Want to get started on this craft

[revilop]

Hello,

Would like to get into this craftsmanship. 

Any recommendations on how or where to start?

I saw a kit on Amazon with some tools and mats is it worth it

Thanks

[DieselTech]

7 hours ago, revilop said:

Hello,

Would like to get into this craftsmanship. 

Any recommendations on how or where to start?

I saw a kit on Amazon with some tools and mats is it worth it

Thanks

I started out with a leather kit from Amazon. It was like $140 & had all the basic tools to get started. 

Plus it had 4 colors of thread, beeswax plus some other stuff. 

I made a lot of stuff with that kit. 

[AlZilla]

Maybe you could post that kit you found and get some opinions. They're are a bunch of them.

Here's a post by a guy doing some amazing work with a $50 amazon starter kit: 

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/125186-leather-projects-using-50-dollars-of-amazon-tools/#comment-771141

Maybe it'll give you some inspiration. 

Keep us posted as you progress!

 

[revilop]

Thanks I'll give one of them a try and for sure I'll post the goal.one day will be making batman mask I saw once at a ren fair .

 

 

[DJole]

One of the biggest temptations is to jump right in and start making more complicated pieces, before we have the knowledge and experience. 
It's a very common thing for beginner leatherworkers -- most of us have done it!
One thing that will help you learn is good leather, especially if  you want to learn tooling. 
Cheap leather will be frustrating, but you don't want to spend a lot of money on beautiful expensive leather yet (until you know what you are doing).
So there should be a mid-range that will let you buy leather that you won't mind throwing away on practice pieces.
Is there a leather supply store near you? 

[wizard of tragacanth]

Your top resources for learning leather craft are, this forum, YouTube and your local leather supplies store (such as Tandy). To give valid advice it is important to know what you want to make, other than a Batman mask. Will you be making other masks or wearable accessories like wrist cuffs or other costume stuff, like armor, etc?

When I decided that I wanted to make holsters but was starting from zero, I assumed that I would need a swivel knife and a stitching pony. Fifteen or so years have passed without me owning either one. I don't do any tooling and a pony only makes sense if one is primarily stitching straight lines, as in a wallet and such. I bought a large 12x1`2 marble slab but later found a 6x6 was all I needed and much cheaper, lighter and more convenient. I bought a 12x12 Poundo board to go on top of the slab and later cut it down to four 6x6 pieces. 

Kits have many pros and cons. Often, the tools are lower quality. You've heard the buy once, cry once motto, right? You end up not using half of them and having to buy tools that were not included. A kit will get you started but I would recommend avoiding it. However, getting a kit may be the solution for some people.

The old advice or buying what you need when you need it, is golden. There are several givens. Hopefully there is a leather shop near you where you can see and feel the leather. Leather choice is very important. You will need a way to cut the leather and most people have a generic utility knife that will work but if you are buying one, I recommend one that has multiple snap off blades, like an Olfa. If it starts getting dull, snap off a blade to get a new one. I use a new blade on every project now. It's nice to have a couple of sizes of knives, one for larger cuts and a smaller one for more maneuverability and cutting details. Some people use heavy duty scissors for some things. You need cutting tools.

You will need a cutting surface. I use a Tandy Poundo Board. It's like a thick heavy "self-healing" black rubber. If you are making small, delicate work, there are the thin, green, cutting mats for sewing needs, sold at Walmart, Amazon and sewing shops. 

You will want a steel ruler for cutting, maybe a clear plastic ruler for other things, I have a special "centering" ruler that can be very useful.  Also for measuring, spacing and marking, you need a pair of wing dividers e.g. Tandy Craftool $15... very useful. Now hear this... Harbor Freight has these same dividers in a set of 6 measuring tools for $10. OMG, what a deal. https://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-technical-measuring-set-94447.html

Need to know what you are creating to make any more suggestions for glue, thread, needles, hammer, etc. One of the kits that I saw on Amazon had maybe six type of needles. I have only used one type of needle since learning what I actually needed. This is an example of the waste in kits. Sometimes they include a rotary punch made of flimsy stamped steel. That was what I bought the first time. It was a joke. Lasted maybe three holes and the jaw went off-center. Paid around $15, totally useless. Must pay $50 to get decent ones. Expensive, but worth it. Still learning, I finally realized that my $50 rotary punch has a limited throat. I could punch to the center of a 1.5" belt but what if I want a hole in the middle of a 4" square? I could have bought, and did, both a Tandy mini and maxi punch set for a total of $30. Point is, you will buy some tools that you wind up losing money on. It is inevitable, but try to keep that to a minimum!

I'm sure that I left out some important stuff but, I will leave that to the others of the forum!

Nick

 

Edited 20 hours ago by wizard of tragacanth

[Digit]

When I started my leatherworking course at school, they offered a small kit containing a snap-off knife, silver pen, a sharp needle, an awl, a glue brush and a glue spatula. Except for the brush, these are all things I use very often (for gluing larger surfaces I use an old credit card for a spatula).

To this set I added stuff on an as-needed basis: lighter, steel ruler, cutting mats (I started with an A3 size, but A2 is more convenient), two sizes of saddler's needles (of which I only use one) and a rotary hole punch.

There is lots of other stuff you can buy, but you should first have some idea in which direction you're going. I've added some larger equipment pretty fast: a spindle press for setting rivets and an industrial cylinder-arm sewing machine (Adler 69), both second-hand.

With all of these tools I now feel confident making small to medium items like wallets, belts, purses, handbags, and clothing. Once you're starting to get the hang of things, the most difficult aspect of leatherwork (imo) is designing things, creating patterns, and getting the idea in your head to a practical execution. When you have a pattern and know in which order all the parts fit together, the rest is just a matter of cutting, glueing and stitching. It helps if you have guidance from an experienced teacher: they can offer practical approaches and solutions that have a track record of use in the industry.

Once you know in which direction you're going, you probably want to add other equipment to the base set:
If you want to make shoes or boots, you'll likely need more specific sewing machines to stitch hard to reach parts.
If you want to make stuff using very thick leather, you probably need a sturdier sewing machine.
If you want to tool and/or color leather, you'll need a hammer, punches, a solid base, dyes, etc.

The number of tools and machines you can buy for leatherwork is only limited by your budget, but in the end all leatherwork is very similar: you cut up a hide into pieces and then you combine those pieces again into something you can use. So the most basic tools you need are things for cutting leather (a knife) and things for combining leather pieces (needle and thread, glue). For visual appeal, add some stuff to make things beautiful (dyes, paints, tooling, ...).