Leather crafting book/manual recommendations

[Jang]

Hello all,  I'm looking to get into the craft and was wondering if any of you experienced folks had any recommendations on a book that would be great for a newbie like me to purchase that would be beneficial in helping me learn about the basics and even eventually more detailed aspects of the craft?  

 

Any help would be very much appreciated! 

[bikermutt07]

If you can find one F.O. Baird's leather secrets is a great all around resource. The tooling and designs are 60's Western base, but man for an all encompassing volume it is the one.

It has all the steps for tooling, it has dozens of patterns from watch bands to Western rigs and everything in between. It has several carving patterns for letters and figure carving.

Patterns for different cases, belts, and purses.

If you can't find or afford one I suggest these books.

1st. Leather Tools by Al Stohlman. This will teach you tips and tricks for tools as well as how to sharpen them. Great book.

2nd. The Art of Hand Sewing also by Al. This will help you master several different kinds of stitch.

Both of these books are less than 20 bucks on Amazon. Al really packed a lot of extra info and tips into these books.

Next I would suggest something a little more specific to what you want to make.

 

And now my personal thoughts to get you started. (Not my idea, but I elaborated on it).

Get yourself a decent single shoulder of veg tan. And start making bracelets. Do I like bracelets? No, I don't. But, it will help you develop your skills at a fast pace with minimal material.

You can learn to use the strap cutter, edge beveling, edge finishing, dying, conditioning, sealing,laminating, stamping, tooling, stitching, as well as buckles, snaps, conchos and other hardware.

You can do dozens at at a time. If you mess up, you chunk 50 cents worth of leather. And keep moving forward.

Do this and you will be off to a much better start than I.

I bounced from 1 one-off project to the next. And I was always missing a step, or my stitching wasn't good enough, or something. 

If you start with one item and make it to the point of perfection, you will have a much easier time moving forward.

Good luck.

[Jang]

50 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

If you can find one F.O. Baird's leather secrets is a great all around resource. The tooling and designs are 60's Western base, but man for an all encompassing volume it is the one.

It has all the steps for tooling, it has dozens of patterns from watch bands to Western rigs and everything in between. It has several carving patterns for letters and figure carving.

Patterns for different cases, belts, and purses.

If you can't find or afford one I suggest these books.

1st. Leather Tools by Al Stohlman. This will teach you tips and tricks for tools as well as how to sharpen them. Great book.

2nd. The Art of Hand Sewing also by Al. This will help you master several different kinds of stitch.

Both of these books are less than 20 bucks on Amazon. Al really packed a lot of extra info and tips into these books.

Next I would suggest something a little more specific to what you want to make.

 

And now my personal thoughts to get you started. (Not my idea, but I elaborated on it).

Get yourself a decent single shoulder of veg tan. And start making bracelets. Do I like bracelets? No, I don't. But, it will help you develop your skills at a fast pace with minimal material.

You can learn to use the strap cutter, edge beveling, edge finishing, dying, conditioning, sealing,laminating, stamping, tooling, stitching, as well as buckles, snaps, conchos and other hardware.

You can do dozens at at a time. If you mess up, you chunk 50 cents worth of leather. And keep moving forward.

Do this and you will be off to a much better start than I.

I bounced from 1 one-off project to the next. And I was always missing a step, or my stitching wasn't good enough, or something. 

If you start with one item and make it to the point of perfection, you will have a much easier time moving forward.

Good luck.

Thank you so much Bikermutt! I'll get on amazon and other sites and try to round these books up. Thanks for the tip on starting with a shoulder and bracelets. A plus for me on that is me and my wife do like bracelets.  

Just curious, do you have any recommendations on anyone's youtube channel that would be beneficial?

[AdamGadut]

while some leather designs are timeless, you may also want to be updated with whats generally beautiful for this generation. - Pinterest is a good resource. - not a book, but people in there post what is aesthetically appealing. This is something you may want to consider if you are looking to sell your finished leather items so you are guided what people like.. and in case a book is not enough - Youtube is a good to view - some great channels i know in there are from "Ian Atkinson" - he teaches you from the tools you need, down to how to improve your stitching., - Also - Nigel Armitage

The stitching is important for this craft - so this is what you want to improve the most. 

[Jang]

12 minutes ago, AdamGadut said:

while some leather designs are timeless, you may also want to be updated with whats generally beautiful for this generation. - Pinterest is a good resource. - not a book, but people in there post what is aesthetically appealing. This is something you may want to consider if you are looking to sell your finished leather items so you are guided what people like.. and in case a book is not enough - Youtube is a good to view - some great channels i know in there are from "Ian Atkinson" - he teaches you from the tools you need, down to how to improve your stitching., - Also - Nigel Armitage

The stitching is important for this craft - so this is what you want to improve the most. 

Thanks Adam! I jotted those names down and will be checking their channels out.

 

Edited June 14, 2017 by Jang

[Jang]

If any of you would want to post some pics of your work I'd love to see it.

[AdamGadut]

here's a few i have, these were created a year ago

[Basically Bob]

The Leatherworking Handbook by Valerie Michaels is excellent.

Al Stohlman's Art of Making Cases, Start with volume 1 and progress to volume 3

Edited June 14, 2017 by Basically Bob
Added photos

[Basically Bob]

Two more projects

 

 

[Jang]

Very nice work guys!