Beginner’s Tips for Leatherworking
by Eric Filardi
Okay, after recently working with leather (all day today), I have compiled a list of things NOT to do when using it:
1) Don’t put your pattern in the middle of the hide and start cutting it out, then realize you wasted the whole hide.
2) Don’t leave your Exacto knife loose after putting a blade in, and breaking 7 blades before figuring out what the heck you did wrong.
3) Do NOT slice the tip of your pointer finger off, and get lots of blood on the bracer you were working on.
4) Don’t let your cat(s) carry in dead birds from outside and drop them on the leather while you are on the phone.
5) Don’t drop the open bottle of black leather dye on your sparkling clean hardwood floor.
6) Don’t put your thumb on your cutting line.
7) Don’t let small children sneak up and jump on you while you are cutting the leather.
Last but not least:
8) Don’t do all of this, finally finish the pattern, to realize that its too small to fit you.