What Small Change(S) Helped Improve Your Leatherwork?

[DavidL]

The best tip that helped improve my stitching was sharpening the tip of the awl widening it slightly. Slightly widening the tip helps the awl align with the pricking iron tip the same angle, always in the middle, straightening the stitches.

With all the members on this forum it would be interesting to hear what tips really helped improve your leather work.

[rawcustom]

Too many to list, but one of my best changes was using a sponge for applying dye. Cut off just a portion and rub the first swipes against cardboard before applying to your work. Also learning to apply some oil before dying helped a lot.

[Matt T]

Using a rotary cutter and ruler for cutting straight lines in thin leather. For thick leather, I find that the blade bends and doesn't cut perfectly straight. In that case, I use a ruler and a knife blade (not rotary) that doesn't bend.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Matt T

[ConradPark]

Get a proper oiling stone or water stone and learn how to properly sharpen your tools, this takes time and will be very frustrating, but when you'll finally get the hang of it you'll wonder how you did things before. It affects everything from stitching to cutting.

And finish your projects even if it turns to crap in the middle of it. That will teach you that sometimes you can salvage things anyway, and it actually makes you to be more careful for the next project.

There is nothing wrong and even advisable to use a free template or copy something that is copy free to learn how to make something for the first time. But for the next time, try to do something that is your own, change anything really - size, design, type of leather, etc. This in itself will teach you not to just be a robot.

Do start and finish a project, small or large on a regular basis, especially if you're not sure how to go ahead. You will quickly realize that most questions, answer them self as you're working on your stuff and that there are seldom needed to seek answers through others. Most of the time your questions are because you haven't tried.

[Bob Blea]

When carving leather quality bevelers are worth every penny. If you are starting off and want to improve you carving ability that should be one of the first things you look at.

[Art]

I would say the best thing (that I didn't have when I started, when Pontius Pilate was a Corporal) was YouTube videos. Ian Atkinson and Nigel Armitage come to mind, but there are many others. If you just pick-up one little thing and try it, it may be worth it.

In addition to that, just making stuff is the greatest benefit. Watch videos, make stuff; even if it is turning to scrap before your eyes, finish it. I'll still have my first sheath and my first knife; didn't have a clue what I was doing, the knife turned out well, the sheath, not so much (engineering was way off, execution was not that bad); no, you can't see it. First tooling project you could call impressionistic at best and modernistic at the more realistic end of the spectrum.

If you don't try, you don't learn.

Draw your own patterns, they will be way less complicated than those pattern packs, and they will actually fit the item too.

Art

[cgleathercraft]

Keep all the scrap you can, that half inch wide piece that is 3 inches long may not be much but it works as a welt! There does come a point to clean the scrap box out, but throwing all the scrap will have you cutting fresh leather for small barely seen parts that scrap is better suited for. A good workbench makes everything easier. Its not a small change, I know, but a few small improvements on an existing workbench could make it a great one! If you use a carpet/razor knife - strop the blade - it makes an enormous difference. Just because it came straight out of the package and can hit bone faster than you can feel it doesn't make it sharp.

Practice, practice, practice...

(engineering was way off, execution was not that bad); no, you can't see it.

I have lots of that stuff laying around, even more found the trash can! lol

[TinkerTailor]

1. Only listen to commercial free preferably mostly instrumental music. Electronic, world, classical, jazz, whatever is well produced and intelligent. Elevator music is for elevators. The goal is to eliminate distractions, and commercials are designed to distract.

Radio Paradise is a great streaming station. (not affiliated)

If in doubt, play bluegrass an full volume. "turn it up to eleven" as they say in spinal tap.

2. When creative blocks occur, sharpen and clean tools. Just touching your tools will move you past the block and create inspiration.

3. Invest in some great freshly roasted coffee, and make use of it. If you have 12 cups, take a break from stitching. Stitchin' and twitchin' don't mix....

(This may be number one actually...)

[rawcustom]

If in doubt, play bluegrass an full volume. "turn it up to eleven" as they say in spinal tap.

Well it's 1 louder isn't it?

[cgleathercraft]

Well it's 1 louder isn't it?

Volume knobs on older amps had volume levels from 1-10. "turning it up to 11" is playing louder than possible because it's awesome. I'm no hardware expert when it comes to music but found that one out playing Guitar Hero and Rockband in college.

2. When creative blocks occur, sharpen and clean tools. Just touching your tools will move you past the block and create inspiration.

Thought this was worth mentioning again since it's helped me out more than I realized until now. Also, clean, well taken care of tools will outlast us and our kids.

[rawcustom]

CGleather, it's a quote from the movie...

[cgleathercraft]

CGleather, it's a quote from the movie...

Ha! Well I feel foolish.

There's another tip - admit mistakes, no one knows everything.

[MonicaJacobson]

There's another tip - admit mistakes, no one knows everything.

+1

Nothing showcases this better than a bunch of strangers interacting on a forum.

