leathertropes

Thank you all for the welcome! @PastorBob Grabbed a granite slab from a local place for $5 when I was starting out. I started with some stamping/tooling on thick leather, which is an art unto itself, and realized that might not be the way I want to go as I don't think I am artistic enough for it. Basket/geometric stamping might be more up my alley but I am certainly no Don Gonzalez! So that means I have a mallet already. Thanks for the reminder on the using round items for corners. Are utility/xacto knives preferred? I have one and extra blades. One question I keep asking myself is should I buy "real" knives that need re-sharpening, or stick with disposable blades? I like the idea of when a blade gets dull, just snap it off and wham bam thank you mam we're back in business. But... then I see the Chartermade xacto style blade and I think that's got to be better in the long run, but it, plus the handle, is like $75 and I think that's not a necessary expenditure right now if i can get by with my cheap xacto (none of the other Chartermade blades speak to me, maybe they would if I had the dough). Looks like it's onto stitching tools. @chuck123wapati Good advice, thank you. I'm not totally unfamiliar with noobs coming onto forums and asking the same questions that have been asked hundreds of times so I will definitely take the approach of "utfse". Yeah the $250 (Crimson) stitching chisels are probably not where I need to start. I can see starting cheaper. I do think Pastor Bob is right though, on 'when necessary, buy quality'. I think I read on this forum "Buy once, cry once." and that has always stuck with me. The thought of constantly replacing cheap tools makes me cringe. Regarding hand stitching, I can see it viable for smaller goods (watch straps, wallets, dog collars) but hand stitching an entire belt seems like it would take forever. But like I said I do have time and I do understand the appeal of it to the customer. Then again not everything has to be stitched. Dog collars, leashes, and some belts can all be a single piece of leather, if you pick the right leather. That, and color bleed are some other areas I need to read up on more. Rivets and snaps are definitely in my near near future, along with a strap cutter. I also need to read up on glues, more specifically water based vs what I can get down the road at Lowes. I have Atom wax or balm I think it's called, from Fiebings; also Angelus acrylic finisher. Maybe I need some tan-kote, again more reading needs to be done on my part. I can be more resourceful with other things as well. I have a lathe and some maple so I was going to turn my own burnisher. If I get a sewing machine, yeah it would definitely take time to pay for itself. I was also going to do canvas/leather bags, so having some extra linen/canvas laying around would be useful for edge finishing. @bruce johnson I need to do more market research, absolutely. Ideally in a perfect world, I would keep a stock of production goods - belts, wallets, stuff like that - ready to go while I made one-offs of custom bags or purses and stuff like that. But that's in a "perfect world" haha. Man, typing all this out makes me realize I haven't done nearly enough research. Turning a pipe dream into reality... I will look at that article as it sounds right up my alley, also the book regarding pricing. I've heard of one "formula" on how to price goods, but figured that it will be different in the beginning vs later on. I kind of thought, perhaps naively, that the pricing would kind of come natural, but as I type that out I can see where that might be a pitfall. I really see no way around a sewing machine. You mentioned a single stitching machine, would you recommend that as an intermediary to an actual machine, or just save up and get the real deal? Again: buy once, cry once? I've been looking at Cobra/Cowboy machines and their equivalents - or perhaps I should say their Juki counterparts??? Small to medium duty as I don't see anything too heavy duty in my future. Although ironically I do live in a rural area that might be more open to heavier duty goods. Again, a place I need to research more. I'll look into both magazines mentioned and start reading more on here, sifting through the useful information and the stuff that might not be pertinent to me. Thank you all for your info and questions! It's apparent I have a lot more reading to do and actually start making some things as I believe the old saying that there is no substitute for experience. So thank you guys again for sharing some of your experience with me.

Hello all! I’ve been lurking for a while, although not nearly long enough (always more reading to do), but I figured it was time to jump in and join the action! Which is actually my first thought, how should I ‘jump in’? So far I have invested minimal money: some basic stamping tools, leather scraps, couple of dyes and “finishes”, gum trag, one edge beveler - that sort of stuff. I also have 3 double shoulders from W&C that I picked up on a special that are begging to be turned into something. The list of things I don’t have is of course larger. I actually started listing things and then realized I pretty much don’t have anything that wasn’t already listed above. So I’d say I’m about 2% of the way there . Perhaps most notably missing is nothing to attach leather to other bits of leather, e.g. pricking irons and awl, stitching chisels, sewing machine. I also feel naked without a strap cutter but perhaps that’s a topic for another time. I’m stuck scratching my head wondering how to continue, or more specifically where to invest money to get my feet of the ground and get up and running. I can already here some of the questions being typed so I’ll try to preemptively answer a few, knowing full well that I’ll forget something and then you guys, if willing, will let me know what I missed. Q: Business or hobby? A: Hobby to start - making things for myself and friends and family, that sort of stuff. But I would like to be successful enough to turn it into a business if possible. Even if not a fully fledged business then hopefully make some money on the side, or at least enough to have it pay for the hobby side of it. Business though would actually be the end goal. (Is there room for any more leather businesses or am I coming into this at an ok time? Or would I be wasting my time?) Q: What do you want to make? A: Everything !!! All joking aside I’d probably start with some easy stuff like strap goods before moving to something a little more difficult like card holders then wallets. Eventually I would like to make bigger things like purses and bags. Not necessarily have a “speciality” per se, but be able to make anything reasonable with the right leather, tools, and knowledge at my disposal. If a niche were to come naturally, I wouldn’t lean away from it though. Q: Money situation? A: I’m not made of money. I’m currently taking care of some health issues and am not working so money is kind of tight. I’d like to spend it as wisely as possible. I do, however, have time on my hands. Now would also be a good time to state the obvious: I do not expect to become a master leather craftsman overnight and be set up with a shop tomorrow with a line around the building. My question to you all is the money, where should I invest my money? It seems like a goal would be to obtain a sewing machine. I have it in my mind that what would make the difference between a hobby and a hobby where I might make some money, is a sewing machine. I know that thinking that way might actually be my first mistake; is it? Intuition is telling me to start smaller. Gosh darn that intuition! I feel like the natural course would be to buy some stitching chisels, build a stitching pony, and start saddle stitching away. Pay my dues as it were, and only after countless hours mastering the saddle stitch, then, and only then, can I even think about getting a sewing machine. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places but when I see a set of stitching chisels for $250, I am left wondering why I wouldn’t just save up and put that money towards a machine. I mean that’s 10% of a new Cobra Class 26! Am I getting ahead of myself? Actually I know that answer to be a yes because I always overthink things and then nothing ever gets done because I never leave the planning stage for fear that my plan is wrong or misguided somehow. So I guess that’s as good a place as any to leave it for now! How would you guys and gals do it if you were in my shoes trying to get break into the biz, or if you could start over how would you do it? Or not do it at all? TLDR; I’m a noob wondering if trying to make it in this business these days is a fool’s errand? If it’s not, how would you go about it? Start as quickly and cheaply as possible or save up for some gear that would help in the long run?

Hello @KathrynRose! Are these still available, and if so do you have any pictures?