Leather Cutting Tools

• Leather workers cut leather using knives, rotary cutters and scissors. The rotary cutters and scissors are the same type used for fabric cutting. Always use a cutting mat to protect the surface on which you are working.
  
  Toolers use a swivel knife to cut a pattern or design into the leather. Swivel knife blades turn freely in the handle to cut curves more easily.
  
  Use leather-carving gouges and edging and beveling tools to create channels, lines and folds in the leather as needed for the project. Cut a bevel on the edges of a leather piece to create a professional-looking seam, a process called skiving.
  
  

Leather Drawing and Sewing Tools

• The crafter copies or traces a pattern onto waxed paper or special plastic sheets, then uses a ball point stylus or ball point pen to transfer the pattern onto the surface of the leather. He uses punches and awls to ready leather pieces for assembly, if indicated. You cannot simply sew most leather as you would another fabric since leather is a tougher material; it must have holes to allow sewing or lacing.
  
  You can use a wheel punch to simplify the spacing of holes. Wheel sizes are five, six or seven holes per inch.
  
  

Leather Stamping and Embossing Tools

• Use metal, leather and plastic stamping tools to impress or emboss designs on the project. Strike designs into the leather using mallets and hammers along with embossing and stamping tools. Work on the reverse side to create raised designs on the front of the piece. Use a hard strike of the hammer with large stamps. Strike smaller ones more softly to prevent damaging them while still sufficiently transferring the tool's design into the leather.
  
  Leather stamps are created as templates by the leather crafter. You should only use a wooden mallet when working with leather stamps to prevent damaging the stamp or handle of the tool.
  
  A tooled area should not be struck twice as this only serves to blur the design, rather than make it crisper or sharper.
  
  Use embossing wheels to create border designs quickly and easily. They are also designed to fit wheel handles used to punch holes for stitching leather.
  
  

Other Leather Tooling Supplies and Tips

• Use vegetable-tanned leather, also known as tooling leather, for your tooling projects. Tooling leather is recommended for use with embossing wheels.
  
  Put water in a non-metal spray bottle to dampen the tooling leather prior working it. The water darkens the leather, which regains its normal color, but remains damp, when it is ready to be worked.
  
  If the leather dries out during tooling, dampen it with a wet sponge. If you have to interrupt your work, put the item in a plastic storage bag and place it in the refrigerator until you resume your work.
  
  Apply wax to the completed project which keeps designs clear and sharp for a longer period of time.