Getting Started in Leathercraft: Tools and Materials

The importance of leatherworking tools

The origin of leather and leatherworking goes back to the very beginning of human civilization. The process of “vegetable tanning” leather — in which the raw cow hides are steeped in a slurry of fresh water, ground tree bark, roots, leaves, and wood pulp — goes back to the Sumerians and Etruscans, around 3,000 B.C. Some historians say that leather tanning goes back further than that, maybe back to 7,000 B.C., which is almost 10,000 years ago. Ten thousand years, and those same vegetable tanning techniques are still used today. Of course, back then they worked leather with a few stone and wooden tools and a lot of hard work. 

Cut to today. Leatherworking tools have become works of art in their own rite. Modern leatherworking tools can get pretty expensive, with $500 sets of pricking irons, and $2,000 edge creasing machines and all kinds of other hyper-specialty tools that cost a fortune. But remember, for 9,900 years, leather workers didn’t have expensive tools from Crimson Hides, Palo Santo, KS Blade, Sinabroks, or Vergez Blanchard. They used a sharp knife, a handful of nails, a hammer, and some dried sinew for thread, and they still made some of the finest leatherwork ever known. 

Where should I buy my leather tools?

Don’t worry about buying expensive tools during the first few years of your leather journey. Just focus on finding the right types of tools that’ll help you make your vision come to life. My philosophy is, use inexpensive tools from companies like Tandy Leather, Owden leather tools, Kevin Lee in China, Buckleguy, or Weaver Leather until you figure out exactly what kind of leatherwork you want to do. Then, when you know which tools you use the most—and which ones you hardly ever use—you can start buying your “forever tools.”

My favorite places to buy leather tools and hardware

Tandy Leather: Every leathercrafter’s first love

Tandy Leather is the OG leather supplier, and they are absolutely great for the basics — cheap edge bevelers, rivet setters, snap setters, double cap rivets, line 24 snaps, segma snaps, tooling stamps, dyes, glues, finishes, etc. Tandy’s got it all. I LOVE the Montana veg tan sides they sell for $159, although to be honest, I find a lot of their inexpensive leathers to be slightly disappointing.

However, disappointments aside, I have to give respect where it’s due: Tandy is the original leathercraft supplier in the USA, and without them, I’m not sure there would be an American leathercraft scene at all. And despite some issues with cheap-looking plated hardware and occasionally disappointing discount leathers, I would estimate that about half of the tools on my workbench come from Tandy. And I especially love their Craftool Pro line, particularly the Craftool Pro Round Strap End Punches, Japanese Heavy Duty Oblong Punches, and Craftool Pro Stitching Awl.

Montana Veg Tan

From Tandy, Montana Veg Tan Leather is a wonderful, medium temper leather that’s both soft, with a lot of body so it’s fairly easy to work with. One of my personal favorites.

Owden Leather Tools: the Tandy of China?

Owden leather tools (which you can find on Amazon and on www.OwdenCraft.com) has an excellent set of 12 round hole punches that I’ve been using for years, and they’re still sharp as hell. I don’t know much about the company itself, but they seem to be the Tandy of China—good tools at affordable prices. When I was first filling my bench with all the little doodads and wingdings, Owden held it down and made it possible for me to experiment with a lot of new techniques. I personaly own all three of the strap end punch sets—Corner Punches, V-shape End Punches, and Half-Round End Punches, as well as the Owden Stitching Groover Set, the Edge Beveler Set (which I can’t recommend in good faith), and the 4-in1 Awl Set which is shockingly high quality.

Owden Round Hole Punch Set for $33

Owden does a great job of selliing no-nonsense leather tools. This 13-piece round hole punch set is one of the best values in leathercraft.

Kevin Lee Leather Tools: The best leather tools on the market

Kevin Lee Leather Tools is based in China, and they make some of the absolute best leather tools on the planet right now. Their prices are incredible, they have a massive selection of every leather tool you can think of, and and they even make custom leather tools. I have so many tools from Kevin Lee that I simply don’t have time to list and link them all, but I strongly recommend everything they make.

One particular callout: I have a few different sets of Kevin Lee’s high end “pro” stitching chisels, but their Upgraded Basic Diamond Chisels in size 3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm are only $65, built like a tank, made of ultra-high-quality steel, and they’re perfect for beginners. Kevin Lee also has a ton of great cutting tools and skiving knives, corner punches, French edgers, a ridiculously huge selection of stitching ponies, and so much more. The only drawback is that they’re in China, so shipping already takes a while, and American President Cheeto’s tariffs have put a bit of a damper on the whole “ultra-affordable” vibe.

