LEATHERCRAFT TOOLS FOR LEATHER MAKING (FOR BEGINNERS)

Hey, if you're a beginner like me in leatherworking and want to know what tools you should use, what tools you should start off to buy, or how to get started in leatherworking at all, today's the video for you. Because I have a friend named Garrett. Hello, my name is Garrett Davis, and I like the outdoors. Who makes really cool leather goods. He made me a quiver, and he also made me a tab. They're super cool. He's getting really good at leatherworking, and so I'm going to have him look at this leather kit, and he's going to tell us what in this is good, what in this is crap. And then he's also going to tell us what tools he would get that's not in this kit, so we can see what kind of tools we might want to get to get started in leatherworking. This video is going to be fairly long, so I'm going to put the time stance below of what tool we're looking at, at what specific time in the video, and also at the end we're going to give a conclusion of what we think is necessary and what's not necessary to get going in leatherworking. So you can skip to that also if you want to miss out on all the fun. First impressions. All right, let's check it out here. First of all, you don't need those, or that. Okay, so we'll just kind of lay it out here real quick. Oh, that's cool actually. All right. So this is actually a pretty nice little kit here, especially for a beginner. Okay, so first off, this here is an awl. So this awl, basically what this is for, after you've made your stitches and you have the holes for your stitch line, what you're going to do is sometimes the needle will be difficult to get in, so you'll just sit there and you'll just open it up just a little bit more with your awl. Another great thing for the awl is, and I think it's called an awl for a reason. I mean, you can do all sorts of things with it. So when you're gluing leather together, there's definitely a rough side and a smooth side. So what you want to do is if you're gluing onto the smooth side, you just want to scratch that up just like that, just to give it some texture for the glue to grab. So that is probably one of my most favorite and most used tools for sure. These two I do not use. Basically, it's for real heavy duty metal. Metal. Heavy duty leather. Basically, it's got a hole in it. It's like the same as the awl, but it has a hole in it. So what you can do is you can push that through when you're threading and stitching this up and you can throw your thread through the hole and pull it back out just to kind of help get that thread through there. So that's all that those are. Nothing too crazy. This is very interesting to me. They give you some glue daubers with no glue. So the glue I use is just this contact cement and it actually comes with a little dauber inside. Those would actually be pretty nice. Kramer was so kind to pick them up just to get smaller areas maybe. I don't know if I would use them or not, but hey, oh well. I'll try not to interrupt too much, but the leather kit does call these clean hair balls. Now that's gross. My question is, aren't these used to apply stain on leather also? Alright guys, so this here. Now this is kind of an interesting tool. So this is a groover. And what this does is it's actually designed to make a groove where you're going to stitch. Say you wanted to run a stitch line around the edge. Say we're stitching another piece on there for whatever. You would take this. You'd basically get this to the measurement that you want. The distance from the edge for your stitch line. So right about there say. And you're just going to run this and it's going to peel out. Now, I actually have this. Yes, it is neat. But wait, there's more. I have this same kit. And it's a piece of trash. Because. You see how it grooved it right there, right? Now, watch. It's not. So this thing is trash. The hole gets clogged really easy. So it's trash. I do use it every time I do leather work. I'll still mark that edge. And then when I come in with my stitching awl, I can just basically follow the line. And it works just as good. So now that's where a different tool. Your kit doesn't have it. But I actually have a hand groover. And you can actually, once you mark it, you can just go in and actually cut your own groove. Alright, so that's basically what this is. It actually works really, really well for what it is. I mean, with how cheap it is, not a big deal. So that's a good tool that I do use on every leather project. Now this one I don't use as much. But this would be great for someone that doesn't have stitching irons. You can actually use this to mark where you want each individual hole. So now that we have our groove cut on our stitch line. We're just going to take this, press somewhat decent. And just work it around. And it's going to actually put little divots right where our holes need to go. Now this is where you can get really creative on how to make your holes. So me, on the first few projects I ever used, I used a roofing nail and a piece of black iron pipe without the mallet adapter. So now I have my mallet adapter for my tools like my stitching iron. But yeah, so I basically just use these to punch my holes. Now the problem with that is, I realized real quick, is this is way too thick compared to where these holes line up. So I'd end up taking up two holes with one punch. Which, hey, whatever, it worked. A file. Files are pretty cool. Once you get the edges done, glued, and stitched. A lot of times what I like to do is I'll just come in and kind of clean them up. Make them nice and real smooth and even. Real flush. Flush, you're a carpenter, is that the right word? Real flush with each other. Now if you get them nice and smooth, clean edges. Then you can burnish the edge and you'll actually get an edge that looks like that. So it looks like one piece. That's actually three pieces