't necessarily leather specific, so a things like a rubber mallet or dead blow hammer, a good cork-backed ruler and either a utility knife or X-acto blade for cutting things out may already be laying around.
As far as leather specific tools, I would advise steering clear of Craftool/Tandy tools for the most part, as their quality is generally quite mediocre for the price. You can certainly start to learn the basics of saddle stitching with little more than the above mentioned stuff, a creaser, a cheap set of chisels, some needles and thread, but as you progress and learn more about improving and refining your work, things like beveled edges and creasing start to matter much more and that's where things start to add up.
In regards to the cost of leather goods, that exists for a few reasons, first as you mentioned the expertise and time required definitely drive the cost well up for most handmade leather goods, as well as the material costs associated, depending on what is being used. My theory in general though, is that leather goods are made to appeal to people who are interested in "rugged" or "Luxury" goods. The former are willing to pay more for something that will (Read: should, if materials and construction are on point) last for a very long time, without necessarily being concerned with overall "refinement". The latter are interested in status symbols in a nontraditional kind of way. Frequently such goods will utilize "exotic" materials like elephant, ostrich, crocodile, or ray skin, which all present their own unique challenges to work with in additional to significant upfront material costs. To both groups of people - they are considered investment pieces, something you buy once and cry once over in the case of the former, and something to one-up Mr. Jones and his new LV wallet to the latter.
Regarding an Etsy, I haven't set up a shop for my stuff just yet as this is still very much just a hobby for me, but here's an album of some random recent stuff I've done: https://imgur.com/a/COEqP9X
I've been looking into leathercraft for a while, and it's actually pretty crazy how quickly the leather itself can get expensive. Scrap, remnants, and cheaper grades aren't too cost prohibitive,...
I've been looking into leathercraft for a while, and it's actually pretty crazy how quickly the leather itself can get expensive. Scrap, remnants, and cheaper grades aren't too cost prohibitive, but your projects become limited in size, scope, and consistency. Once you start looking at full-grain hides, expect to pay $200-300 (or more) for good stuff. My partner has a gorgeous half-hide that they'd found on sale for 'only' $200.
In regards to the cost of leather itself, it really depends. I'm still a hobbyist, and don't really sell things much so the overall 'grade' of the hide (Whether it is free of defects such as...
In regards to the cost of leather itself, it really depends. I'm still a hobbyist, and don't really sell things much so the overall 'grade' of the hide (Whether it is free of defects such as scars, range marks, brands etc) Doesn't matter that much, as long as the dye is consistent. I generally make small stuff like wallets, pouches, and slips so it's pretty easy to cut around larger or more obvious defects for the most part. I've honestly only very recently purchased my first couple of more expensive (~$200) hides because I've had such great luck buying cheap hides from Maverick (Horween seconds, especially but they frequently have good sale prices on some other stuff), and if you follow Acadia leather on instagram (https://www.instagram.com/acadialeather/?hl=en) they run flash sales almost every day on a wide variety of (generally chrome-tanned) hides that are generally very good quality and consistency.
If you want to work with exotic materials like croc or something like Shell Cordovan or specific leather from a given tannery (Walpier Buttero, or Badalassi Carlo Minerva Box and pueblo, or Waprolux, the material can definitely get very expensive very fast, but there's little need to jump to something like these right out of the gate (Or for quite a while after, IMO)
https://i.imgur.com/4tczjmx.png
Shown here is a typical layout of tools used when working with leather mostly to make small goods. I'm quite new to Tildes, but I haven't seen much content here related to this particular craft.
When working with leather, some of the tools used are commonly found in your average household (Hammer, xacto/utility knife, ruler, scissors) and many that are specialized, used only (or largely) for leather work. Below I'll go into some detail about what each numbered item is, and what it's used for.
Spreader - This is a thin plastic spreader, primarily used for applying glue in a thin, uniform layer
Aquilim - This is a water based, thin viscosity glue which dries clear. Generally it is applied, given some time to get tacky, then pressed together with another coated piece which it will then adhere to, very tightly.
Seiwa Glue - Another water based, but thicker viscosity glue. Used similarly to Aquilim, but with less propensity for running or getting squeezed out of edges.
Seiwa Tokonole - This is a burnishing compound, similar to gum tragacanth. It's used to make it easier to create smooth, slick edges by applying some compound followed by friction - typically using a shaped piece of wood (Burnishing stick), a canvas rag (my preferred method) or really anything else that will get it heated up.
