Leathercraft for Absolute Beginners

You have never touched a knife to leather. By the end of this book you will have made fifteen things.

Most leatherwork books assume you already own a bench full of tools and know what a saddle stitch looks like. This one starts earlier than that - with which piece of leather to buy, how to hold the knife, and why your first cut wanders.

Nine core techniques are taught one at a time, each on its own spread, each with a photograph of what the finished result should look like. Then you build fifteen projects that use them, in the order they get harder.

• 9 core techniques - cutting, skiving, beveling, grooving, punching, saddle stitching, burnishing, cutting long straps, and turning a corner
• 15 projects from a flat bookmark to a watch strap, each with a full cutting list, numbered steps and a troubleshooting box
• Exact sizes for every piece - no guesswork, no pattern sheets to photocopy
• The twelve tools you actually need, and the ones you can put off buying
• A practice piece before the first project, so you make your mistakes on scrap
• A finder table at the back: every technique and project with its page number

Complete beginners. Anyone who has bought a starter kit and does not know where to begin. Anyone who wants to make a wallet, a belt or a dog collar by hand and keep it for twenty years.

Every project is sized in inches, uses hardware you can buy anywhere, and takes an evening or a weekend.

Scroll up and start with the bookmark.