of leather on this piece. And you can get a really beautiful edge like that there. So it's a very meticulous stage in leather working. But it's really important to make a really pretty final product. And that's where they say, what do they say? Something about dead gum. I need some coffee. Something about attention, paying attention to details. Literally that's all I had to think of. Yes, pay attention to details. So, nice little file. You can also steal your wife's file. I've done that. But it doesn't go very well. These are the most worthless pieces of equipment I've ever found. So these are to help push the needles through the leather. Only problem is, they barely even fit. And who wants a leather glove with one finger? The other thing is, it really frustrates me that it comes with little pieces of leather to protect your fingers while you're doing leather work. Like, make your own. Like if you're... Anyways, wordless. Oh, so this is interesting. Going back to the punch marker. This one is a little more aggressive. So, on this one, you can actually get in there and start the hole. Now you can basically go all the way through the leather with this one. So it helps to get the needle started. It's still not going to be the same as if you were using a stitching iron. But it's going to definitely help. Now we'll grab a needle. It did come with this variety pack of needles. This is a pretty thin needle. You'd see how hard this will be to get it through. It's really pretty difficult. Oh, my leather glove fingers. Whatever. I'm still not using them. So that's where the awl comes in handy. So you can just take your awl, poke through a little bit further, and now that needle is just going to slide right through. So that's the beauty of the awl. You could start a project and finish it start to finish with this set. You can get the hole started with this, and then you're just going to have to go through with your awl on each hole and basically open it up just enough for the needle. These needles are for sewing around corners. No, I'm kidding. It's for sewing inside if you were to need to sew. Say this had a back on it. You can do that with bow handles. Because you come up under the leather grip and pull back out. Boom. See, have you done it? Have you used these? No, but I kind of figured out a way to do it without it. Yeah, as we do. So anyways, like Kramer said, you'll see it in his videos, I'm sure. You basically just come in like that and then pull it through. So these are pliers, ladies and gentlemen, pliers. So say you got a hole that's being difficult, and you get the needle through, but the back side of the needle is a little wider. You're not able to get that through, especially with the thread on there. So what you can do with the pliers, obviously, is pull them out. Now, I don't and wouldn't use those. I always have mine handy. So, Garrett and I actually disagree. I've been using these pliers for a little bit here while I've been doing some other work. I've also been contrasting them with the Leatherman I have and their pliers. And unless your pliers are a lot better than my Leatherman's, these are actually more comfortable and a lot easier, a lot quicker, a lot smaller to grab and pull those needles through. So that's my opinion, but take it or leave it. Next. So these are just some cheap little shears. Pretty nice little shears. Listen to that. Yeah, that's pretty sweet. So these are simply for thread. So you got your thread. You finish up the job. You snip it. Not a big deal. Again, I don't use it. I use this. So, I mean, you just take your thread and snip it. Snip it. Oh, come on. I was nervous. So you snip it, right? So, hey, teach their own. And the final product, this, ladies and gentlemen, is beeswax, which is pretty freaking sweet. This excites me, actually. Now, this is kind of cool. This is basically just a wallet that I – it's a reject wallet. I made this for a guy, and it just didn't turn out right. If anyone has the initials MB, comment below, and you may get a free wallet. So it looks real nice, flush. So now what we're going to do, but you can see it just doesn't look real pretty. It's got some little rough edges. We're going to take this beeswax, and we're just going to rub it on the edge. You're going to take this. This is basically just a piece of wood that has a couple different size notches cut out on it. Now, I actually, for the longest time, just used this, and you can use this as well. This is just a piece of a one-by-one, and you can do the same thing. You can sit there and do this all day, or you can work smarter. Hook this bad boy up to a drill. If you've seen my last video, Garrett's video, my last video, then you know what's coming. So you're going to take this and send it full beam. I know it's really hard to hear me right now, but if you can't, go put subtitles under all this. And I'm just going to keep talking to make it have to put all the subtitles because I know how much of a pain in the butt it is to edit all that up for subtitles. So that being said, it looks pretty good. You can see right there, and as I spin it around, the middle of that is just looking sweet. Kramer's kit did not come with that, but like I said, I took a one-by-one and just kind of shaved it down a bit and used that. Yeah, yours also came with this, which I think is hilarious. And it's the same thing as the leather thing, the leather little finger things. It's to help push the needle through. So I don't know. I mean, you may enjoy using that if that's your kind of look. Yours also didn't come with a beveler. So this is a beveler right here. And what this does is before you go to stitch, you take your edges before you stain it, if you're wanting to stain it, and you're just going to take off this corner. And it just helps all the corners seat up nice and pretty and just gives it a good finished look. If you're doing