The Leatherworking Starter Handbook: Beginner Friendly Guide to Leather Crafting Process, Tips and Techniques

By Stephen Fleming

Suppose, you have to appear for an exam next week, who would be the go-to person for seeking help and guidance?

Option 1: A Subject Matter Expert (SME) who studying/teaching the subject for several years and often assumes while explaining that the basics are covered or looks it from their frame of reference.

Or

Option 2: Someone who also started from scratch as you have and passed the exam just last week. He/She knows the exact process, challenges, doubts, and roadblocks you may be facing and can think from your perspective.

If your option is 2, you are in the right place. 

I am a Technology Consultant by profession, and started my leathercraft journey in the year 2014. I started by going through multiple YouTube videos, courses, Facebook groups, and finally completed my first project after four months. 

I was confused and was lost in the magnitude of information available online. I firmly believe that while starting, you need exact, necessary, minimalistic information to start your first project, pardon: Complete your first project!

So I started writing this book to provide a minimalistic approach to information required to start your first leather project. It covers:

- History of leather

- Basics Tools and their usage

- Making Patterns

- Cutting Patterns

- Gluing

- Beveling, Embossing, Stamping

- Stitching basics

- Coloring and Finishing

- Tips, Techniques for the beginner

-Leather Crafting, Physical Pain & Ergonomics * (New Chapter added!)

- Appendix: List of online resources available for free patterns, tips, and techniques.

I still remember the initial doubts I had and the tips which helped me.

This book is for people who are in their first lap (0-3 years) of Leather crafting journey and want to have a holistic idea of processes, tools, and need help in their initial projects.

I have included photographs of realistic projects of beginners explaining the process and standard operating procedure while starting.

So, what are you waiting for?

Get this updated edition of the book with 22 chapters and start your Leather Crafting Journey Today!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Fleming
• Release date: May 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9798601674249

Book preview

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Beginner’s Roadmap

Step 1: Decide with which type of leatherwork you intend to start your journey

Do you want to learn fine-tuned European design, Western Americana techniques, or a rustic type of leatherwork? Each of these approaches requires different tools and methods, depending on what you're looking for in your finished product.

Are you only looking to build a standard leather bag or purse, or would you also like to add a wow factor such as slanted stitches that require an intermediate level of craftsmanship?

So, decide the style and level of expertise you would like to achieve in your first phase of learning.

Even better, figure out the projects you would like to work on initially. It would help you to be more focused during the learning process.

Step 2: Find out the tools you'll need for your type of leatherwork.

Once you decide what sort of leatherwork you intend to craft, you should obtain the right tools for the work. 

The tools vary with the type of leatherwork you choose for your initial projects.

In the case of rustic leatherwork, you can make use of a lot of in-house tools. However, for more finished artwork, you would need a sewing clam or pony as well as sewing knives to create those ideal stitches.

Step 3: Identify what you want to make and obtain the appropriate leather 

Once you decide on what you plan to make, you can identify what kind of leather suits your project. Two of the most common leathers are chrome-tanned leather and veg-tanned leather. 

These two types of leather have several distinctions consisting of how they're tanned, the kind of colors they can acquire, and their amount of flexibility and softness.

If, for example, you're making a belt and you prefer heavy veg-tanned leather, choose a minimum of 7oz weight leather instead of chrome-tanned leather, which would be soft and flexible and would stretch after some time.

Step 4: While doing saddle-stitching use a premium linen thread

Making use of better materials is most likely to give you the desired outcome. Also, when the process involves stitching, which is very crucial and takes a lot of time and effort, it is suggested to use all-natural linen thread, which is durable and used traditionally.

Step 5: Practice and master the technique

When it comes to leatherwork, it's all about learning the basic steps and following each step carefully.

Make sure that you are following the sequential steps for the desired outcome. 

For instance, if you're looking for a refined and professional look, then make sure you are following sewing standards and also doing the edge finishing! Edge finishing is the step where you make use of wax and burnish your edges, so they're smooth as well as polished looking.

Step 6: Have fun with traditional leather craft!

The art of leatherwork, pyrography, and whittling belongs to a time when we were in the non-digital world. The aim was to spend quality time and make something creative.

So enjoy the craft, spend time with your loved ones by involving them, and yes, keep your mobile phones at bay!

TOP 3 BEGINNER PITFALLS: DON'T FALL INTO THEM!

Mistake # 1 - Buying the pre-assembled toolkits.

I have seen people getting excited and buying a pre-assembled kit online without doing proper research about their requirements. In many cases, these tools are of low quality, bent, and broken after a few days of use.

