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Craft

Leather Crafting

Also Known As Leatherworking
Leather

Making things from tanned hide: cutting, saddle stitching, tooling, carving, dyeing and burnishing. Belts, bags, wallets, saddles and bookbindings all come from the same small kit of knives, awls, needles and stamps, and hand-stitched leather still outlasts its machine-made equivalent, which is why the hobby thrives. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Craft Class
Leather 1
Earliest Evidence (Circa)
Tanning proper, using plant materials to convert hide into leather rather than simply working raw skins, is attested at Mehrgarh in what is now Pakistan between roughly 7000 and 3300 BC. 2
Origin
The oldest surviving tanned-leather footwear is a single shoe roughly 5,500 years old from the Areni-1 cave in Armenia, but the practice of tanning itself is older still, carried out at Mehrgarh over a thousand years earlier. 2
Connections

Associated With

Basketweave Leather Tooling Pattern, Projects and Patterns
Celtic Knot Leather Tooling Pattern, Projects and Patterns
Sheridan Style Floral Leather Tooling Pattern, Projects and Patterns

Tools Used

Awl, Tools and Equipment
Leather Punch, Tools and Equipment
Source Leather Punch (Wikipedia)
Pricking Iron, Tools and Equipment

Pricking Iron is used in Leather Crafting.

Skiving Knife, Tools and Equipment
Source Skiving (Leathercraft) (Wikipedia)
Swivel Knife, Tools and Equipment

Swivel Knife is used in Leather Crafting.

Sources
1. Leather Crafting (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_crafting, lead section
    Leather crafting or simply leathercraft is the practice of making leather into craft objects or works of art, using shaping techniques, coloring techniques or both.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_crafting, Carving section
    By far the most preeminent carver in the United States was Al Stohlman. His patterns and methods have been embraced by many hobbyists, scout troops, reenacters, and craftspeople.
View the Source
2. Tanning (Leather) (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning_(leather)
    Extant vegetable oil tanned leather footwear, from the neolithic (c. 5,500-year-old), has been found in Areni-1 cave, of Vayots Dzor province of Armenia
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning_(leather), Mehrgarh section
    Tanning was being carried out by the inhabitants of Mehrgarh in Pakistan between 7000 and 3300 BCE.
View the Source
Leather Punch (Wikipedia)
WikipediaTools Used: Leather PunchView the Source
Skiving (Leathercraft) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaTools Used: Skiving KnifeView the Source
Frequently Asked Questions

What techniques count as leather crafting?

Leather crafting includes dyeing, painting, carving or tooling, stamping and embossing, molding, laser work and pyrography; carver Al Stohlman shaped the American Sheridan floral style.

Leather crafting covers dyeing, painting, carving (tooling), stamping and embossing, molding or shaping, laser cutting and etching, perforation, and pyrography, applied to leather that has already been tanned. Carving, or tooling, uses a swivel knife and punch-type implements to compress moistened leather into a three-dimensional design; the American Sheridan style of floral tooling was shaped above all by Al Stohlman, whose patterns and methods are still used by hobbyists, scout troops, reenactors and craftspeople today.

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