[rawcustom]

Classic:

[cjmt]

1. Only listen to commercial free preferably mostly instrumental music. Electronic, world, classical, jazz, whatever is well produced and intelligent. Elevator music is for elevators. The goal is to eliminate distractions, and commercials are designed to distract.

Radio Paradise is a great streaming station. (not affiliated)

If in doubt, play bluegrass an full volume. "turn it up to eleven" as they say in spinal tap.

2. When creative blocks occur, sharpen and clean tools. Just touching your tools will move you past the block and create inspiration.

3. Invest in some great freshly roasted coffee, and make use of it. If you have 12 cups, take a break from stitching. Stitchin' and twitchin' don't mix....

(This may be number one actually...)

One of the best and most sensible posts I've seen here for a long time :-)

[dirtclod]

Finding leatherworker.net !!! I've been doing leather work full time for 30 years and i find new ways of doing things on here.

[Grey Drakkon]

Ok this is one of those things that I wonder if everyone already knew, or if there's a better way of doing it, but it seemed like sheer brilliance last night. I made a bracelet out of very soft veg tan, the kind that starts off with a fuzzy back and only gets worse the more you try to fix it. Using a straight edge with a blade just gives it the opportunity to flop around and make uneven edges that are still fuzzy, and using tape on the back makes it give you clean cuts, but peeling off the tape makes it fuzzy all over again. So I grabbed my nailclippers and SNIPPED the leather! I put a before and after picture below showing the first loop after the snap and how much more tidy it is. Using curved surgical scissors may be another way of cleaning it up, I'll have to experiment.

[jk215]

- Making sure all my tools were as sharp as possible. Especially before cutting anything intricate (lots of curves) or super thick.

- Starting edgework before the pieces are even stitched together. Making sure each edge of each piece is clean and even. After gluing I do a rough sanding to clean up the newly formed edge. After stitching continue with the process.

- Taking all the leatherworking "rules" with a grain of salt. I feel like a lot of people go by the book and never question whether or not that rule makes sense for the application. For example: getting criticzed for not having a deep stitching groove on a wallet made of 3 oz leather. When you stop to think about that for a second, the answer why presents itself pretty quickly.

[JREESER1]

Slow down! Think about the next step. It is much faster than correcting a hasty error.

jr

[chiefjason]

A recent time saver for edging my holsters. All edges are Feibing Pro Oil black. Dampen the edge. Color the edge before dying the holster. Once the edge is colored take it over and burnish it with just the oil black. The burnishing is now 90% finished. The oil black works so good damp it's not even funny. I might hit it later with liquid saddle soap and the burnisher. And do a final wax and hand burnish. But those are so much easier if I burnish it right after dying it.

Dampening the leather before dying, especially the pro oil black.

Final stropping of my knives with cardboard. Crazy sharp.

I hand stitch but chuck an awl in my floor drill press for making the holes. Grove, space, poke. Flip piece over and groove the back now that I can see the holes.

The tip on saving scrap is spot on. I used to never make sheaths or single clip IWB holsters. Now that I do I use the good leather that was too small for my clip covers. Scrap for welts or washers behind clips. I have a limit, too small and I just toss it. But I will keep a couple small pieces around to spread my contact cement with, long thin scrap sections of leather are great for that.

[johnv474]

A few small changes can make a big difference, such as:

- if I have to apply much muscle to cut or stitch, something needs changed.

- figure out every detail on scrap leather, not on the finished item. Practice skills in isolation, not as part of a project.

- the craftsman is more often the limiting factor than the tool. Mastery of a half dozen tools will develop an apprentice's craftsmanship faster than ownership of a thousand.

[King's X]

A quality blade for your swivel knife.

[MudBugWill]

Sharp blade, this has been mentioned before. I suggest keeping a strop loaded with green compound and stropping a little but before each session, especially skiving knives.

Make your cuts clean and take your time to cut them accurately.

For joining leather pieces it is super helpful to have a right angle made of wood or something, laying like a sideways "L", about an inch high to butt pieces against and make sure they are lined up, before you press down on your contact cement.

Have a nice pair of dividers with a sharp point. The thinner the line you scribe, the straighter your stitching will be. aim small, miss small.

This is against the rules I have gathered, but when you can prick/punch both sides with the same iron, not a reverse, do it. You will have pretty, symmetrical, slanted saddle stitching on both sides. I found this out first doing my gussets on bags. If you cut and glue well, with good alignment it is possible in most cases to pre-prick/punch both sides. you must take time to plan your stitching and make sure to begin your holes at the exact right place on both sides.

[3wunder]

Keep a workshop and/or an inspiration journal.

I will use mine (an extra large Moleskine journal) for collecting interesting scraps from magazines (ads, fashion photography, etc.) which may inspire new pieces. Another use – and a very important one, at that – is sketching up these new designs and recording the exact measurements of finished pieces, as well as comments and suggestions. I do make cardboard patterns, but these tend to get lost or damaged over time, and it's proven VERY handy to have everything neatly in one place for future reference.

Oh, and add a date to your sketches. It'll be fun to browse through your old journals and see what you were up to years ago. Maybe that piece you never actually got around to making a few years back will at once make perfect sense then.