Basic Diamond Stitching Chisels from Kevin Lee

Available from Kevin Lee, a full set of the Basic Upgraded Diamond Irons will cost you $65. His premium irons that cost around $200 are some of the best I’ve ever used, but the basic ones are an incredible value for n00bs.

Buckleguy: The best hardware money can buy, and amazing customer service

Buckleguy is hands down the best hardware in the business, but it’s expensive, and if you don’t know what you’re buying, it’s easy to over-spend on the wrong things. I would start with cheaper hardware from other sources like Tandy and Weaver (NOT AMAZON) first until you figure out what you like, then start buying the good stuff on Buckleguy. Side note, the BG branded tools are VERY high quality, and they have shockingly competitive prices on leather, including a $109 side of Korba Vegetable Tanned Carving Leather from India. The Korba veg tan is good leather, but it’s basically bone white and doesn’t seem to patina very easily (I assume they use bleach at some point in the tanning process), so you really need to dye it to make it look good. But at $109 for a whole side of veg tan, it’s a great leather for practicing and prototyping.

Weaver Leather: Great content, professional quality tools, and affordable hardware

Weaver Leather is the gold standard of the leathercraft world. Their videos with Chuck Dorsett and Corter Leather taught me almost everything I know about leathercraft. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff on Weaver—especially their Master Tools—are professional grade, and VERY expensive. What I like about Weaver is that they have a huge selection of inexpensive hardware. Zinc hardware isn’t as nice as the solid brass stuff that I use exclusively these days, but for when you’re first starting out, Weaver has a huge selection of Zinc buckles, D-rings, O-rings, double cap rivets, and swivel snaps—basically everything you need to start making bags and straps and belts—with most of their basic hardware starting around $1.50 apiece.

When I first got started in leathercraft, I went on Weaver and bought a couple units of every piece of hardware that looked good to me. I spent about $100 and gained some priceless knowledge about which sizes and styles I wanted to use in the long run.

Inexpensive hardware from Weaver Leather

While a single solid brass trigger snap from Buckleguy will cost you about $6, Weaver has dozens of inexpensive options in a huge variety of finishes.

Should I buy leather tools on Amazon?

When I first got started leathercrafting, I went hog wild buying cheap tools on Amazon, and in retrospect, I think that was a mistake. I bought every set of the cheap diamond stitching chisels from Aisaker, but realized later that the teeth weren’t perfectly straight, and the spacing wasn’t exact. I could have just bought the $28 basic diamond irons from Weaver Leather Supply and I would have saved myself a lot of headaches. The reason I didn’t do that in the first place is that a lot of the stuff on Weaver is really expensive, and I was intimidated.

Now, there are a few inexpensive leather tools on Amazon that I really like. Amazon is one of the only places in the USA that you can easily buy Owden leather tools as I mentioned above. Amazon is also a good place to get basic stuff like glue and double cap rivets when you need them fast. But honestly, most of the stuff on Amazon is the same cheap Chinese junk that you find on Temu and Alibaba. All the leather tools look good in the pictures, but they’re really just cheap garbage that will cheapen your brand and make you regret the purchase.

Avoid junk leather tools from Amazon, Temu, and Alibaba

Complete sets like this might seem appealing at first glance, but trust me, they’re junk. If you’re serious about getting into leathercraft and you buy a set like this, you will regret the purchase almost immediately.

Also, fuck Amazon. I hate what Amazon and Jeff Bezos have done to the small businesses in our country and around the world. Every leather brand in America (even the big ones like Weaver) are still small businesses, and Amazon is the enemy of small business. Amazon has made it almost impossible for small companies to make a profit without first making a bigger profit for Amazon. I recently canceled my Prime subscription, deleted the Amazon Prime app from my phone, and unplugged all my Alexas, and I’m never buying leather or leather tools on Amazon ever again (I’m serious).

Still, if you’re in a pinch and need something hyper-specific that you can’t find at the local Home Depot or Ace Hardware (leather glue is not easy to get out there in the wild), Amazon can be a great place to cheap prices and fast shipping on “basics” like utility knife blades, rulers, cutting mats, sandpaper, chopping blocks, and sharpening stones. Full transparency: I bought a really nice set of sharpening stones on Amazon just a couple weeks before I deleted the app, and they’re great. But still, fuck Amazon. If you want to support small businesses and keep the leather industry from being ruined by tech bros, I would avoid buying leather tools on Amazon.

Where should I buy my leather?

Hoo boy. This is a complicated question. You can get leather almost anywhere online, and there’s a lot of good stuff out there. I’ll share my favorites, and give you a few pointers, but my best advice is to find a physical store that sells leather, and go there and TOUCH the leather and feel it and see what kinds of stuff you like. If you have a Tandy Leather store near you, go there and talk to people! Even better, you might luck out and find a truly independent leather store, like Jackson’s Western Store in Asheville, North Carolina. Jackson’s was the first place I ever bought leather or leather tools. I love that store, and I try to make a stop there whenever I’m anywhere near Asheville (which isn’t that often these days).

