5 Easy tips for leathercraft

Discover my 5 shop tips to help your leartherwork!

After nearly 5 years enjoying leathercraft as a hobby, I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that I find really help me on a day to day basis in my shop.

Whether you are starting off or a veteran leatherworker, I hope these will help you as much as they have helps me!

Check out the video above, or read on to find out more…

TIP #1 - Use clamps and a straight edge

A straight edge, metal bar or ruler can be VERY handy around your shop. I have a few of different sizes but for this trick I’ll always go for my longest straight edge.

Grab a couple of clamps and, using your cutting mat as a guide, clap your leather piece between the straight edge and your cutting mat.

This will enable you to cut perfectly straight edges over a long piece of leather every time!

You can also clamp down your straight edge and use it as an extra support when beveling strap edges: as you can see in the video this works really well, especially on thing straps that would normally be a pain to bevel.

TIP #2 - Use clamps to open glue pots

“Why the hell did I not think of this before!” is exactly what I told myself when I thought of this, years into the hobby and after discarding more than one impossible-to-open glue pot.

Using two clamps, one holding the pot and one holding the cap, you can now apply way more force to open the pot than using just your hands. Since I am often varying between glue pots (and they’re often a bit messed-up with glue when I close them), I’m often finding that the caps on my glue pots simply refuse to be opened….

With this trick I have ALWAYS been able to open even the most stubborn glue pot!

TIP #3 - Use 100% cotton gloves to burnish your leather

When I started leatherwork, understanding how to get a good burnish quickly become one of life’s biggest mysteries. Very soon I found out that understanding what leathers to use was the first thing that would influence the burnish.

The second part to burnishing is finding the right tools and product to burnish with, and though there are as many methods as there are leatherworkers, here is my humble proposal that I hope will help you.

Use 100% cotton gloves.

Why 100% cotton?

This is the material that will give you the best friction power without leaving any nasty residue on your leather. It’s cheap and plentiful and can be found nearly anywhere.

Why gloves?

For the huge amount of control they give you, making it easy to burnish tight corners or very thin layers of leather, and enabling you to really feel what’s going on under your fingers!

Seriously, just try it.

TIP #4 - Make your own leather balm or wax

Looking for a great stocking fillers or gifts to slide into customer orders? Look no further!

Making leatherbalm is actually very simple and you only need 2 ingredients that most leatherworkers already have lying around the shop: neatsfoot oil and pure beeswax.

My preferred method is to heat up a mixture of 60% neatsfoot oil and 40% pure beeswax and carfully pour it into small aluminum containers.

WARNING: this mixture gets VERY hot while your making it so take all the necessary precautions to stay safe!

TIP #5 - Use Saphir Renovateur as a finishing agent

Although it’s primarily made to give a new life to old leather items, I find that Saphir Renovateur cream works great at providing a long-lasting and gorgeous looking finish on your leather items.

The oils this product contains will help moisturize your leather, bringing back some of the suppleness, while the waxes will not only protect the leather against wear and tear but also give your piece a great shine, making it ready to send out to your customer

Bonus tip - Join communities and share your work!

Wherever you may be in your leatherworking journey, consider joining a leatherwork community like the leatherwork groups that can be found on Facebook or Reddit.

They are full of talented and helpful people who love to share, learn and educate together. It’s where I get a lot of my inspiration and I’ve often turned to them to help me in my craft.

While you’re at it, consider also sharing this article with a friend or two! Not only will it help me out, but it might also help them out ;)

Thanks for reading until the end and happy crafting!