hand tooled leatherworking

I agree with the person above. I buy a kit only when it is on sale and I mean a real discount. Then I trace the patterns onto cardboard or paper bags and cut them out. Also second hand book stores have some really, really cheap books. Tandy Leather has some beautiful FREE patterns. I agree, leather lasts forever. The problem we have here is that dollar stores sometimes carry leather items and there is no way to compete with that. Where did you sell your items? REinactor events and history museums, you can get much more money or if you do it where rich people live.

I used to do leather a long time ago. My question to you is why would you buy kits? Get patterns from a kit and make templates to use. Then buy the hides and cut your own. There also are books with patterns in them and they tell you exctly how to do the cutting, tooling, stamping, staining and finishing. The only thing I bought was belt blanks because they didn't cost much. I cut my own wrist bands and head bands, woops I'm really dating myself here. I also made purses and pouches that you attached to your belt. I still like to work with leather sometimes. Hope this helps a little.