All Guides
Every tutorial, technique deep-dive, and tool guide on the site.
How to Sharpen and Strop a Diamond Awl So Stitches Seat Right
A diamond awl is correctly sharpened when it is mirror-polished, not razor-sharp — a slick four-faced blade that slides through the pricking-iron slit and lets the thread seat…
How to Sharpen a Swivel Knife Blade for Smooth Tooling Cuts
More than any other blade on the leather bench, the swivel knife lives by stropping — a steel blade wants light edge-trailing passes on green or white compound…
How to Sharpen a Head Knife: The Convex Edge That Slices Clean
A head knife is sharp when it falls through veg-tan under its own weight, leaving a glossy, closed cut edge with no drag. The edge that does that…
Maintaining Leather Tools: The Complete Care Guide
A leather tool is only as good as its last sharpening. Keep your edges honed to a polished bevel, your awls stropped, and your steel dry, and a…
Leather Mallet and Maul Guide: Types and Weights
A leather maul is the striking tool that drives chisels, punches, and stamps without wrecking them — a tapered poly or nylon head, often weighted with a steel…
Best Glue for Leather: Contact Cement, PVA, and CA
The best glue for leather is contact cement — coat both surfaces, let them tack, then press for a permanent, flexible bond that holds pieces in perfect alignment…
Leather Splitter and Skiver Machine Guide
A leather splitter and a bell skiver machine both thin leather, but they do opposite jobs: a splitter shaves a strip to a uniform thickness across its whole…
How to Sharpen Leather Tools: Strop and Stone Guide
Sharp leather tools cut clean; dull ones tear fibres and leave fuzz no finishing can fix. The whole system is three steps: a stone re-establishes a worn edge,…
Leather Clicker Press and Dies Explained
A leather clicker press is a machine that drives a steel cutting die straight down through leather to stamp out identical shapes — wallet panels, card slots, key…
Leather Hole Punch Guide: Rotary vs Drive Punches
Leather hole punches split into two families: the rotary punch, a squeeze tool with six revolving tube sizes for holes near an edge, and the drive punch, a…
Leather Skiving Knife Guide: Types, Sharpening, Use
A leather skiving knife is a flat, single-bevel blade used to thin leather — shaving the flesh side down so folded edges, overlapped seams, and turned-in linings sit…
Leatherworking Tools Guide: Three Tiers of Buy-In
Leatherworking tools break into three buy-in tiers: the six essentials that build any beginner project ($65-90 total), the next-eight upgrades that compound at $200 of cost, and the…