Getting the Most Out of Cheap Leather

Craftsman Oak is the cheapest version of leather that Tandy sells. And it’s no secret that it’s rough, but that’s a good thing when you’re beginning. The low quality is why they are so cheap, and cheap leather is great leather to practice on.

But just because you receive it in rough shape doesn’t mean you can’t make the best of it. While Craftsman Oak is a far cry from say, Horween’s leather (which will cost you a heck of a lot more), you can still create beautiful pieces with it. It just takes a little more coaxing.

I used Craftsman Oak a lot when I was learning. And I started to notice similar problems with each of them, and eventually learned how to deal with those problems. Hopefully this list helps you create beautiful end products, even though you are still learning with cheap leather.

Problem #1: Holes, Scars, and Folds

Top side blemish.

Check for blemishes on the underside as well.

Solution: Any piece of cheap leather is going to have these defects, but these defects don’t  need to make their way into your project. If you’re creating something small like a wallet, it’s easy to cut around these defects no matter what cut of leather you purchased. If you are wanting to make something larger, like a bag, you need to get a bigger cut of leather. You’ll have a hard time finding enough space without blemishes on a smaller piece, even if it is technically enough leather for the project. When you’re inspecting the leather, prior to buying it, make sure there is enough distance between the blemishes to fit the pieces of your project.

Problem #2: Too Stiff

Solution: There are ways to lessen this, but just know you aren’t go to make an extremely stiff pieces of leather extremely flexible. It’s more like, it was once really stiff and now its just sort of stiff. Putting oil on the leather prior to sealing it with a wax cream will help loosen it up. There are a number of different oils you can use, but I like to use olive oil because I always have it around. Also, unlike some other oils, olive oil will not darken the leather too much.

Don’t be afraid to be generous with the oil. Depending on the leather, it will take a decent amount of oil to start seeing results. Just make sure you apply it evenly because it does darken the leather a small amount. Using a sponge is a great way to apply both oils and dyes.

Problem #3: Feels like Cardboard

This is the topside of two different pieces of leather. The one on the left looks as it should, while the one on the right almost looks like its the underside due to how coarse it is.

Solution: First of all don’t panic. I remember getting a piece of leather that I had shipped to my house (go in to the store if you can), and thinking that the top layer had been skived off somehow. It hadn’t, it was just insanely coarse. Go ahead and dye it just like you would any other piece of leather and then make sure to be generous when you apply the carnauba cream. You may have to give it a few coats, but you can get it looking healthy again.

If it still looks and feels coarse after applying a few coats of carnauba cream, you can also take your slicker/burnisher and buff the surface of the leather by running it quickly back and forth across the top of the leather. This will give it a shinier look.

Problem #4: Messy Underside

Neither of these would be considered high quality, but you can tell the one of the left definition has messier fibers. Be sure to matte down the fibers in both situations.

Solution: I thought way to long about how to get a joke out of that problem title, no luck. Anyway, on really nice pieces of leather none of the fibers on the underside will be sticking up, but on cheap pieces of leather that is not the case. Some craftsman oak cuts aren’t too bad, but then again there are some that are really bad. If that is the case, just take a slicker/burnishing tool and run it back and forth across the back of the leather with gum tragacanth to matte down the fibers. It won’t be as nice as a quality piece of leather and after some use the fibers will stick up a little, but it still makes a noticeable difference.

These are just some of the things I did to get more out of the craftsman oak leathers. Adding oils and waxes, cutting around blemishes, and matting down loose fibers really helped increase the quality of my early projects. But I know there are more tips out there on how to work with this kind of leather. If you’ve come up with any, or heard of any, share them in the comments below - they just might get added to this list and, even better, help everyone here. 