Usually, these kits contain poor-quality tools along with tools that you don't need.

Therefore, the key initially is having less but high-quality tools.

Mistake # 2 - Getting leather when you do not have a project in mind.

It is similar to getting ingredients without having a meal in mind. 

First, decide what item you will be making for your first project and then buy/arrange the leather accordingly. 

When buying leather from any reputed shops in your area, ask the salesperson about the best-suited leather for your particular project.

Mistake # 3 - Making the process more complex 

I see a lot of beginners getting caught up in buying lots of creams and power devices for finishing the leatherwork.

I still have around 20 devices in my toolkit, and half of those devices are standard and useful things that are lying around your house like an X- Acto blade, sandpaper, and a hammer.

The charm of typical leatherwork is that you're utilizing standard hand tools as well as techniques that have been around since simpler times! So, maintain it easily and also enjoy it.

2. About Leather

History of Leather Crafting

Tanning circa 1880

(By Anonymous artist - http://www.digibib.tu-bs.de/?docid=00000286, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=981570)

Leather making is an old art that has been practiced for more than 7,000 years. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Arabs protected the art of leather making and enhanced it. Morocco, as well as cordovan leather (from Córdoba, Spain), became very treasured natural leathers. By the 15th century, natural leather sun tanning was prevalent in Europe, and, by the mid-19th century, power-driven pieces of equipment did procedures such as fleshing, dehairing, as well as splitting.

Natural leather has been a part of human culture, considering that in pre-historical times, animal hides were more than likely the initial material used by our ancestors for garments or shoes. Virtually any kind of animal hide can become leather, including the skin of some fish!

The most typical animals utilized for leather are usually huge animals, frequently cows, sheep, deer, or buffalo.

Tanned leather in Marrakesh

(By DonarReiskoffer, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=458235)

Unfortunately, raw animal hides will certainly rot or harden if left untreated, so very early artisans had to find a way to keep the hides soft and also pliable by treating or tanning them with all-natural chemicals. Remarkably enough, some of the very best compounds for tanning animal hides ended up being other parts of the animals themselves, such as the fat, bone, brain, urine as well as marrow!

Leather was necessary for both Egyptian and Roman societies where more advanced methods of tanning and making use of oils, minerals, and plants were being done. The paintings discovered in some Egyptian tombs that depict leather manufacturing and undamaged items of leather have been located buried with the pharaohs. In Rome, tanning was so efficient and useful that even the common people, not just the wealthy, might pay to buy natural leather. A version of the high laced leather shoe worn by Roman legislators is still part of our modern-day style culture today!

In the early 14th - 18th centuries, tanning was a proficient craft controlled by guilds. Working as a tanner was still a ruthless, smelly job that required a great deal of manual labor. In the late 1700s, tanning started to turn into a bigger manufacturing operation; however, it had not been until the exploration of the chrome tanning technique in 1858 that the industry truly changed.

Chrome tanning, which is a mineral tanning technique that utilizes chrome salts as the main tanning ingredient, decreased tanning time from 8 weeks to a few hours! This extreme process, together with the development of new equipment for handling natural leather, quickly put most little independent tanneries out of business as well as transformed tanning into big-time manufacturing. Old techniques of tanning are preserved in places like Morocco where tanners still utilize ingredients like wastewater, pigeon, as well as Lyme dung to tan hides, as well as essences from plants like henna, mint, indigo, and poppy to develop attractive bright dyes.

The tradition of leatherwork in North America is, to a huge degree, tied to the society of the American West. Natural leather was a crucial material for pioneers, cattle-herders, and Indigenous Americans alike, who typically lived far from a source of manufactured cloth, yet close to an abundant supply of animal hides. These cultures developed a distinct aesthetic for leatherwork, which was typically a synthesis of early American and indigenous creative traditions.

Today, 80-85% of natural leather is chrome tanned in big industrialized manufacturing facilities, but there are still smaller sized tanneries producing veg-tanned leather also. Leather is used for many purposes in the modern world, and it also played an important role in the fashion of diverse cultural movements. From bikers and punks to cowboys and socialites, many demographics can claim leather as an integral part of their sartorial identifications.

There is still a growing number of hobby leatherworkers in America, as well as increasingly more modern developers and artisans trying out leatherwork and establishing new strategies and also new looks. Laser cutting, which has resulted in a great deal of exciting and very complicated designs, works well with natural leather. Investigating some of the possibilities will undoubtedly get you a lot more thrilled about working with natural leather!

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