Leatherwork

Leatherwork is the craft of shaping, cutting, stitching, and finishing objects made from animal hides and skins. It covers traditional handcrafts as well as modern manufacturing, and is often framed as leathercraft for personal, decorative work and leatherworking for commercial production. Practitioners select hides based on grain, thickness, and flexibility, with common types including full-grain, top-grain, corrected-grain, and genuine leather. Hides may be vegetable-tanned, which accepts tooling and patina, or chrome-tanned, which yields supple, uniform leather. Finishes range from dyes and paints to oils, waxes, and protective coatings.

Tools used in leatherwork include knives or rotary cutters, skiving knives, stitching chisels or pricking irons, needles, awls, waxed linen or nylon thread, beeswax, mallets, rivet setters, buckles, and edge burnishers. Pattern drafting and cutting are followed by edge finishing, hole punching, and stitching. Common hand-stitching methods include saddle stitching and backstitch; machine stitching is also common for production work. Decoration may involve stamping, carving, or embossing on vegetable-tanned leather.

Leatherwork has ancient roots across many cultures, producing clothing, armor, bags, belts, saddles, bindings, and containers. In the modern era it remains central to fashion, footwear, luggage, bookbinding, upholstery, and artisanal goods, with a wide range of tools and techniques adapted to different applications.

Care and safety: leather goods require regular cleaning and conditioning to maintain suppleness. Finishes may need reapplication. Handling dyes and solvents should follow safety guidelines, including ventilation and personal protective equipment when needed.