Another "i'm New" Thread

[FF287]

Hello All,

i am a Firefighter-EMT who is looking for a new hobby to fill in the time between runs and my days off, i have made paracord items for about a year now but its just getting to boring, so i am wating to take a swing at leatherworking, the first project on the list is a new leather front for my fire helmet

could you nice folks point me in the right direction, what type of leather should i use and what tools and dyes should i have to start out with, im not a very artistic person so my work will be fairly simple starting out just looking for the basics

thank you in advance,

Dilan

[azrider]

My first suggestion would be to go to Tandy and get a beginer kit, and a few books. Anything by Stolhmann is helpful. I haven't done firefighter shields, but my understanding is vegetable tanned leather, in saddle skirting thicknesses. The basic seven tools for carving will be in the kit. You will want a durable, waterproof finish for your shield. I am not familar with all of the Tandy finishes, so you may want to talk to the people at the store. The other thing you will need is a knife that can cut the leather. Springfield leather carries osborne round knives. I would recomend these over the Tandy ones, and you will have to sharpen all of your tools.

The biggest thing to start out is practice. It takes a lot of practice to figure out what tools you need and how to use them. This forum is also the best place I have found on the web to learn.

Welcome to your new addiction.

[Sylvia]

Dilan:

If you decide to get a kit from Tandy Get at least the deluxe kit with the checkbook, belt and cell phone holder. The swivel knife and mallet are better in the Deluxe kit and you get more dyes/finishes.

You might want to buy your basic tools and leather individually. The basic 7 set of tools are better quality than any of the stamping tools you'll get in any kit. And a bag of scrap leather will allow you the freedom to practice cuts and stamping without ruining a pre-cut project piece. The pre-cut pieces of leather in a kit are THIN and allow little room for a new carver to err.

There are some things you can use that you may have in your tool box or garage already.

Box cutter knife and some good sharp blades.

Steel rulers or carpenter's square

Drill/dremel and tiny bits (in place of punches)

Dead blow hammer. (not a rubber hammer... Dead blow)

Sand paper in various grits

Sharpening Stones and diamond stone.

Bench Vise: (can be used in place of a stitching horse... just make sure it's clean and your leather is protected from the toothed edge.)

clean new cello sponges

You'll also need a tooling surface and a cutting surface. Most of us have gone down to a granite counter top place and have asked to rifle through their granite scrap. Look for sink cut outs. a Kitchen sink one is best... but a bath sink one will do nicely if you are limited on space. Depending on the location... most get the pieces for free. (wear your uniform, ) Take a little time with a file and sand paper on the edges to round them over. As for the cutting surface... most use pondo boards from Tandy and some others use those white poly cutting boards from Walmart.

The list goes on and on. But if you decide that you like working leather it is possible to build a collection of tools over several months as you find you need them to work projects.

[FHL FERG]

Welcome brother, get your feet wet with some basic projects and I can turn you on to soem fire gear projects. They are often more technical than they first appear.....

[PFDFirefighter]

Hey Guys,

This is exactly the type of thread I was looking for thanks for the useful info.! I wanna try my hand at making some leather shields and this is what I needed to even start messing around.

Thanks for the info and to all of those who posted!