New here! Learning leather working

[lovemycarbs]

Hi all, Newbie here. Hoping to get to know more of you on my learning leather journey ;-)

I noticed there are different ways to secure leather works together. Alot of what I see is sewing methods. I also don't understand 'ounces' in leather because I go by thickness so Is there a way to compare ounces to thickness? 

So back to the faster part. What kind of sewing machine does it take to sew leather? I have a sewing machine,  it's pretty basic for sewing fabrics but I don't know if it will do leather also what type of needles?

In talking about Fasteners I also see little screws and Rivets. 

I'm enclosing a picture I took of a fastner/ closure of a leather piece of which I'm assuming it's some type of rivet(?). Could someone tell me what this is? 

I'm having troubles showing another picture of the other side but it's flat on that side. 

Thanks for your much appreciated help

[Beehive]

You're gonna need a better picture. If it's a rivet. Do you have any tools like a dremel, drill with a drill bit or unibit? Any files or a hack saw? 

 

Removing rivets is a huge PITA but it can be done.

Edited February 14 by Beehive

[BlackDragon]

8 minutes ago, lovemycarbs said:

Hi all, Newbie here. Hoping to get to know more of you on my learning leather journey ;-)

I noticed there are different ways to secure leather works together. Alot of what I see is sewing methods. I also don't understand 'ounces' in leather because I go by thickness so Is there a way to compare ounces to thickness? 

So back to the faster part. What kind of sewing machine does it take to sew leather? I have a sewing machine,  it's pretty basic for sewing fabrics but I don't know if it will do leather also what type of needles?

In talking about Fasteners I also see little screws and Rivets. 

I'm enclosing a picture I took of a fastner/ closure of a leather piece of which I'm assuming it's some type of rivet(?). Could someone tell me what this is? 

I'm having troubles showing another picture of the other side but it's flat on that side. 

Thanks for your much appreciated help

Welcome to the forum!

When we talk about ounces it refers to the thickness of the leather. 1 ounce is .4mm, 2 ounces is .8mm, and you add .4mm for each ounce. So 5 ounces would be 2mm and 10 ounces would be 4mm thick

There are a couple ways to secure leather. Sewing is the most popular, either hand stitching or machine. There are rivets and Chicago screws. Gluing, which is the weakest. we usually glue things together to keep them aligned when sewing.

To do hand stitching you need a way to make the holes; diamond chisels, pricking irons, or an awl. 

Using a machine is usually a very high investment, normally in the thousands of dollars. Standard household sewing machines aren't designed to sew leather.

The important question you need to answer is: What do you want to make? If you want to do leather upholstery you need different tools than if you want to make wallets, or horse equipment, or shoes. 

Can't really tell what your picture is. If it's a rivet I'm going to guess that it may be a Jiffy rivet.

[Northmount]

5 minutes ago, BlackDragon said:

When we talk about ounces it refers to the thickness of the leather. 1 ounce is .4mm, 2 ounces is .8mm, and you add .4mm for each ounce. So 5 ounces would be 2mm and 10 ounces would be 4mm thick

@lovemycarbs

Or if you work in inches, 1 oz is 1/64"  thus 8 oz is 1/8" and so forth.

[Northmount]

43 minutes ago, lovemycarbs said:

So back to the faster part. What kind of sewing machine does it take to sew leather? I have a sewing machine,  it's pretty basic for sewing fabrics but I don't know if it will do leather also what type of needles?

Look at this thread 

 

[BlackDragon]

9 minutes ago, Northmount said:

@lovemycarbs

Or if you work in inches, 1 oz is 1/64"  thus 8 oz is 1/8" and so forth.

I've worked in Japanese manufacturing for so long I fall into metric instead of Freedom unit more than I care to admit. 

https://maverickleathercompany.com/hide-thickness-conversion-chart/?gad_source=5

[Northmount]

56 minutes ago, BlackDragon said:

I've worked in Japanese manufacturing for so long I fall into metric instead of Freedom unit more than I care to admit. 

https://maverickleathercompany.com/hide-thickness-conversion-chart/?gad_source=5

Great reference material!

[lovemycarbs]

I apologize for the not so good picture. It would only let me post 1 picture of 1.46MB and I tried to downsize the picture but it didn't work out so well. I'm not very tech savvy. I really appreciate all the information! It was so helpful! 

[SUP]

Welcome to the forum!

I suggest you go to theleatherguy.com.

They have great instructional segments about the basics of leather - from types, to how to measure thickness and types to just about everything else.

Weaver leather also has something similar.

Between the two, you should get most of the information that you need to start leatherwork.

They have tables and pictures of everything - I downloaded everything when I first started leatherwork and it really helps.

They should also have the tool to check leather thickness -  a handy little plastic thingy that tells you the thickness and corresponding ounces. after a while, you will learn to discern that with just a look.

Good luck!

[Hags]

Welcome! You can compress your photos with any number of apps to make them smaller(less bytes). I use photo puma, it's free with ads. Never had a problem.