Where to Buy Leather When You're Just Starting

My First Experience Buying Leather

When I bought my first piece of leather, I was an idiot. Christmas had just ended and I had a little spending money to purchase the leather for my first project. So naturally, I opened up Google and typed in something like 'buy leather for leatherworking.' Tandy was the first search result. Once there I looked around their leathers and decided on a medium quality leather, because who wants to buy the crappy stuff. Finding a cut in my price range, I hit order, filled in my information and was done. I had successfully ordered my first piece of leather... sort of. The reality was I didn't even know what kind of leather I needed. I didn’t know which parts of the hide I needed (yup it matters… more than you’d think). I didn’t know what tannery to get my leather from, and didn't really even know that they used widely different processes. And then what the hell is chrome tanned anyways.

When the leather arrived it was perhaps the ugliest piece of leather I'd seen, and that's only been reinforced by my experience since. It was mangled, loaded with creases, bent, and the grain on the flesh side stuck out a good half inch. Since then I've learned a lot about purchasing leather, and have bought a lot cheaper pieces that are a lot better quality. So, now that I have a bit of experience under my belt, I wrote down some tips to help you not be an idiot too:

Buy cheap

Sometimes I get really excited about a project and dream big, which is great, except that it means I overlook how tough some of the details are. When you are new, you have to come to terms with the fact that you are going to make mistakes no matter how hard you try. Things you won’t even think of will go wrong… something weird like your brown dye coming out with a green sheen. Make your mistakes on cheap leather. There’s nothing worse than making an incorrect cut or screwing up the dying process on a piece of leather you just dropped $300 on. If you’ve got money to waste, feel free to waste it on a custom order from my shop, not on expensive mistakes.

Tandy is great for buying cheap leather.

Tandy Leather is a leather retailer for hobbyists located close to major cities in the US. Here is their website: tandyleather.com

I view Tandy in the same way that I view McDonalds. When I was in college, spending a bunch of time learning and had little money for anything, $3 meals were greatest thing known to man. But all good things must come to an end, especially if they will end you. And so I don’t eat McDonalds any more because I don’t want to die at 30. Tandy is great for learning - it’s great because you can leather extraordinarily cheap, but just know the leather is cheap for a reason, and one day you will have to mature and branch out to keep growing as a craftsman.

Here’s a few things to know when buying leather from Tandy.

1. Their cheapest leather is called Craftsman Oak. That’s the one you want. It will have scars on it, spots where the leather got mangled in the machine, poor grain, and maybe even some brands on it. All those defects knock down the price and make it great leather to learn with. 

2. Tandy is always having sales. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to Tandy and not seen a cut of their Craftsman Oak on sale. Sometimes it's the single shoulder, sometimes it's the side, sometimes it’s the belly, etc, but something is always on sale. As I write this, they have double shoulders on sale for $60. Look for those sales - just make sure it’s the right cut for what you are doing.

3. Craftsman Oak leathers aren’t from the same place. They grab the leather that doesn’t make the cut from different tanneries and lump them together and sell them as Craftsman Oak. As is the case with all leathers from different tanneries, they don’t dye the same, don’t burnish the same, and generally have a different rigidity. Most these things can be dealt with. However, when you are learning and one day burnishing is easy and the next it’s suddenly unworkable, it’s very hard to track your progress. That’s why I suggest buying a larger piece of leather (sides work for this). A bigger piece of leather will be enough for multiple projects, which gives you a consistent experience with the leather and better track your progress.

4. Any other leather at Tandy is generally overpriced. Tandy does offer higher quality leathers, but I don’t suggest buying them there. Once you feel comfortable that you won’t make many costly mistakes, it’s time to buy from a tannery that works with smaller customers.

5. Go in if you can. This is one of the really great things about Tandy. They are all over and if you live close to a big city there’s a good chance you can find a Tandy nearby. When you go in, you get to check out all the variables yourself. You get to see for yourself how big the piece of leather is, which actually varies a lot. You can see how tough or how supple it is. You get to see what the gain on the back looks like. You get the idea.

