Tools for Leather

Leather Cutting

• Leather cutting tools are used to cut out sections of a pattern, make channels for stitching and cut holes. The basic leather cutting tools are one head and one utility knife. The head knife, also known as a swivel knife, has a cup on top for resting your forefinger, which guides the cutting action. It's designed for cutting complex designs in leather. The utility knife is the common craft type available from hardware stores. Blades must be kept razor-sharp by frequent use of sharpening stones to maintain effective, fast cutting of leather. Round or oblong hole punches for cutting holes right through leather are useful for crafts like belt making. Gouge and groove tools are used to create a depression in the leather for lines of stitching because stitching flush with the surface comes apart more quickly, especially from contact with everyday objects such as hooks and nails. A V-shaped groove tool cuts out a channel to allow you to make precise folds. A French edge tool bevels the leather's edges for right-angled joints.

Hand Sewing Leather

• Leather is hand sewn with straight or curved, sharp or blunt needles and tough thread. Needles with big eyes capable of taking the larger sizes of thread used to sew leather are available in a large range of sizes. Curved needles are useful to have at hand for sewing in tight corners. Use a thimble with blunt needles, and insert them into ready-made punched-out holes. Thread for hand sewing leather is available in a large variety of thicknesses and colors. It's made from heavy cotton or nylon and coated with beeswax to pull more smoothly through leather.

Hammers, Punches and Mallets

• Tooled leather is an example of hand decoration created with a hammer and chisel. The hammer must be made from a softer material than the steel chisels they strike or have a rubber or plastic facing to protect the chisels. Choices of hammers for leather work include regular utility hammers with softer, synthetic faces as well as wooden and plastic mallets and mauls used with punches or stamp tools. The hammers you use for working with leather must never be used for hitting nails or other objects because the head tends to become pitted and leaves unwanted marks on the leather.

Decorating Leather

• Personalize your projects with any of a wide range of leather decorating tools. Stamps featuring numbers or pictures are favorite decoration tools, Examples include stamps for leaves, flowers, western themes and letters that are used in belt making. Other leather working tools used for decorative purposes include creasing tools for making decorative lines and swivel knifes for incising patterns into leather. Gold and other colored pigments highlight your detailing and add value to the finished object.