Are you looking for the best Xacto Knife to use on your leather craft projects? I have used a large barreled Xacto knife handle for years. I get a ton of questions and emails about where I get them and what blades I use in them. I found a new place to get them and while I was there, I also found some really great purse zippers to use in our shop. These zippers are really classy looking and in my opinion they look much better than just the normal YKK zippers that we all use.
Everyone has their own way of organizing their leatherwork tools in their shops. In my shop, I have always worn a tool belt. My tool belt is where I keep my most used tools so that they are always close at hand.
When I am working on a saddle or helping Freddy with a repair job at his bench, I don’t want to have to hunt for my tape measure or knife if I need it. The tool belt allows me to always be prepared and helps me to be more efficient during the day.
Some of the tools in my tool belt are included in a blog article that we wrote called “Top 5 Essential Tools for the beginner Craftsman”
In this video, I show you all the tools that I keep in my tool belt. These are the tools that I need daily to do my job as efficiently as possible. Keeping them in a tool belt that I wear in the shop keeps them close at hand. Check out this video and let me know if you wear a tool belt currently in your shop or if you prefer to keep them on your workbench.
Leathercraft can be intimidating to the uninitiated. The tools for the beginner can be hard to decide upon and even more difficult to find. Since leatherwork is not a common trade skill, many of these tools can not be purchased from local hardware stores.
In this article I hope to give you some assistance in this area. If you are new to leathercraft and are searching for the most essential tools to add to your workbench, then my hopes are that this blog post is for you.
Here are the Top 5 tools that, I believe, are essential for anyone beginning their leathercraft journey. No, these are not the tools you will need to accomplish all aspects of leatherwork. The size and scope of tools for different areas of the craft are vast and almost never ending. The majority of tools used in leatherwork are subject greatly to personal choice and preferences. Instead, this is a list of 5 tools that I think are foundational in every aspect of your work.
These tools are simply the tools that a craftsman, at any level, will need on a daily basis to work in this medium. Some of these tools will seem arbitrary and may already be in your collection. But this does not lessen their importance. If you have never worked with leather, then you may not be aware of the attributes of the material, and you will find that these will be the tools most helpful in all of your projects. Or in the very least, the most used tools on your bench. Continue reading
Leather stamping tools can be somewhat overwhelming when you look at all the different brands, styles and types that are available from all the different producers. Then you try to figure out which tools you actually need versus the ones that are just nice to have. There seems to be an infinite amount of choices in the “nice to have” category. While there are many stamping tools that fall into the “nice to have” category, Undercuts are not one of these.
In my opinion, undercuts belong in the “must have” category for any tool collection. I have seen many collections where the maker simply made his own version of undercuts but the fact is that he had a set. Much like a beveler, the undercut is one of those tools that can make your job smooth or the lack of them can hinder your tooling progression.
In this article we will discuss the purpose of undercuts along with some of the ways to modify them to make them unique to your style of tooling. If you have watched my video on My Tool Roll, then you have seen the types of undercuts that I use and the different sizes. Continue reading
Designing a new floral tooling layout can be a bit of a task on any project but especially on bigger pieces like notebooks and saddles. In this post, I will show you five tools that will make the experience easier and a lot more fun. Continue reading