6. If you cannot go in, or you are really trying to keep things inexpensive use Tandy Leather Outlet: https://www.tandyleatheroutlet.com. Note the outlet at the end. This is different than Tandy’s online store. It’s all the leather they couldn’t sell. And it’s incredibly cheap. I once bought a really ugly pre-dyed side of leather for $30. Sure it was ugly but I got so much experience out of it. Here’s something I made with it early on.

And that’s it.

Buying cheap leather is the best choice when you are starting off and Tandy is a really good place to find it. Hopefully these tips help you get the most out of your experience at Tandy. But even with the tips I know that navigating buying leather for the first time can be intimidating, so if you want any help at all just let me know by dropping your question in the comments below or sending me an email. I also know that I probably didn’t cover all the questions that you have about buying leather. What’s your one question about buying leather?

As I mentioned above, I still have a lot more tips for buying leather for people new to leatherwork that I will be writing about over the new couple of weeks. I post every Tuesday and Thursday, but if you want to make sure not to miss these posts, I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter.

6 Tips for Better Cuts

Cutting leather is one of those things we don’t think about often, because it seems so elementary. But here’s a few things you can be intentional about to create cleaner cuts and save time when prepping your edges for burnishing.

1. Sharpen your knives… a lot. This is one of those things I dreaded doing most, but dull knives make terrible cuts. It seemed tedious, which is sometimes is. And it seemed like it would take forever to learn, which is also true. But it will make you better and you need to get in the habit of doing it. Start small and commit to sharping your knife for 5 minutes before every leather working session. Overtime you will build a skill for it. Make sure to check out this video to ensure you’re doing it right. If you’re using a rotary cutter the blades are obviously replaceable and you can buy sharpers for them that make sharpening easy. For beginners rotary cutters are great, but don’t let the idea of sharpening by hand prevent you from switching to a knife when the time comes. Using a knife gives you a lot more control and is well worth learning. 

2. Make templates. When I first started leather working I measured and marked on my leather using a ruler and no template. This is dumb on a number of levels: you’re prone to mistakes, you haven’t thought through the entire project so you’ll think of things you need too late, and any mistake you make will be on leather instead of poster board. Instead make a template on poster board and make it neat so you can use it to trace it onto the leather with a compass or something similar. All my lines and therefore cuts were much cleaner after making this simple change. 

3. Score. You should use a ruler to keep your cuts nice and straight, but sometimes rulers slip. This generally happens when you put too much force on my knife to achieve my cuts. There’s two things you can do to fix this. One is sharpening the knife (seriously go do it). The second is scoring the leather. Once I’ve traced my pattern onto my leather, I will run the knife over the lines lightly (still using my ruler to ensure a straight cut). After doing this I’ll then make my cut all the way through the leather. If your ruler does slip your knife will usually stay in the groove and prevent an expensive mistake.

4. Prevent your hand from rolling. Keeping your edges nice and flat will make beveling and burnishing that much easier. Ensure they are flat by keeping your blade perfectly perpendicular to the leather as you are cutting. This seems like common sense, yet your hand with naturally turn inward the further the cut gets away from you. Don’t over extend your arm as you cut to prevent this from happening.

5. Wet your edges. This is technically a beveling tip, but beveling is technically cutting… right? Anyways, some leather's grain (or surface), especially on soft leathers, will start to bunch as you bevel. This makes your edges look jagged instead of clean. Wetting your edges just before you begin beveling will keep the grain of the leather from puckering.

6. Rotate leather as you cut rounded corners. Cutting rounded corners can be tricky with out a punch to create a clean edge for you. If you’re using a knife, you can create smoother edges by rotating the leather as you cut the corner instead of moving your knife around the corner. If you’re right handed, push down on the leather with your left hand and turn your hand slowly and smoothly clockwise while pushing your right hand forward. If it still looks a little blocky you can always come back and sand it, but better to get it right the first time. For those of you who are sewing cloth bag linings, this same skill is used to make rounded corners.

I really hope these tips help make your cuts cleaner. If I left anything out, be sure to let me know in the comments. And I love to see some before and after pictures of your cuts!