Find your leather community, online or in person

No matter where you live, you should do a few Google searches and see if there’s a saddle shop or western store in your area (those kinds of stores usually sell leather and leather tools). And if there are no leather shops, saddle shops, or western stores in your area, the leather community is very big and very friendly. Most leather websites are pretty easy to get in touch with. I’ve had phone conversations and email exchanges with the folks at Buckleguy, Weaver, Maverick, LeatherSkins.com, and pretty much every other site that I’ve shopped with.

Plus, there’s tons of really great Facebook groups, sub-Reddits, and leather forums out there. Check out Leatherworker.net, Leathercraft Forum, r/leathercraft, International Leather Club, Maker’s Leather Supply, and MakeSupply, where they have FREE leather patterns, tutorials, and a whole community of crafters.

My favorite leather stores

LeatherSkins.com — the best kept secret in the leather industry

LeatherSkins.com — Full disclosure, I have a special relationship with Leather Skins. They don’t sponsor me, but I work with them as part of my day job in digital marketing. They give me good deals on leather, and in exchange I give them a lot of shoutouts on social media, and I’ve helped them grow their online brand. But even without our shared relationship, I would still shop for most of my leather on LeatherSkins.com—they are the best kept secret in the leather world.

Leather Skins has a HUGE selection of affordable leathers, including an amazing Designer Closeouts Leather collection, plus they have small skins and whole hides and everything in between. Gorgeous Pig Suede in 60+ colors that feels like spun silk, metallic, pearlized, and iridescent leathers that are perfect for costume and cosplay, tons of gorgeous vegetable tanned leathers, including high-end Italian veg tan leathers that you can’t get anywhere else in the United States, plus bison, buffalo and deerskin leather, cowhide and calfskin leathers, a huge selection of sheep and lambskin leather, basically everything you could ask for… and their prices are VERY competitive. Leather Skins also has the biggest selection of leathers in the NYC leather district.

LeatherSkins.com in NYC Leather District

Seriously, if you live in the NYC area and you want to play with different leathers, this is the place to go. The guys at Leather Skins are the best. Tell them Swift sent you!

Maverick Leather: the best place to buy discounted Horween sides

Maverick Leather Company — These guys sell tannery “seconds” from Horween and other big tanneries, which means they have really cheap, high quality leather. The only drawback of seconds is that they often have some cosmetic defects like scars, brands, and bug bites. But if you’re learning and don’t care about cosmetic issues, Maverick is the best place to buy cheap leather for beginners who want to experiment with different types of hides. They also have awesome bundles that are actually a really great value, where you get 3 or 4 full sides of leather for around $250 which is a GREAT deal.

Springfield Leather — Big selection of leather, sold by the square foot

Springfield Leather — These guys sell relatively inexpensive leather of varying qualities. What most people like about Springfield is that they sell their leather by the square foot, so you can buy smaller amounts of stuff to try it out without having to buy a whole side. Sides are usually 22 square feet, which is absolutely massive, and not so easy to cut up in small spaces, so being able to buy 10 square feet of a certain leather is really cool if you work in a small workshop.

Rocky Mountain Leather (RMLeatherSupply.com) — The home of high end, exotic, and ultra-premium leathers

Rocky Mountain Leather — Rocky Mountain Leather is the place to shop for expensive, premium, luxury-grade leathers. They have sides of leather that are more expensive than most people’s car payments, but, they also sell most of their leathers in panels as small as 1 square foot. So if you want to make wallets, keychains, and other small goods with seriously premium leather without shelling out $500 for a whole side, Rocky Mountain is a good place to go to stock up. They have a HUGE selection of both leather, tools, hardware, and supplies like glue and whatnot, all of it premium quality for “serious” leatherworkers. It’s definitely a fun site to visit, just don’t get overwhelmed by the sticker shock.

Do I need to spend a fortune to become a good leathercrafter?

Short answer: NO! All you need to become a great leathercrafter is a ruler, a cutting mat, a sharp knife or utility blade, a couple of round punches, some glue, some basic stitching chisels, an awl, a mallet, some leather, and a whole lot of time. Don’t get caught up in the marketing tricks of social media and the internet. You can make great products with just a handful of tools, many of which you might already have in your house.

Every leathercrafter, from the bedroom hobbyist, to the world-famous influencers, to the best saddlemakers in the west all started off in the exact same place: as a beginner, just like you. The only difference between an amateur and a professional is time, practice, and a little hard work. Just make sure to plan your projects carefully, take your time, measure twice, cut once, and most importantly: enjoy yourself!

— Bryan Swift