Ragnheid
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Re:Leatherworking Beginner - 2005/10/24 15:13
If you're willing to do mail-order, Siegel of California - www.siegelofca.com - generally has better prices than even the Leather Factory/Tandy wholesale club prices. They have free shipping on orders over $75 and I don't think that they require a business license number. A month or so I ordered 11 sides from the end-of-summer sale (still going) at insanely cheap prices. No affiliation yadda yadda.
For instructional materials, you really can't beat the series of books by Al (and Ann) Stohlman. Most leather suppliers have some or all of them, as does Amazon.com. I also like _The Leatherworking Handbook_, by Valerie Michael, for a more British approach than the Stohlman books. There's also a lot of good information on the website for the IILG - International Internet Leather Guild, www.iilg.org
A second or third to what's already been said about tools - both my husband and I do leatherworking, and we've ended up with two sets of tools, with not a lot of overlap - he does mostly tooling, and I do the cutting out and assembly on our pouches, etc. Read books (or web sites) about what you want to do and see what tools are called for. Remember that a lot of the specialty tools are optional, and you can do the job just as well with the basics.
If tooling is what you want to do, the basic starter sets that LF/Tandy sells are a good beginning - you can build up a vast array of stamps, but they're mostly variations in size and surface texture on the few basic ones.
As for other tools - use only a poly or rawhide mallet on your tools. A good knife of some kind for cutting leather out - keep it sharp. A utility/box cutter knife will work fine to start, as will an exacto (for thinner leathers). I like drive punches better than the rotary hand punches (small holes), but that's partly a factor of hand/wrist strength. The "awl for all" thing is a waste of money for hand-sewing, IMO. An awl, harness needles, and thread are less difficult to use in my experience, and no more expensive.
I'd be happy to share our website URL for pictures of the kind of leatherworking we do, but it is our business site, and I don't want to look like I'm spamming...
Post edited by: Ragnheid, at: 2005/10/24 15:16
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