I'm New And Discouraged

[lonesome dove]

When I started I was 110 miles from the nearest Tandy location and there was no one around to ask and nothing like the great folks on leatherworker.net to learn from. If it wasn't for a brother in law I could ask for some guidance, I might would have given up as well. As you can see, my first attempt was pretty bad. Stay with it. We have all been there.

[BullRiderJoe]

Thanks guys, I got a gift card for Tandy on Christmas so I'm going to head up there and get some leather pieces. I have purchased quite a bit of tools over the last month. What thickness should I get to start with? Any suggestions

[club49]

TRY BUYING A FEW BELT BLANKS FROM TANDY. YOU MIGHT WANT TO START OFF DOING A FEW BORDER STAMPS OR A STRIGHT BASKETWEAVE. AS MENTIONED ABOVE?, TANDY IS A GOOD PLACE TO START.DON'T BUY TO MANY TOOLS UNTIL YOU DO SOME MORE RESEARCH , THAT IS WHERE I MADE MY MISTAKE.HAVE FUN KEEP TRYING. DON' T SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON CHEAP TOOLS.

JIM

[Vapor Beast]

I'm restarting my leather hobby work after letting it go for more years than I care to remember. So it's kinda like starting all over again. I knew making my purchase with amazon for a cheap 20 piece stamp set would be disappointing but it got me going again. Tandy has been great and so has springfield leather. If you do your research you'll find that top dollar tools aren't the answer, but practice is the answer.

I've gotten a few remnant bags at our local Michaels, well some of that leather is definitely not ideal but it's great for practice.

I know this next statement will cause groans from the veteran leather workers here, I bought a purse kit from Tandy. Except for one piece of leather in the kit it was awesome. I had a piece I was trying to tool that had hard spots. But I got through it. This kit is practice for more projects.

There's a common theme here,,,practice and research.

Read everything watch videos and practice.

Hope it works out for you, I'm very happy to be tooling around with leather again and I'm sure you will also just stick with it and practice.

[Ole South]

The local Tandy (Tampabay area) carving/tooling classes don't cost you anything... save the basic tools you probably already have. I not sure but I don't believe the Orlando branch charges either... we've had two excellent instructors (neither are/were Tandy employees) that basically donate their time to share their talent and experience. I don't tool much but have learned something every time I've attended or watched a class. Check your local store. As a beginner, you miss so much not having a live instructor or mentor looking over your shoulder.

If your swivel knife is giving you issues... strop it at the proper angle until it's sharp and all the grind marks are gone... they don't come ready for use from a hobby store... Tandy not excluded.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Ole South

[R SFraser Sr]

Hello Bullrider,

This is my first post here, I am as new as you are, judging by the dates of your posts.

I think it is always good when new people can help new people, even if it is just a small bit info.

So, in addition to the good advice given so far, here is a tip you may not have thought of...

Club49 was saying to buy some belt blanks from Tandy, for practice,

and Michael's has been mentioned already.

Michael's sells belt kits that are fairly thick, and by using their 40 or 50% coupons,

they weigh in much cheaper than Tandy.

Here in Canada anyway, their belt kit is 36 $ for a 11/2" belt - so 50% off coupons helps a lot.

And you can print off as many as you like.

It is always nice to get cheaper practice material.

hope this helps,

bob