Who am I?
My name is Jan. I have always been interested in craftwork, although leathercraft is relatively new to me. My professional background is as a graphic designer, then in branding, and for the last 15 years as a photographer.
Why?
I think there is something remarkable to turn a piece of wood or a bit of leather into something useful or perhaps even beautiful. Today, we are so occupied working for others and working against a timeline or budget that we have forgotten how nice it is to make something […]
Hammers for leather
Every craftsperson has their favourite tools, and people have asked me about what I use for my leatherwork. So I thought I would share my response here too. Here are some examples of hammers that I use in my leatherwork.The bigger, black one is a classic cobbler’s hammer that I […]
Pricking chisels
Yes, you need them!(The big picture above shows pricking irons from Sinabroks. They generally come in three different styles: round hole, diamond-shaped hole (often referred to as Japanese style) and ‘French’ or ‘European’ style chisels. Besides choosing the style you prefer, they also come with different spacing between the teeth. […]
Glue
I use this water-based glue from Germany and found it to work nicely for me. It works like contact cement and it is strong. You just glue thinly on each side, let it dry to a ‘dry sticky’ feel, and then mount the two pieces together. To prevent having to […]
Other tools
I will update this page on a regular basis. Here are a few of the tools I use in my leatherwork. Sometimes they are chosen based on recommendation, other times I just stick with what I am used to. At the top a scalpel. Maybe it is not for everyone, […]
Knives
It is hard to do any leather project without tools of some kind. At least you will need a knife to cut the leather, but you do not need a special round knife or half-moon knife. Nor a fancy-schmancy Vergez Blanchard, even though they look nice! I quite like this […]
Protection?
Yes. My skiving knives are sharp and I have cut myself several times (as you can see from below picture, my fingers are always in plaster). This leather sheath not only protects me but also from the blade to become blunt. Here you can read more: https://craft.janmalmstrom.com/portfolio/the-skiving-knife-sheath/
Using multi colours?
I like to highlight a small part of a project using a completely different colour in the thread. Like in this example with my fountain pen case where I used a bright orange thread for the closure, and everything black. Here is the pen case project: https://craft.janmalmstrom.com/portfolio/the-pen-case/
Threads
We cannot use the same thread and thickness for all our work. Well, we can, if we are only working with one kind of things. But in my case, I go from making an axe-sheath that requires a thicker and sturdier thread to small leather goods which would look too […]
