makiba

WOW!!!!! ConradPark - Thank you so much!!! I've read through your post a number of times and the details, the things I wouldn't have thought to ask are just amazing. (I was wondering about forks!) The photos as well - that kind of beautiful stitching will be life goals for me :-D Greatly appreciate you taking the time. I'll come back to your notes often over the coming months and years! Thanks everyone for the amazing tips! Cheers to you all! Such a great community here!

Thanks very much everyone! Tinker Tailor I'll look into making a clamp of some kind - the ones I saw were a hundred bucks or so, thought I should at least try a few stitches first :-) Really nice work snubbyfan! thanks for posting the pics. Nice stamp too. I'm also hoping to just bit by bit buy some quality tools. I'll try and get a hold of that book Black Dogg And thanks zululdog and byggyns - it's really helpful to see what others recommend or use themselves - hard to make decisions without this info at the beginning. Have a good weekend everyone, thanks again!

Thanks Matt, really appreciate all the info!

I'm a beginner looking to make a small, simple bag. I've watched a few video tutorials and it seems in terms of tools - if I just buy an awl, that might be all I need to get started - is this correct? I've got some standard, heavy needles as well. I ask as I was looking at the www.GoodsJapan.com page for awls and it says the awl should be used with a stitching punch - I thought the awl was used to punch the stitching hole so I'm a bit confused what a stitching punch is? Do I need one? I'm also confused as to what size to buy. I have some medium heavy leather for a small bag - would a small or medium sized awl suit this? I'm aiming to buy as few tools as possible, but prefer good quality tools - from what I've seen on the site Blanchard or GoodsJapan should be ok? Is it impossible to do without a stitching clam to hold the leather? Thanks very much for your help!