Getting started in leather craft is a bit of an all or nothing affair. With a few exceptions, the tools required are specialist to the craft and the initial outlay can be a bit of a hurdle. There are many leather craft starter kits available, some with over one hundred items: blades, punching tools, buckles, awls, and even stamping tools. But what tools do you really need to get started in leather craft?
Here’s the list of cannot-do-withouts:
A utility or craft knife. These are easy to use and versatile. The snap-blade knives also mean you don’t have to worry about keeping it sharp. Excellent for cutting leather pieces out, especially shapes with curves or more intricate lines.
A leather craft knife. Leather knives come in quite a few different shapes and sizes, but practically all leather crafters will have at least one Japanese skiving knife in their collection. While art craft knives are great for cutting out pieces of leather, they cannot skive (thin) leather edges.
Right-angled metal ruler. No matter how steady your hand, you need a straight guide to get those cutting lines as straight as an arrow. Corners also need to be exactly 90 degrees to save you the frustration of misaligned leather pieces later.
A cutting mat. These typically come in various sizes from A4 to A1.
Leather hammer or maul. These are mauls with a wooden handle and a weighted head wrapped in hard nylon used to hammer the pricking iron into the leather. Using a metal hammer risks damaging the tools.
An awl. Where the pricking irons are designed to “prick” or mark the leather, an awl is designed to pierce the leather through to the other side so you can push the needle through and sew.
A scratch awl. Can be used to mark the leather for cutting, apply edge paint, or hide the ends of threads in the leather. A cheap and handy addition to any tool set.
Leather needles. Obviously you need needles to sew. But leather needles are unique in that the thread hole is at the top of the needle, allowing you to pull the thread through the hole.
Leather compass. Your stitching lines need to be exactly parallel to the edge of the leather (your eye will be drawn to even the slightest deviation). To mark the line along which you need to punch your stitching holes, you use a compass: one prong running along the edge of the leather, the other lightly marking or scratching the surface of the leather.
Leather glue. Water-based leather glue is essential to hold two pieces of leather in place so that you can punch holes and sew them together. Doing so without holding them securely in place first would be unthinkable, especially when using such an expensive material as leather (unlike woven fabric, you only get one chance to get it right!).
Plastic glue stick. Just a simple piece of plastic to thinly spread glue on your leather.
Rubber hammer. This is a light hammer with a soft tip that is used to further compress the edges after they have been glued and again to flatten the thread after they have been sewn.
Edge beveller. There are two ways to finish a leather edge: burnish or edge paint. Beginners should learn how to properly burnish an edge before moving on to the (often painstaking) task of edge painting. And for that you need an edge beveller. This tool takes the right-angle off the edge of the leather so that it doesn’t mushroom out in an unsightly manner when pressure is applied with a burnisher. Edge bevellers come in different sizes to accommodate different thickness of leather.
Burnisher. This slightly odd-looking wooden tool is used to “burnish” the edge of leather by rubbing it up and down the edge vigorously. This combination of heat with a little bit of pressure compacts down the natural fibers of the leather so that the edges look smooth and pleasing to the eye.
Beeswax. Such an essential item, yet rarely found in any “starter” kit. Beeswax is needed firstly to wax your sewing thread before you begin to sew (many leather sewing threads do come “pre-waxed” but they soon dry out when the thread has been pulled through holes over and over again) and, secondly, to give your burnished edges a layer of protection and a nice glossy sheen.
High-quality canvas or denim. Used to burnish the edge of the leather once beeswax has been applied to rub the wax into the edge and give it a lasting sheen.
Card. There are many approaches to accurately cutting leather shapes out of leather, but one of the best methods is to first cut the shape out on a piece of card and then use that card to act as a guide to cut the same shape out of the leather.
Strop. Leather knives should be kept extremely sharp. I mean, accidentally-touch-the-edge-and-you’ll-cut-yourself-sharp. To keep the blade like this you’ll need to use a leather strop with a [silicate] compound. Pulling the edge of the blade along the compound-laced strop takes the burrs off the tip of the blade and is especially important for skiving where the blade needs to be able to cut at an angle through the fibrous [membrane] of the leather without pushing and distorting the shape.
Pricking iron. Traditionally, these did what the name suggests: they “pricked” the leather to mark the hole through which you could push your awl, giving you evenly spaced stitches.