Tools for Leatherwork

With a minimum of tools and experience you can create a wide variety of personalized leather products that will give you years of service. But remember, although leather-crafting basics are fairly simple, leatherwork requires time and patience, and your results will reflect the care you use in all phases of the project. It is also a craft that can accommodate the most artistic and complex variations-one that's almost impossible to outgrow.

Although there are many leathercrafter's stores, one I recommend is The Leather Factory of Fort Worth, Texas, which has outlets throughout the country. They provide a vast variety of uniform, quality products, including different grades of leather, at reasonable prices. Call 1-800-433-3201 for the toll-free number of their store nearest to you. I will be referring to different tools and related products throughout this chapter. For ease of identification, whenever I mention a tool I will include The Leather Factory part number with each item. (Note: There are many grades and prices for leather-working tools. I've referenced the most cost-effective for the beginner.)

The first category of tools the leatherworker needs to be familiar with is cutting tools. Generally, the process will be to trace a pattern on the leather and then cut it out in some fashion. Sometimes the best way to cut out your pattern is with a special leather knife; other times special leather shears are used. The rule of thumb is to use a knife for heavier leather; a shears for lighter leather. A utility knife with replaceable blades can be used in place of a leather knife, but the leather knife is more solidly constructed and tends to work better, especially when cutting thick leather.

The Leather Factory cutting tools I recommend are their leather shears (#3051-00) and beveled edge skiving knife (#48490-000). You'll also see in catalogs or at leather supply stores a knife with a rounded blade that looks something like a half-moon. This is something you might want to invest in later, but you may not need it at all, depending on how much and what type of cutting you do.

Stick to projects that use lighter-weight leather when working with younger children so that they can use shears. Older children can learn to use a leather knife, especially if a template or other guide, such as a steel rule or square, is used. The project I've chosen for you to do in this chapter is best cut out with shears.

Another specialized type of leather cutting tool is a strap cutter, which is used to create uniform leather straps for belts and purse handles. The strap cutter is a wooden tool made up of two ruled crossbars that slide through a handle. The bars house a replaceable blade at one end and a thumb screw on the handle is used to set the desired cutting width. Cutting is done by inserting the leather between the crossbars, flush against the handle, and the tool is pulled to cut a strap of uniform width.

Stitching Leather

Leather can be sewn by machine or by hand. Leather sewing machines are special heavy-duty machines and are too expensive for the average home crafter, so you'll most likely be stitching your leather projects by hand.

Stitching leather requires some specialized tools that you'll want to know about. To create uniformly spaced holes in the leather through which a needle and thread will be drawn, you need first to mark them in some way so that they're evenly spaced, and then punch the holes through the leather. One method for marking the leather for punching is with a stitching wheel (sometimes called an overstitch spacer). A stitching wheel (recommended: #8091-00) is usually made with a wooden handle and a metal shaft that holds a removable wheel with small dull points evenly spaced apart. The wheels come in several different sizes, but the most commonly used are five, six, and seven holes per inch.

Another method for making evenly spaced stitching holes is to create a groove even with the edge with a tool called a stitching groover, which is a tool with a wooden handle and a long thin shaft that holds an L-shaped piece at an angle that both measures and gouges the leather in one step. A stitching punch is then fit in the groove and struck with a rawhide mallet, then moved along the groove until all the stitching holes are punched. A stitching punch is a heavy metal tool that looks something like a fork with thick tines. The type used for creating holes for the most commonly used leather stitch, the saddle stitch, is called a diamond hole punch, and comes as both a single-prong or a four-prong punch, with different spacing available.

A tool similar to the stitching punch is used to produce the larger holes needed for threading lacing through. This is called a thonging punch and is used in the same way as a stitching punch.

A final way of making both stitching and lacing holes is by using an awl, after marking the holes first with a stitching wheel. An awl is a small, pointed tool for making holes in wood, leather and other materials, and is something that's handy to have in the home toolbox, even if you're not planning on working with leather. The awl is pushed partially through the leather to make a smaller hole for sewing and all the way through to create the larger holes needed for lacing. This is a less accurate way of getting your holes punched, but gets the job done, nevertheless.

For the actual process of hand-sewing leather, you can use two different kinds of needles. Thin leather is sewn with a glover's needle, which has a sharp point. A harness needle is used for thicker leather. Both kinds of needles come in different diameters and so does the thread. You'll want to match your needle and thread diameters, which are then matched to the diameter of the holes you're punching to accept the stitches.

There are two different kinds of thread for stitching leather: nylon or waxed linen. My husband, who is a professional leatherworker, prefers waxed linen thread, because he says it doesn't stretch and it doesn't cut into the leather.

To do most kinds of lacing, you'll need a special two-prong lacing needle that actually holds the flat lacing between two metal strips that wedge in place against the prongs.

There are several stitches you can use for sewing and lacing leather. Sewing stitches most commonly used include the single running stitch, the double running stitch, and the saddler's stitch.

There are special tools for stamping and carving leather, plus tools you'll need for dyeing, painting, and finishing leather, which we'll cover later in this chapter. But now that you have some basic familiarity with the leather-crafting tools used for cutting and stitching, let's move on to the basics of choosing the right leather and then tackle your first project.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crafts with Kids © 1998 by Georgene Lockwood. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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