Klara

In a pinch: What about scissors?

@Constabulary Can't remember: Have I already told you about https://armastore.eu/ ? I figure they should sell similar things to college-sewing, but are located in Estonia, i. e. EU. I bought some Kai scissors from them a few years ago - good, fast service. Sadly they don't pay me for saying so...

Great Work! But is there really a market for dojo bags for several hundred dollars? For I'm guessing that's what your time adds up to... Beautiful photography too, by the way!

I was going to suggest dog collars as well. The leather might work for valet trays (but I only have 3 mm leather, so I can't be sure) if you cut a grooce where it needs to bend. Also bags, if you have thinner leather for the gusset (see picture). Dice cups, or desk organizer cups. Boxes of all sorts. Heavy-duty bracelets. Bondage gear.

I hope Ron will answer that himself, as his very clear statement rather surprised me.

You are saying you are selling DDP? Whatever the destination country? This is an international forum...

Creepy but great!

Have you managed to download the book? For me the links go nowhere and the "description" below the picture is highly suspicious (complete nonsense). I was hoping to maybe find it on German Gutenberg project, but no luck... Amazon Germany has quite a few pages preview though: https://www.amazon.de/Das-Sattler-Riemer-Täschner-Handwerk/dp/374189883X?asin=374189883X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Yes, I do appreciate the tip, thank you! I put it immediately on my wishlist, even though I don't exactly need a textbook on what a master saddler needed to know over a hundred years ago. (Historical note: In Germany, and other European countries, you couldn't/can't simply set up shop in a traditional trade when you feel like it. You need(ed) to do a few years of apprenticeship, at the end of which you passed your journeyman exam which allowed you to work in a master's shop. After again a few years you could do your masterpiece, pass another exam, obtain the title of master and then set out on your own. Some of these rules have survived till today, but I don't know details.)

Exactly what I thought. I figured I'd rather spend time on learning how to use an awl than lots of money on the search for the perfect pricking iron. @tsunkasapa Your house must be really empty. And how did you get your post online?

I have a friend who thinks the same way. She went to buy an electric kettle and came home without one, because they were all made in China. Even European companies produce where labour is cheap... That said, at least some times (possibly most times, but I only have one example) there is a difference between cheap things off Aliexpress and almost the same once bought from a reputable shop: Today my new pricking irons arrived which cost about a third of what I paid here. They look the same, down to the marking of the distance between the tines (of course it's a different number). But the tines are not polished. Which I saw on the photos, but as I use pricking irons only for marking the stitches, not for punching through the leather I figure it won't matter.

For me electric machines are a completely different game. I think this discussion is more about box cutter vs. head knife and no-name tools vs. AbbeyofEngland vs. Barry King and Doldoki. And the thing with (some) tools from Aliexpress is that they cost so little money (even if in my searches it's a bit more than in the first post) that you can't lose a lot on resale, or if you don't resell it's not a problem either. (Not to mention that I have a hard time letting go of things because I always think I might need them again one day. Last year showed that Marie Kondo is wrong...) If AbbeyofEngland sells an adjustable creaser for £ 35, and Aliexpress one that looks identical for € 12 - why would I buy from Abbey? Just so there is a brand symbol on it? (I'm in the EU, so logistics are the same whether I buy from England or China. ) But then that's not the cheapest creaser on Aliexpress, either. And I have some experience by now and watched some videos and seen this creaser being used by somebody I respect. If I had discovered Aliexpress a few months ago, heaven knows what I would have ended up with. Squid61 said it: Problem is only finding good advice...

Needn't be. Seriously, taking useful pictures (works of art is different) is much easier than leatherwork. I think my above advice is almost it with camera phones. (Get your subject to fill the picture would be another one, but you do that already.)

OT I understand, but I am shocked: I really thought Harrisville was the very top of the line! Didn't they cooperate with Peter Collingwood on the rug loom? (My Glimakra Ideal isn't ideal either, but I got it for very little money from a friend.

Very nice martingale! And as you don't need to count your work time, considering you made it to fill your time while in quarantine, it should have turned out quite a bit less expensive than the over euro 200 for the inspiration. Do you want a tip for the photos? The horse looks small because of the wide-angle lens in your camera phone. The easy solution is to take the picture from the side, standing facing the horse's shoulder.

