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Weaver Leather Supply has a lot of information on its site. Check this from them: The Leather Element: Thread, Needles & Chisels - YouTube

All of these you will get in a kit on Amazon. Amazon has a large selection to choose from. As I mentioned above, I started leatherwork in Jan.,2023 with an Amazon kit and do not regret it a bit. I got all the basics for a song and am building up a collection of good instruments as needed. Until then, the items from the kit worked fine. I still use most of them. A Stanley knife works for cutting most leathers. The stitching chisels I received in my kit are fine and I still use them. Not even needed to sharpen the as yet. Ditto the awl. You can use a woodworking one at a pinch. Edge beveler was not too sharp but I sharpened it. You can get thin whetstones in Amazon for a song. Tokonole is very useful; glue - I use gorilla glue and it works fine for me. Edge paint I only started using recently - I used plain dye earlier. It was fine but if you want to use those high-end leathers, you will need to practice with edge paint - it is not as easy as it looks. All the videos on YouTube use thick leather with straight edges. Very few bags have only straight edges or are so thick! At least in my experience! They would be so heavy if very thick! Besides, it takes practice to cut smooth edges that will paint or burnish well. I started with acrylic leather paint to learn and then bought the actual leather edge paints. For burnishing, I discovered that more than a wooden burnisher, a piece from an old, cut up pair of jeans works very well, in fact works best. It is khaki in color so no risk at all of color transfer. My kit included needles and thread as well which were fine for practice and learning. I bought a skiving knife off Amazon and had it sharpened with a man who sharpens it here for a couple of dollars, I kid you not! He is very good and that knife is very sharp indeed. X-acto knives also work very well for a good amount of the cutting and sharp kitchen scissors of course! And lighter to burn the thread once you start stitching. You can improvise a stitching pony. Plenty of YouTube videos to show that. But that is needed, otherwid=se stitching leather can become tedious. It is not very expensive to buy though. I would suggest buying plain leather, the least expensive, to practice cutting, stitching etc. until you gain some confidence. I saw those teaching videos too and it is not as easy as it looks! It takes ages to get satisfactory results and for high end items for loved ones, you will want that perfection even more. I practiced by making sheaths for every sharp instrument in the house! The type of leather does not matter much as long as it is veg-tanned. About leather, many stores have sales, either ongoing or at specific times each month when you can get good leather for very reasonable rates. They become difficult to resist sometimes. That's all I can think of to add from my recent newbie experience.

@AlZilla me too! It got me the basic things like mats, needles, etc. for a very reasonable price, that I still use. Other things I bought over time as I realized I needed them. @DesertLeather, that is an option for at least the basic items.

Thank you. I will check there.

Saffiano is available at a very reasonable rate right now at Springfierld leather but that is in the US. Since it is otherwise very expensive, you could talk to them and inquire about the rates for shipping to you. The total might still be more reasonable than buying it elsewhere and getting it shipped wherever you are, in or around Europe. By 'reasonable' I mean that they have some colors at $20 a piece of 10-16 ft. Check their site and look through it. Some Saffiano colors are more expensive but still cheaper than elsewhere.

Ahem. This is not reddit. This is leatherworker.net. You will find very helpful people here who will give you a lot of guidance.

@Cumberland Highpower you are evidently allergic to something in that leather. Have you tried to determine what exactly it is to which you are allergic? Is that the only one to which you have such a reaction?

Made these 2 flat caps for hubby. He has a woolen cap with a snap on the brim - this one: Please pardon the dog hair. (Our dog sheds enough to knit a cap from her fur, yearly.) I want to try my hand at making a similar one in leather. Does anyone know where I can get a pattern for this? I got the pattern for the ones I made from Dieselpunk.ro. He does not have the pattern that I now need and I could not find anything similar on Etsy.

@fredk I must look for such boxes.. Christmas is in a few months now. I love the rains, so lucky you! I did not know plants take moisture out of the air. I'll try that as well. Than you for that information.

@fredk LOL. Agree with the 'mental' part. What you say about Weaver makes sense. The fragrance was probably subtle. Anyway, their stock on display was not as much, per sq foot of the space as the Tandy stores I visit here. The sheer volume must surely make a difference. On a slightly different note, how do you keep your leather sealed? I live in a very humid area and am always worried that my leathers will get mildew or mold. So checking and airing each week is a chore, pleasant until now but could become tedious over the years as my collection grows. It is so humid here that the Damp-rid I place around the house, supposed to last 2 1/2 months, barely lasts a fortnight. (Damp-rid is, I think, rock salt in a hanging bag made of a thick paper through which water vapor can permeate. Attached to this bag on the lower end is a plastic bag into which the water drains.)