Layout guide - this was made for me by a fellow on the /r/leathercraft discord. It's used to approximate stitch spacing in the middle of a line - to close up gaps between two areas where the stitch holes have been made mostly.
Precision ruler - A small 6" ruler from GEI, marked in both MM and inches. Pretty self explanatory. I glued a thin backing layer on mine to prevent it from moving around
Indicated dividers - This is a pair of dividers with marks indicating up to 20mm for quick and easy small measurements or marking
Starrett dividers - More robust pair of unmarked dividers, used for marking and measuring - Precisely.
Bone Folder - This is a smoothed over piece of acrylic (traditionally made of bone as the name would imply) used for creasing over folds and slicking out scratches or mistakes.
Barry King Edge Beveler - Made by Barry King Tools, this is used to create a bevel, rounding off sharp corners or burrs from sanding on the grain side of leather. This is useful for edge finishing mostly
Kevin Lee french skiver - This tool is used for removing thin layers of leather from the back of a piece in order to thin it out. This is done so that the edges of things with many layers of relatively thick leather don't end up super thick, as well as for many other reasons.
Osbourne Creaser - This tool is used to make a creased line a set distance from the edge of a work piece, in the case of this one the crease is made roughly 1.5mm away from the edge. This creased line is then often used as a guide for stitches, or just decoration.
PaloSanto Awl - This is my favorite awl, with a handle made of lignum vitae and shaped so that the awl can be held while stitching. An awl is used in conjunction with pricking irons (more on those soon) or a pricking wheel. The irons or wheel are used to 'prick' holes in the surface of the leather, which are then gone over with the awl and pierced through all the way.
Kevin Lee and KS Blade Punch Irons - These are my main sets of chisels/irons - the difference is that chisels (the Stainless Steel Kevin Lee ones) are designed to be hammered all the way through the piece, whereas Irons like the black KS Blade Punch ones are intended to just mark the hole that will later be pierced using an awl. The general purpose of both tools remains largely similar - to mark or create the holes used for stitching.
Armytek Wizard Pro - This is my headlamp/work light. It runs on a rechargeable battery and allows me to work around the awful lighting in my room. The strap is also removable, and the light has a magnet in the tail cap which allows it to be placed down, used as a work light and moved around as necessary.
glass slicker - this is a piece of glass with rounded edges that have been given a very slick texture. This is used for smoothing things out to remove wrinkles/creases, pressing things down after gluing to ensure an even surface finish, and the flat surfaces can be used to skive on in a pinch (You want a surface that is as flat as possible to skive on, but this is sort of small for that)
Wax and Canvas - This is a puck made from a mix of beeswax and paraffin, used for coating un-waxed or lightly waxed threads to keep them from tangling or suffering from abrasion while stitching, but this is mostly only necessary for linen thread. The Canvas here is just used to remove excess wax from the thread.
John James Harness Needles - These are small, blunt-tipped needles that are used for the actual stitching, the type and size used depends on the size of thread and thickness of the leather
Thread - These spools are all Linen thread sold by RMLeathersupply, nothing super interesting or special here really.
Scissors - These are actually curved scissors, intended to be used for trimming fingernails. I use these for trimming thread flush, or cutting any small pieces that are best addressed using scissors, but many people have their own preferences for this.
Utility Knife - Just a plain Milwaukee utility knife, I like the Lenox Ti edge blades. This is my go-to knife for cutting out big chunks of leather, or doing anything abusive because of the convenience of being able to ditch the blades the moment they start to get dull. Leather is right up there with cardboard on the list of "Things that wear down blades fast" so the ability to swap blades for this is quite handy
Japanese Skiving Knife - This paint-scraper looking thing is used similarly to the french skiver above for thinning out bits of leather with the added advantage of being a more versatile tool (and cheap). By virtue of being a knife it can also be used instead of the utility knife above and the pattern knife below and many makers get by just fine using only this one knife.
Riven Knife - Made for me by my friend at Riven Knifeworks (https://www.instagram.com/rivenknifeworks/) this is a pattern knife, used for cutting out intricate details, shaping curves, making edges flush and just about any other kind of precision cutting. It's basically an X-acto knife on steroids.
