Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!

[Vikti]

Hit the local flea markets, you may be surprised as to what you'll find

Get some of the steel bandings that lumber yards use to hold wood together for shipping for clicker cutter blades or for general stiffening of your work. Usually, they'll point to where they keep them at and say have at it.

Someone moved out of my apartment complex a few days ago and maintenance threw out the tenants old dart board, I snagged myself a good, solid metal dart (about an $8 dart) pulled the fins off and now I have a good scratch awl.

A modified arbor press works pretty good for letter stamping

Stropping X-acto blades work good in a pinch if you forgot to pick up scalpel blades yesterday while you were near Hidecrafters

Occasionally asking for paper bags at the grocery store will give you some pattern paper

Damon

[esantoro]

Coffee, jelly, and peanut butter jars come in handy for dyes and glues. I tape the outside with masking tape to keep as much light out as possible.

The lids to these are also very useful for holding miniclips with felt for dying and beads of glue for when I just need to dab a bit of glue into tight places with a toothpick.

[Kani]

I like to go to Harbor Freight for some things.

got a magnetic bowl for around $1.99 to put screws and other tools in. Sure beats having to search for them.

You can also get some letter stamps there. Smaller ones.

I got a nice knife set there that wasn't expensive.

[tashabear]

File a flat on all round handled tools so they don't roll of the bench. Saves a bunch of rebuying.

These might help, for those of us who are too lazy to take a file to the tools: http://www.amazon.com/Maxi-Aids-Triangular..._bxgy_hpc_img_b

[Suze]

What do I always say Cuz?

There is a "second use" for EVERYTHING

you just have to find it....(And I think I was the one who sent her to the newspaper office in the first place)

While I don't "do" leather - I do craft (dollhouse minis) so I have been on the "lookout" for "things to make other things" for a long time.

(and that is why the house is FULL)

[MADMAX22]

Well I didnt have the extra money for a slicker right now (the glass piece for slicking down your leather before you carve it) so when I was at lowes I saw some of the counter top edge tiles, the ones that look like a L shape but long about 6" long. Well these things work pretty darn good just gotta pick thru and find a good one. Picked it up for $.25

[SouthPaw]

i have used several of the wife's old medicine bottles for storing my lacing needles & snaps in

[KWT]

I use the boxes that cans of sodas (12 and 24 count) come in for templates and to glue leather projects to in order to keep them from stretching when I am stamping them.

[twinklestarchild]

This may seem too obvious for mentioning, but CRAIGSLIST!!! There is always so much free stuff in our local area, or a short drive away. Sometimes free leather couches, screws, tools (haven't found leather specific, but definitely general use), or the hot tub to soak in after a long day of tooling. By the by, while the availability of leather stuff for free may be somewhat limited, you can definitely find stuff on the cheap, especially if you put out an ad describing exactly what you are looking for. For example, when I decided that I wanted to get into working leather I put up an ad that I was looking for old tooling and garment leather, tools, books, etc... There was this really nice guy that responded and said that his dad had been a leather worker for 20 years, and that his mom had worked for Tandy from the 70's until the 90's. His folks had since passed away, and he had been holding on to this stuff since. I got the impression that the guy himself was of an artistic bent, but that leather just hadn't been his thing. Anyway he says that he has all of his dad's studio stuff, and that he would be willing to sell it to me for a very reasonable price. Over the next couple of weeks we sent several e-mails back and forth, including pictures of the stuff all laid out on a table. I was blown! Hundreds of stamping tools (I am still figuring out how to organize them!), every kind of wood-handled awl and bevel tool, 20 or so swivel knives, punch boards, border cutting attachments, extra blades, 8 mallets (nice ones), six boxes of books and patterns, hardware, and more stuff than I could possibly list. I told him that I am of limited means (very true), and that I could not probably afford what would be a fair asking price for all of this stuff. He says, "well, how about $400 bucks?". Again, blown. So, when I had the $400 I drove up to see the guy, and in addition there are 5 big black trash bags full of leather sides, scraps, half-finished projects, whole buckskins, and another trash bags worth of tandy wallet and purse kits. I again checked that the guy was sure that he wanted to part with this stuff at this price. He said definitely, and that he would just be glad to know that it would go to good use. I assured him that would be the case, expressed my gratitude again, and then proceeded to pack the van to the roof with all of this stuff. I am still in the process of organizing all of the stuff that I got, and I have to say that my education in leatherworking has been greatly benefited by this man's generosity. It may seem clicheor cheesey, but when I am working in my shop surrounded by the tools and patterns of a lifelong student of the leather arts, I kind of feel his presence guiding me. A posthumous "Each one teach one" has been my education. Thank you craigslist!

[tashabear]

i have used several of the wife's old medicine bottles for storing my lacing needles & snaps in

My mom is diabetic, and her blood testing strips come in containers very much like film canisters, but with better seals. She's going to save them for me from now on. I'm going to ask her for old meds bottles, as well -- goodness knows they get enough scripts.