ElNino

Leatheroo, Cheers mate, I absolutely agree with you there are few things worse than working with cheap tools (other than tossing them in the corner and buying the tool you should have bought in the first place) I live in Spain so the shipping and duties can be quite brutal. I just had a very expensive go around with UPS but from what I understand they are notorious for their "brokerage" fees. I just ordered some books and I'm having them shipped USPS so we'll see how that pans out. Cheers, Chrid

Luckily a tight budget is making me do a lot more research than usual before buying any tools. From the list I have found the names of some toolmakers that definitely make some very fine tools, I am trying very hard to make the right choices when buying any tools so I would appreciate any guidance regarding your favorite tools and the reason for choosing that particular maker. These are some of the names I have heard you talking about, I am also looking for website and or contact information for them please feel free to add others that make fine quality tools. Robert Beard Vergez Blanchard Bob Douglas Barry King Norm Lynds Danny Marlin Chuck Smith Cheers, Chris

Back Again, I would like to thank everybody on the forum for doing such a great job. I spent a good part of the weekend scouring the site and I am in awe and mightily impressed with the incredible artistry, skills and work that is out there. This is the beginning of my learning curve and I am very happy to have found this list so early in the game. Work wise I expect to be lurking for a while, I have ordered a few books and will slowly start building up the tools I need. My reading here this weekend has already saved me from some bad decisions in tooling and the budget is tight. So thank you all again, I look forward to hopefully not too far in the future being able to produce some work to share with you. Cheers, Chris

Hi All, I am at the beginning of a lifelong ambition to become a leatherworker, as of the moment I am not sure which direction I will take as I learn more I guess I'll figure that out I am living on the south cost of Spain so I don't think leather is going to be too difficult to source. What I would really appreciate is some help in where to buy tools used or new. I have discovered TandyLeather, but for example a friend sent me a swivel knife as a gift, UPS shipping was almost $40 and on this end duties were $5 and the UPS "brokerage" fee was $25 so my first question to the list is "where can I go to get decent prices on good quality tools and how can I ship them without paying more than the tool costs in duties and shipping?" Cheers, Chris