a lot of leather work, I would honestly buy one of these. This is for, like, sewing. Same thing with this mat. I would definitely get a mat. And this is self-healing. The cool thing about that is I actually bought this, cut it in half, and it self-healed itself back. And I cut it in half again, and I've got, like, ten of these now. No, I'm just kidding. No, when you cut it like that, it just kind of seals back up. This, basically, it'll cut leather really nice. And it's just really nice to get good cuts. The other one I like, this is cool for, like, same thing, just cutting. But I like it for just making real meticulous cuts, maybe making corners. Or if I do have two pieces of leather, I can kind of get those lined up when it's glued. And I can trim those down real nice to where they're matching, and I don't have to file as much. Here's my beeswax. I wanted to eat it once, but I didn't. All right, guys, so all that being said, I know I made fun of some of these tools. I still have a lot of these and use a lot of these. And, of course, again, I started with literally a roofing nail and a piece of black iron pipe. And that's all I used. And then I bought a couple needles from Hobby Lobby. That's all I used. So you can use just about anything. These tools really help make stuff more efficient, quicker, easier. But, like I said, if it's something that you want to get into, you definitely, any type of craft, whether it's leather, bow making, you don't need the fanciest, hey, what's that scrape? Draw knife. Yeah, draw knife. You don't need the fanciest draw knife. You could use, what's something you could use? Pocket knife. Pocket knife. You could use a machete. You could use anything. Hatchet. Hatchet. So any time you want to start a craft and you're like, well, I don't have the money for the tools or I don't have the right tools or whatever, don't let it be an excuse. This is my first leather product I ever made. Pretty rough, as you can tell. So the stitching's real uneven. The edges are really uneven. I ran out of thread with three stitch holes left. So I just had to tie it off. So this is, like, really, you know, bad, in my opinion. But I'm proud of it because this is the first thing I ever made out of leather. And it's very functionable. Functionable? Function-u-able? I don't know. It works. So this is just the sheath I made for a knife. So that's awesome. This is the second thing. So this is still using a nail and a piece of black iron pipe to punch the holes. But you can see I took a lot more time. I noticed on this how much you can actually see where those stitches go. So I took my time making sure I had straight lines while I was punching the holes and pulling the thread tight at the same strength. So the other thing you can do is tighten some threads more and you'll have different looks. So that's that. That was the second thing I made. Now this is something I've created. And this is just a sheath for a pocket knife I have. And let me get this out. So you can just see that this is the wall that I made recently. You can go watch that video. He'll have the link down there, I'm sure. But you can see the difference in quality. And this is the time of noticing what happened when you did what is another big thing. So I know a lot of leather guys actually journal what they're doing while they're doing it. I don't. I'm not a big writer. Kramer, do you journal when you build bows at all, ever? Or have you heard of any? Yeah. So it's the same thing. For instance, I use twice as much thread as my distance. So I mentally took the note. And since I have to look at this every day, I think about it. Now I actually use four times the length of thread. So if I'm using this thread, I'll actually run it out one, two, three, four. And sometimes I'll give it a little extra pinch just for good luck. And that's what I would use to thread this up. If you have questions about leatherworking, I know there's a lot of craftsmen that watch Kramer's channel here. So if you're wanting to get into leatherworking or just wanting to do it for bow handles, let me know in the comments on his channel. I'll be looking at them. And hopefully I can answer those for you. I'm not the smartest when it comes to this. This is literally, I've been doing this for a couple months. I've just really enjoyed doing it. But I'll help you out as much as I can because there have been people in my life that have helped me with it. Hey, Garrett. Thank you so much for helping me out with this video. If you made it this far in the video, congratulations. You are one of the select few who get to hear our final take on the video. Really, if you made it that long, that's impressive. Here is 15 seconds telling you what tools we did and didn't like in this leather kit. Adjustable stitching groover. Hook the awl. Hollow awl. Solid wood awl. Black pressure cloth tooth. Log pressure cloth tooth. Scissors. Leather needle. Beeswax. Finger cots. Thimble. Waxed yarn or rope. Flat nose plier. Clean hair ball. In the end, the question is, would I buy this leather kit? Would I buy it again? My answer? No. I don't think I would buy this again because it doesn't have enough of the right things. But I did more research and I did find a leather kit that does have things like a proper groover. And it does have stitching irons for the same price practically. So if you want to make awesome leather goods like these ones that Garrett made for me, I'm going to leave a link in the description for you guys. You can click on that link and go straight to that leather kit and buy it. In the next video, I'm going to finish up the bow that I'm making for Garrett. So you're going to need to subscribe if you want to see that. It's going to be so cool. I'm inlaying a handle on it and man, this thing is looking awesome. So you're going to want to see that. Thank you again for joining me. Guys, have a great day.