Simmke Report post Posted September 23, 2018 Hello everybody, My name is Sim, I'm 28 from Belgium and living in The Netherlands. I'm very much into cars and photography for hobbies (see my website for examples), and I work in medical care (hospital laboratory). The idea to wordk with leather has been in my head for a while now, and I've finally decided to just give it a shot. I just love the look, feel and smell of the material! As I have no experience with leather craft I didn't really know where to start looking. After some googling I found a leather shop a few kilometres away, I'm going over there tomorrow to get some advice and buy a few different pieces of leather just to try and get a feel for it. As I don't know yet whether this is a thing I'm going to love doing or not, I started out by ordering a multi-piece cheap set of tools in China. As far as I can tell it contains most of the basic tools. Of course I'll be replacing tools I use most and tools I find are of poor quality when I decide I want to keep up this hobby. I'm especially interested in learning hand-sewing wallets, passport cases, pencilcases, backpacks, watch straps etc. I prefer clean well-made items with few embellishments or carvings, much in the style of what @ducjes has on his website. I'm also a big fan of the philosophy of buying local and buying quality goods that last of which he speaks on his website. I'll probably be running into a few beginner's issues and ask a lot of questions at first, but I'll show you guys what I'm making as well in return If you want to know more about me, just ask! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bikermutt07 Report post Posted September 23, 2018 Welcome aboard, Simm. We are glad to have you. I think you are on the right track with buying a cheap set of tools to try out the hobby. If you know how to sharpen things really well then you are ahead of the game. If not, you will learn. Things have to be sharp sharp sharp in leatherworking. Otherwise you will find yourself frustrated and not have any fun. So, have fun getting those new tools sharp. P.s. always be prepared to sharpen anything in the lower cost world. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
immiketoo Report post Posted September 23, 2018 Welcome, Sim! I'll be at a nice leather craft show in Arnhem in October. If you have time, you should come check it out, maybe take a class or two. Its a great boost for a new leather worker! The show is ELWATS. http://leathercraftersjournal.com/store/productlist.cfm?category=84 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Simmke Report post Posted September 25, 2018 Thank you for the warm welcome. The advice of the woman at the leather store was to take home a bunch of scraps of different weights and textures to try what I prefer before buying a half or quarter hide. That's what I've done yesterday, so now it's just waiting for my tools to arrive. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
