DRA6N

I have a series of paperback books I really love. I would really like to know how to go about leather binding them to preserve them and give them more of an aged look - especially over the course of many years. Have any of you bound an existing paperback book? What are some techniques for giving the book an aged look? What should I do for the covers? The books I want to bind are a long series of fantasy novels.

I would like to dig this post out of the grave as I am curious about leather guilds in phoenix. I am located in west phoenix and I have tried looking them up on google but I haven't found a thing.

I am new to leatherworking and I am just looking for a good set of tools for a beginner. I am avoiding the tandy kits and trying to get a good set of tools to start with. Let me know what you have. I am also a graphic designer and can make you designs for your stamps etc if you'd like that as well.

thanks for the welcome. I love to tinker and love the idea of keeping a dying art alive. Ill keep an eye out for the post and check out the pound-o-boards

Hey all, new here to the forums and to leatherworking as well. Leatherworking is something I have always wanted to try out but never got my feet wet. I've watched a ton of youtube videos and seen people work on projects in person enough to get an idea of how certain things work. Ultimately I want to be able to make medieval/renaissance armor but that's quite a ways down the road. I saw the "Ultimate" kit from the Tandy store and thought that would be a good starting point. Yeah it has a lot of western flowery patterns and designs which I'm not really into but I figured it would at least get me going with how the tools work and get down the process of prepping the leather for tooling, cutting, dyeing etc. From there I can work on making similar projects (wallets, belts, bags, etc) but with my own tooled designs. Finally I figured I can give basic armor pieces a shot like bracers, spaulders, arm bands, as well as a slew of other less intricate items. One of my main concerns is that I live in an apartment and I feel that the constant hammering from the tooling would drive my neighbor insane. I don't have a large table to work on and it would resonate the sound even more if I did anyway. I thought about getting a granite slab and just using it on the floor or something since I'm on the bottom story. All else fails, its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission I know it's going to be a long journey but I am willing to take my time with it and learn the craft. I hope to learn quite a bit from these forums as well!

Hey all, new here and new to leatherworking. I actually dont even own anything related to leatherworking (yet). I was looking at places that sell leather covers for my flask and as I dug deeper, I thought about making one myself.. I stumbled upon the world of leatherworking! I stopped by Tandy today and they showed me around, taught me a lot about the different kinds of leather, and how certain things are done like molding, dying, stiching and stamping. I even got to stamp some scraps and play around with a swivel knife. I am pretty excited to start this. I am leaving the country very soon to korea for a year so I am not sure how much stuff I can get shipped to me there. I am going to purchase the deluxe starter kit soon from Tandy as it has some neat beginner projects and a DVD to follow. Looks like it touches on cutting, molding, dying, tooling etc. I think it would be a good start. This looks to be a great hobby to pass the time by while I'm stuck over there, and I may even make a little profit from some projects. I hope to learn a lot and gain more inspiration from these forums! - Rob