Completely with you on the last paragraph, I don't have top of the line power tools either (even supermarket stuff sometimes works well enough for my purposes). Regarding the leather tools we should distinguish between cheap as in badly made and cheap as in low-cost. I'm sure there's some crap tools somewhere that are just not useable. I had my doubts about the very cheapest creasers on Aliexpress - they looked as if they'd bend if I pushed a bit hard. On the other hand, I don't consider "not holding an edge" a fault in a knife. As long as it's the sort of steel that is sharp again after a few strokes on stone and strop. I have Vergez Blanchard and Osborne because they sell the blade on its own, so I have several blades but only one handle. The smallest Seiwa was out of stock for a long time, I agree the other two are a bit wide (and I feel VB is too soft - it's the only awl blade where the tip bent over, I believe without falling on the floor). Probably should make another trip to the shop, but they are so bad for my bank account... However, for beginners I believe the most important thing is to know what they want to do. You could spend your life tooling belts, riveting the buckles (or putting snaps) and you wouldn't need any sewing equipment at all. Whereas I love sewing and need my rivet setter mostly for rhinestones

Not my experience. Because it's rarely the tool, which is a lesson taught by a farrier some 20 years ago. When we admired his work, complained our nails always bent wrong, joked that his pro hammer must make the difference he took each of our hammers and continued to work like before. More recently I've earned my money spinning wool, and while there are unuseable handspindles and wheels around, I still have and use and cherish (it's no longer being produced) the very first spinning wheel I bought, which was the cheapest on the market (though still from a reputable company). Getting back to leather work: I am still using most of the € 20 kit off Amazon: Diamond stitching chisels - do the job (and they alone are worth the money). The groover works after honing, the bevelers are so so, no doubt because I haven't put enough work in. Nothing wrong with the burnisher either, I mostly use it with nylon cloth around it, so who cares about wood quality or finish. In my local leather shop the sales lady let me try a Barry King awl to compare with a Seiwa. Yes, the difference is huge, the Barry King glides through the leather much more easily. But the price difference is huge as well, easily a few hours work worth, so I can spend some time honing a "cheap" awl blade. (If you want to call Osborne and Vergez Blanchard cheap... They are far under € 10, in any case.) @Danne If your post is meant as a counter argument to the tool chapter in Nigel Armitage's book, then I agree completely. It's ridiculous to expect a beginner to spend several hundred dollars/pounds/euros on tools before he's discovered whether he even likes leatherwork. But it's not as easy/cheap as you make it out to be. Firstly, you can only buy from Aliexpress if you know exactly what you need as the descriptions are mostly useless. Secondly you need to be prepared to wait - the very cheap stuff doesn't have 10-day delivery. Most beginners are keen to start NOW. Finally, Armitage does have a point: With cheap tools you are never quite sure whether the problem is you (in most cases) or the tool (which does happen). In any case, I don't regret at all that after doing a first project with the kit from Amazon (and a very old awl I had lying around from my grandmother, and some sewing needles I had ground the point off) I made a trip to the nearest leather shop to buy decent tools there. Still bottom of the line in most cases, but I trust the shop not to sell any crap.

If you just paint on the Tokonole it won't do anything, it's the rubbing that's important.

I like it! Took a few tries to figure out the length of the slit (here I have 3 mm leather, 2 cm wide, and the slit is 5 cm from rhe end and 8 cm long). I particularly appreciate the double thickness of leather at the snap hook

I've read that you need to heat the creaser for chrome tanned leather, and JH Leather works with bridle leather and a hot creaser as well. I don't know because mine has only just arrived - I didn't feel the need for one at the beginning. Sadly, the above prices are based on fond memory and no longer true. The cheapest skiving knife I find on leathercrafttools.com is $ 5, plastic handle with replaceable blade (looks like it might last about two cuts). The one shown in the picture is available from Aliexpress, but at more than $ 2. The pictured wing divider costs $ 20 in Japan... Of course, you don't absolutely need a wing divider if you have a 5 in one groover/edge beveller tool. And one might not even need edge bevelers if one rolls the edges... Awls are missing as well in the above list - I need 4: small, medium, large, curved. And round, but I had that already... The tools one needs depend on the work one wants to do - I'm making dog collars, so I need hole punches and hardware. I also prefer knives with a curved blade, means € 20 for the cheapest head knife. And so on... It would be nice, though, if there was a beginner-friendly list of which tools and supplies are needed for which type of work. I may have spent a bit too much on (cheap) tools, but I'm using all of it, I believe. However, I've also bought quite big amounts of leather, thread, edge paint, etc. which I find less useful than I thought...

Have you tried progressively finer sandpaper to get the loose fiber off? My shop says to rub only in one direction... And then Tokonole or similar to glue the fibres together and lots of elbow grease for polishing.

Are you trying to make it look worn or are you trying to get the worn parts off? To me the black stuff looks like plastic-coated split leather (is that the term for the lower layer of a hide that gets a new, thin man-made top layer stuck on after the top grain leather has been split off?) I've bought that stuff by mistake and wouldn't dream of trying to imitate it with some nice top grain veg tan...

I'm not sure I could see whether a blade is 55, 60, or 65 degrees - 30 degrees per side is good enough for me (I never neither the too nor the intention to measure precisely). What surprises me is another point of these instructions, and several videos: In the article from long ago the author insisted that sharpening is done in one direction only, namely as if one wanted to cut thin slices off the stone. My knife-making friend does the same thing, but it seems that's not all that important after all?

Thanks, @jasj! Having the name helps! @Tugadude You rock! Gulf knot starts at about 4:56 Another video with better camera placement:

Thanks for the offer , but between the info here and Jim Linnel's videos I should get somewhere without example. I'm just waiting for the tools to arrive...