@Mulesaw, @Sheilajeanne I wish I knew how horses smell at different times of the year. Not been exposed at all.. evidently I missed a lot. @dikman I am familiar with black powder (gunpowder?) because of fireworks during festivals - smoky but wonderful! Hubby agrees. When I left Weaver Leather, I wondered, at first, why I felt dissatisfied. Then it struck me. I felt like I had been to an anonymous, large, beautiful store, not a leather store. Like a bakery without the fragrance of bread and cakes. We unconsciously associate scent with so many things, don't we?

@Handstitched that is so true. My father smoked and it never bothered me. He stopped soon enough and since then, I cannot stand the smell. Noses are fickle indeed. @BlackDragon, my sympathies!

@Handstitched everyone likes that smell, is it not? It is rather relaxing. Maybe it's because I find leatherworking relaxing as well. Or maybe it is something primal to which we all respond! Continuous exposure evidently decreases our sensitivity to that fragrance. I hope that takes a while yet, although the loss is probably gradual so I will not notice it. If one is away from leatherworking for a while, does the ability to smell it come back? Or is this loss permanent? I wonder.

Visited Weaver Leather Supply last week - Hubby had work in Ohio and I tagged along. Then we realized Weaver was just an hour away, so dropped in. Very friendly and helpful staff, knowledgeable as well. It was a pleasure talking to them. Best of all, they gave me whatever information I needed but did not try to sell me anything. So I could relax and browse. The showroom is beautiful, large and airy but, surprisingly, it did not have any leather fragrance at all. Hubby noticed that as well, since our home is redolent with the fragrance of the leather that I keep everywhere. They probably have some sort of air filters that freshen the air but also remove that familiar fragrance. I really missed it. Somehow, a leather store not smelling of leather leaves an unsatisfied feeling. Tandy on the other hand has that fragrance in spades. Just walking in is a delight as one is assailed with it.

@FarfarsYxa are you the seller of that pattern on Etsy? It looks very nice.

I'm glad all's well that end's well with MC. These days it is impossible to survive without a credit card however much one might want to do so. Is it possible that your card was hacked earlier and only used after a few days to take away suspicion from the person who hacked it?

It might be a good idea to get that card cancelled and request a new one without the tap feature. Better safe than sorry. Often, there are entire gangs involved in credit card fraud - once, mine was presented in Seoul, when I was in CT. I have no idea when the information was stolen and passed on. So you never know who will use it and when.

However, I am completely inexperienced in things electrical or mechanical, so it is not advisable, I think, to do something without some guidance. At this point, just the leatherwork is taking up all my time. So all other things are best left to others and I work with what I can get from outside. It is nice to get a proper caution like @fredk gave, as I sometimes think I am superwoman, as my daughter teases me, and try to do everything, which is not always advisable. It is very nice to get advice in every way from all of you. Back on topic, I have my soldering iron but still use the stove as it is faster and my daughter's birthday is next week, so rush orders! After that, I will relax and learn to use the iron and brass burnisher which I should receive by then, for the next project.

I know that this thread is several months old. But thought I would mention this: I have not had vinegaroon bleed earlier. But this time, used some old Tandy leather and tried to dye it with vinegaroon - a Herculean task as it just goes a bluish grey. Had to dye repeatedly, drying completely each time. Finally I tried dipping it in strong tea first. That helped a bit but when I wiped it clean after the vinegaroon and a water rinse, the color bled. It is possible that the result of the chemical reaction between the tannins and iron acetate does not stay absorbed in some leathers.

@chuck123wapati true. Thank you for that.

Sure I will. Only it will be a little while, as I have a dozen half-done projects which are all needed tomorrow - birthdays etc. Once those are completed, I will make this - it will be a fun, relaxing thing for myself.

Actually, I like the idea of the snaps. I will try that. The sticks, I have discovered, can get tangled and the bands - scrunchies or whichever is used, often pull put hair when getting them off. Then, getting the hair off them is a pain, never mind the loss of hair! What do other women do, I wonder.

@fredk thank you. That is a reasonable price. I found the same on Ebay US and will be ordering it today. You are right about them becoming more difficult to get. Just one or two sellers selling the brass ones; the rest sell the wooden ones. Same on Amazon.

@fredkI'm afraid I am completely ignorant about things electrical, mechanical etc., so cannot modify anything. But the soldering iron I just bought has a lowest temp setting of 80 so hopefully that should work. Besides, it has bad reviews that the temp soon stops going higher than about 90 so it would, hopefully, work for me. Let's see. Until then, the stove and lots of hand cream. I would love to get a brass burnisher like the one above. My search for this evening.

@fredk I do not use edge paint much either but this is soft chrome tanned leather and it just does not get burnished. So I have to paint the edges. I did not think of a pyrography instrument; do such machines have low enough temperatures? I will investigate that. I have just received my soldering iron. I did not have one earlier. Will try to use that too but I did wonder about using the stove. It makes everything so easy and fast and the leather does not have to be firm or medium-soft. Firm or even medium-soft leathers , of course, can be burnished, which I much prefer. That is a beautiful brass burnisher by the way. Is it yours?