One of the simple pleasures of leatherwork is that it can involve quite a lot of hitting things with hammers. Rivets, hole punches, eyelets, press studs and sometimes the leather (see 'A New Trick' below) all need the loving attention of what my father-in-law used to call the Manchester Spanner.
Most of the tools to close eyelets, rivets and press studs come with little coin-sized anvils to put under the item. They are usually flat on one side and concave on the other, the concave side used to preserve the shape of the domed top of a press stud for example. However, they can be a little small and fiddly, and although useful for putting inside things like scabbards and tubes I prefer to use a larger anvil plate.
The anvil plate I use is simply a thick plate of metal about 4" square. Using it means I don't have to keep lining up the rivet with the little round anvils, so it is faster, and also avoids another problem with the smaller anvils in that they can easily move. The rivet head then ends up on the edge of the anvil and you put a crease across the rivet head, mark the leather, or both.
There are a few tricks to using a hammer:
General: Two or three solid, controlled blows are better than a dozen light ones. If you don't hit rivets and studs hard enough they will never close and you can be there all day.
- Rivets: When the rivet is fully closed the sound the hammer makes changes from a 'bright' noise to a 'flat' one.
- Hole Punches: Again, solid, controlled blows. Too soft a blow will only partly cut the leather and compress the rest, making it even harder to punch through.
- Eyelets: I used to used a pair of eyelet pliers but have recently returned to using a hammer and the special eyelet anvil. The hammer/anvil closes the eyelet in a much neater way.
Leather can be unforgiving at times. Make a mistake at the wrong point of the process and the piece you are working on can be spoiled. There are a few simple rules you can follow to make sure you make as few mistakes as possible. These are some of mine.
- Take of all wrings, watches and bracelets. Jewellery can easily leave marks on the leather, especially when you are wet-molding.
- Be as neat and tidy as you can. I keep a flat baking tray on my bench for the tools I have out. Always sweep up scraps as soon as you've finished punching, cutting or bevelling etc. This can leave marks on leather - as can unused rivets and eyelets.
- When dying edges, always rotate the item away from you. This means you are usually holding undyed leather and by the time you are holding a dyed section it will be touch dry. This helps stop dye getting where it shouldn't.
- The first time you think 'phew, nearly made a mistake' take a break. You've probably been concentrating for ages and are tired.
- Measure twice, cut once. The first rule of carpentry and it applies here too.
- Never cut directly towards you. A knife that can cut thick leather will be sharp. Leather is animal skin, and you are an animal covered in skin.
- Keep your knife (and your other tools) sharp, change the blade regularly. A blunt blade needs more pressure to cut and so can slip more easily. There's more chance of mistakes and it's less safe. You should be able to cut all but the very thickest leathers with a single stroke.
OK, time to go, I'll come back to this if I think of some more.
Working with the slightly thicker leather (3.5 to 4mm), has been really good, and I like the little bit of extra stiffness and weight the armour has.
However, it's made fitting lacing eyelets tricky as the eyelet stems are not long enough to reach through the thickness of the leather for crimping on the other side. My first thought was get eyelets with longer posts but my wholesaler says there are none available.
The trick is to compress the leather with a ball-peen hammer - put the round end of the hammer onto the leather, and hit it with another hammer.
It just goes to show, you really can solve some problems by hitting things. I'm so pleased!
I think belts area great place to start learning how to work with leather. There are several useful techniques involved in making a belt that apply fairly universally, and the tools you need will form the basis of your main kit.
Strap cutter - for cutting the belt blank
Craft knife - for trimming ends and shaping the belt tongue. (A Stanley knife is fine.)
Stitch groover - to add edge detail (optional)
Edge beveller & burnishing wheel - for edge finishing
Hole punch - for rivet and buckle tongue holes
Slot punch - for fitting the buckle.
Rivet tool & anvil - for closing your rivets.
Hammer - for hitting things with (hole punch, slot punch, rivet tool, and on occasion your thumb.
You may like to buy a rotary hole punch and they are very useful. Single punches are also useful for when you want to make a hole further across the leather than the rotary punch will reach.
One of the things that differentiates good quality leatherwork from the rest is the level of finish, and part of this is edge finishing. Unfinished edges, like you see on many belts, are square-cut and although leather cannot fray, the corners will wear and the fibres rough up.
I finish edges in two stages:
- First using an edge beveller, to take the edge off the square-cut corners left by a strap cutter or when cutting blanks from a hide. Edge bevellers are available various sizes, depending on the thickness of leather. I tend to use only the small or the large one.
- Second, burnishing the edges using Gum Tragacanth. This settles the leather fibres and gives the edge a smooth, glossy finish. For thinner leathers you can use a burnishing wheel.
A bevelled and burnished edge is more resistant to wear and lets belts and straps slide smoothly in loops and buckles. It also looks a lot nicer. It's quite a bit more work, but definietly worth it.
Burnishing is one of those little tasks that is very satisfying as you can see, feel and hear the rough fibres settle to a glossy, squeeky finish. It's just as well, because I do a lot of it.
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