Master the intricate detailed work of finishing edges, including burnishing, painting and creasing, so you can conquer any project, even the more difficult ones that use softer and thinner leathers.

Continually Improving Your Technique

When I first started leatherworking, I thought it was going to be easy. I newly came to the craft after having done years of woodworking, including traditional mask carving in Japan. I was making Noh masks, which are wooden masks used in a performing tradition that has spanned thousands of years. Carving in this style is an exacting skill that requires patience, precision, and thought. I spent an entire year making ONE wooden mask.

Later when I moved back to the US, I was working on my own project in a shared art space and saw someone doing leatherworking. At the time, leatherworking seemed simple in comparison to carving. I assumed it would be a cakewalk. Now that I have done leather craft for many years, I know that I couldn't have been more wrong.

There are so many skills to master with leatherworking: sewing, cutting, painting, designing, and the list goes on and on. While you can get decent results fairly quickly, to truly strive for the best takes a considerable amount of patience, precision, and thought.

Despite how challenging and time-consuming leatherworking can be, the payoff is amazing. A finely crafted leather bag or wallet generates envy and awe from everyone, even strangers on the street. I was once at a job interview and one of the hiring managers asked, "where did you buy that bag?" I beamed with so much pride when I told him that I made it myself.

When we first start learning the craft of making leather goods, we all want to make the expensive high-end bags like we see at the Hermes and Louis Vuitton stores. We think that if we're clever enough with our design or original enough with the material, we can make it happen. We think we can start selling our work online and people will be falling over themselves to throw money at us. But the truth is that very few craftspeople are willing to elevate their craft to a point where their work is so good and its quality is so evident that they can command those prices. To achieve that that bespoke luxury level of craftsmanship, you'll need to commit to continuously improving your technique, not just your design and aesthetic.

So how do you start doing Fine Leatherworking?

Transitioning from mediocre work to truly fine craftsmanship requires learning higher caliber skills. It can sometimes mean un-learning bad habits built up over time. The good thing is that you can start at anytime, focusing on one skill or one aspect of your work at a time. Piece by piece, you can improve and achieve excellent work.

Over the years since I founded my business, the number one question that I get from my customers who are looking to improve the quality of their work is: How do I create professional looking edges? Below is an example of what I'm referring to:

You can mess up your sewing piece together in places, you can mess up measuring some parts, but when you screw up your edges, it's all there for everyone to see. Here is an example of imperfect edges on an otherwise nicely constructed wallet:

I thought that finishing edges was a laborious process and for a while, when I was first starting out, it was. I devoured all of the information that I could and I sought out the best teachers who would let me peek at their secrets. And when I started meeting professional leather crafts people and saw how quickly they were able to produce great edges, I was truly amazed.

The secret to finishing leather edges

When most people think of finishing edges, they only think of the last part, the painting. However, painting is merely the last step in a multi-part process for getting the perfect edge. Each step is very doable, but the trick is knowing how to complete them with precision in order to make all the next steps that much easier.

Once you can see how each step builds on top of itself, you'll be able to repeat the process again and again consistently to create perfect edges every time. You'll even be able to get yourself 'unstuck' if you mess up part of your work.

Below is a photo of an edge that I prepped poorly for a blog post. I was trying to work with new materials while attempting a new construction method and it was not working as I intended.

Here is a photo of the finished edge that I was able to recover from my previous mess below: