How To Start Leatherworking as a Beginner

A leather crafter at work. Leatherworking requires steady hands and good tools.

Leatherworking requires steady hands and good tools. That is why it is important to learn how to start leatherworking as a beginner

Leatherworking is both a practical hobby and a creative art to practice. Here’s how to start leatherworking as a beginner if you’re not sure what to do.

BY ALEX TOWNASTALLI, ARTCENTRON

The intoxicating smell of leather, the satisfaction of working with one’s hands, and the pride of creating something you can use are all reasons to pick leatherworking as your new hobby. While leatherworking is a craft that is viewed primarily for its practical benefits, the long history of tanning leather and crafting it by hand is no less of an art. If you’re wondering how to start leatherworking as a beginner, then allow us to share some good tips and pointers.

Pick Your Project

The first step is to pick out what kind of project you want to pursue. This will help determine what kind of tools you’ll need to gather, and you’ll be far more motivated if the project you’re crafting holds interest to you. Furthermore, it’ll help narrow down what kinds of tools and techniques you’ll need to learn, preventing you from feeling overwhelmed by the incredibly expansive number of skills involved in leatherworking.

Assemble Your Tools

Next, once you’ve picked out your project, you can start looking for the appropriate tools. It’s important you decide on an objective first because there are simply so many different tools and accessories to choose from that it will be both too expensive and overwhelming to simply “buy them all” ahead of time. For example, wallets are a common beginner project, and for that, you’ll need a simple toolkit consisting of the following:

Steel ruler
Roll cutter
Wax pencil
Edge creaser
Stitching groove cutter
Diamond hole puncher
Sewing needles & wax thread
Stitching pony

Even for such a seemingly simple project, that’s a pretty expansive list of tools you’ll need to have to ensure you make a quality wallet.

Sourcing Your Leather

Of course, when you start leatherworking as a beginner, you don’t want to waste high-quality leather on practice. For leather that is affordable and perfect for making mistakes, you should look for an online leather retailer that offers leather scraps.

Leather scraps are simply leftover scraps that can’t be sold as quality material, so instead, they’re offered at bargain bin prices to avoid creating waste.