Leatherwork Best Practices

[Leatherwork Best Practices]

Are there any methods in leatherworking that are balked at or taboo? For instance, I use a Hercules HRC-100 fabric cutter to cut my rawhide. I know it is not specifically designed to do so but it is functional and leather is one of the fabrics that it advertises that it can cut. Also, I use any old hand clamp, (recently been using Irwin Grips) to hold down a leather fold for belt buckles and such. They do not leave an imprint but again, is this seen as a taboo thing to do or more that if it works than it is completely fine.

I'm just curious how the leather community at large views methods like this.

[Leatherwork Best Practices]

I'm new to leatherwork so I was wanting to get some advice on a belt that I am working on. First off, when cutting my rawhide which I am doing while it is dry, I am also using a Hercules HRC-100 which is a powered fabric cutter but it is also more than capable of cutting up to 1" leather. Is this something that would be considered taboo? Also, when clamping my leather end where the buckle rests, I am just using a simple hand-clamp instead of leather clips. Again, is this adequate or another practice that is not suited for leatherwork? My thought is that using tools that were not necessarily designed for leatherwork but achieve the same result is perfectly fine but I wanted to see what experts in the space thought.