Right Angle Ruler - This is just a basic square ruler from Home Depot, used to make sure my pieces are cut square.
Cutting mat - this is a "gem" self healing cutting mat from YelloTools and is by far superior to most of the typical (olfa, fisker etc) cutting mats in that it will never catch or chip your blades, and won't mark up your work the same way a scratched up hard plastic cutting mat would.
Pencils - These are just a couple of Rotring mechanical pencils, used for drafting and design, as well as sometimes to make marks on unseen parts of projects. The RapidPro has regular black lead in it, the 800 has blue lead for annotation and marking.
Calipers - 8" Mitutoyo Digital Calipers. More precision than I will ever need, but definitely not a tool I could live without.
If anyone has any questions about how stuff works or what something is, let me know!
Not so much a question of how it works, but I am curious... how expensive/time consuming a hobby is leathercraft to get in to? I ask because leather goods are often priced pretty insanely high and I am wondering if that is largely due to the cost of the materials themselves or if it's more an expertise + time required thing that drives the cost. If it's primarily material cost then :( since leathercraft has always interested me but I can't really afford to pick up another expensive hobby. ;)
p.s. Do you have an Etsy shop or anything? I would love to see some of your work.
The cost of entry to the hobby can vary pretty significantly depending on what exactly you hope to make, and how nice you want your tools and materials to be. Like I said at the start of the post, some of my most used tools are things that aren't necessarily leather specific, so a things like a rubber mallet or dead blow hammer, a good cork-backed ruler and either a utility knife or X-acto blade for cutting things out may already be laying around.
As far as leather specific tools, I would advise steering clear of Craftool/Tandy tools for the most part, as their quality is generally quite mediocre for the price. You can certainly start to learn the basics of saddle stitching with little more than the above mentioned stuff, a creaser, a cheap set of chisels, some needles and thread, but as you progress and learn more about improving and refining your work, things like beveled edges and creasing start to matter much more and that's where things start to add up.
In regards to the cost of leather goods, that exists for a few reasons, first as you mentioned the expertise and time required definitely drive the cost well up for most handmade leather goods, as well as the material costs associated, depending on what is being used. My theory in general though, is that leather goods are made to appeal to people who are interested in "rugged" or "Luxury" goods. The former are willing to pay more for something that will (Read: should, if materials and construction are on point) last for a very long time, without necessarily being concerned with overall "refinement". The latter are interested in status symbols in a nontraditional kind of way. Frequently such goods will utilize "exotic" materials like elephant, ostrich, crocodile, or ray skin, which all present their own unique challenges to work with in additional to significant upfront material costs. To both groups of people - they are considered investment pieces, something you buy once and cry once over in the case of the former, and something to one-up Mr. Jones and his new LV wallet to the latter.
Regarding an Etsy, I haven't set up a shop for my stuff just yet as this is still very much just a hobby for me, but here's an album of some random recent stuff I've done: https://imgur.com/a/COEqP9X
I've been looking into leathercraft for a while, and it's actually pretty crazy how quickly the leather itself can get expensive. Scrap, remnants, and cheaper grades aren't too cost prohibitive, but your projects become limited in size, scope, and consistency. Once you start looking at full-grain hides, expect to pay $200-300 (or more) for good stuff. My partner has a gorgeous half-hide that they'd found on sale for 'only' $200.
In regards to the cost of leather itself, it really depends. I'm still a hobbyist, and don't really sell things much so the overall 'grade' of the hide (Whether it is free of defects such as scars, range marks, brands etc) Doesn't matter that much, as long as the dye is consistent. I generally make small stuff like wallets, pouches, and slips so it's pretty easy to cut around larger or more obvious defects for the most part. I've honestly only very recently purchased my first couple of more expensive (~$200) hides because I've had such great luck buying cheap hides from Maverick (Horween seconds, especially but they frequently have good sale prices on some other stuff), and if you follow Acadia leather on instagram (https://www.instagram.com/acadialeather/?hl=en) they run flash sales almost every day on a wide variety of (generally chrome-tanned) hides that are generally very good quality and consistency.
If you want to work with exotic materials like croc or something like Shell Cordovan or specific leather from a given tannery (Walpier Buttero, or Badalassi Carlo Minerva Box and pueblo, or Waprolux, the material can definitely get very expensive very fast, but there's little need to jump to something like these right out of the gate (Or for quite a while after, IMO)