OK - I know what leather is. But I don't really understand the different kinds, how they're prepared, and what is good for what kinds of projects.
I've been more and more fascinated by leathercraft and wanted to get started. So I ordered some scrap leather from a dealer on eBay, and a few tools. The leather was finished black, which I wanted for my project, but I honestly don't remember exactly what kind it is or how it was prepared. I was expecting strong, pliable, workable leather like for the kinds of projects I see on this board, that had simply been pre-dyed. What I got was some kind of hard, barely flexible stuff that was almost like linoleum on the skin side and so raggedy it fell apart like fluff on the flesh side. It won't absorb water, won't take tooling except somewhat vaguely, and doesn't seem like it can be formed or molded. If you bend it too far it cracks. I tried to use some to make a box-stitched cellphone case. Partly because the leather was so unworkable and partly because my skills are basically Cro-Magnon, it came out looking like a tiny, rhomboid, primitive-handicraft suitcase with a nearly-horizontal belt loop on the back. Stubbornly I wore it on my belt anyway, trying to pretend that that was what I wanted it to look like; my boss asked me if I wanted him to give me an old cellphone case he had that wasn't so bulky. I noticed that every time I entered a room, everyone I was speaking to would be staring at my hip. (No - I'm not posting pictures.) I tried a couple of other projects and they were just as bad. I can barely push an awl through this leather, so I took to drilling needle-holes in it with a Dremel tool. Now my apartment is filled with toxic-smelling fluffy black leather dust and I have a few primitive-handicraft items scattered around with ragged lines of uneven stitches in them and random gouges on them where the drill bit skittered across the hard black surface. (No - I'm still not posting pictures.)
I've got a couple of the Stohlman books, but I can't seem to do the things he describes as basic skills - my awl won't go through this rock-hard leather; the beveling tool just tears the surface into a ragged edge like ripped cardboard; the stitching wheel hardly marks the surface and I can't make holes in it at even intervals anyway. Thinking I was just using the wrong leather, I ordered another set of scraps, from a different eBay dealer, that appeared to be more like the tooling leather I see used on projects here. What I got was a box of very soft-finished, thin, pebble-grained brown leather that seems like it would be good for small bags or pouches, or heavy gloves, but not stiff enough for molded items or cases, which is what I had in mind. So now I've got about 20 pounds of two different kinds of random scrap that I can't really use for anything and don't really understand, as well as several finished projects that would have gotten me thrown out of summer camp if I had done them that badly at the age of 10. Something's wrong here. I see other people posting "First Project" pictures on this Forum that look magnificent; my first project turned me into the Dwight Schrute of my job site. I don't know what to do to improve.
I realize the biggest problem is my own ignorance. I keep trying to get usable leather on the cheap without really knowing what I'm doing, so I order the wrong things. I see certain major suppliers mentioned on this board, and I should probably just order from them. But even there I don't really know what the different products are or how to pick the one that would be right for whatever I'm trying to do. (I also realize I'm probably trying projects that are too hard for first-time efforts. But I don't really need a key fob, and bad-ass biker wristbands are sort of frowned on where I work.) Aside from needing better skills (and better tools, a real workshop, and more patience), I need to know what this stuff actually is that I'm working with, and how to choose and use it.
Can anybody point me to a simple, comprehensive explanation of the different kinds of leather, what their characteristics are, what they're called, and what kinds of projects require what kinds of leather?
And, did others have the experience of discovering that the blandly simple instructions Stohlman gives ("push the awl through the leather to make the needle-hole, then feed the stitching needles through it from both sides simultaneously") require a ten-minute struggle for each stitch and then turn out to be impossible anyway?
Is there a clear, foolproof set of guidelines a newbie can follow that will actually, reliably, produce an acceptable product using a specific set of tools and materials that takes the guesswork out of it? (Something above the level of the Tandy Scout-camp stitch-a-wallet kits, I mean? Something that would help you design and execute your own projects, but without flailing blindly as to materials and techniques.)
Other hints gladly welcomed as well. Thanks.
