Begining Tool List

[Scout53]

I am thinking about making a holster and a belt to go with it but this is new to me. I don't have a lot of money to spend on this venture and I would like to know what do I REALLY need to make a good solid holster and belt. I have seen so many tools that are for leather working that I find it difficult to know what is essential and what is in the category of "nice to have one of those".
I am thinking of purchasing a belt blank from Tandy in what ever width and length that I think is needed. I have some leather that will work for the holster and some patterns for the holster and belt.
Any thoughts and or suggestions will be appreciated.

[Slowhand Bob]

First tool, find a good quality case opener and a pack of excellent quality blades to use in it.  I like the Persona blades and a knife with the angled head, check Lowes or Home depot.  Other knives will come in handy but this is a basic that can get you started and many experienced leather workers have never used anything else, while others changed and came back to this basic knife.  I'll let someone else suggest bare necessity tool number two.

[knucklehead]

are you going to tool it?

for doing a holster without any toolling you only need the very basic tools.

as slowhand bob said a good box knife with replacement blades is the number one tool.

a good tape measure, a good ruler(one without the cork backing.)
the gouge you use for the sewing channel(cant remember the correct name). the stitch spacing wheel, i use the 6 per inch.
harness needles and waxed thread.
a drill press will be great but you can get by with a dremel tool and the stand which turns it into a drill press.
a sanding drum for the drill press or dremel with sanding drums.

i use the drill press with the harness needle to poke the holes into leather for sewing.
also use the drill press with the sanding drum to even and smooth up the edges of the holster after sewing holster.

and water from tap to form the holster.
2 books you should have on hand for questions is hand sewing by al stolhman and holster making by al stolhman sold at tandy leather factory.
this is what i think the basic tools for making a holster list is. there is gonna be some better tools to do holster making but this should get you going on a budject.

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[rickk]

a large xacto knife with a supply of angled and curve blades.

A metal "safety" ruler (12 inch). Must be metal for using as a guide for xacto knife

A smaller L-square

A punch set (handle with 6 screw-in punches). I personally have three sets, but stick one each of three different punches into three handles and they pretty much stay in there forever.... beats changing them out constantly, which gets old after a while.  Don't be tempted to get a pliers-style leather punch. I have an $80 one. I virtually never use it.

A dead blow hammer for hitting punches with... I prefer a fairly heavy urethane hammer and let the hammer do all the work. Others us leather faced hammers or mallets. They tend to cost more. Never hit them with a metal hammer.

A 1/2" and 3/4" slot punch.

A tool to make stitching channel. There are several styles available. This was discussed somewhere here several months ago.

A stitching awl (handle with with replaceable diamond awl points)

A stitching wheel. I prefer the courser ones, less work and more meat between holes.

Large Needles (blunt tip, you make the hole with the awl).

A black pen.

A scratch awl.

A short 4-in-1 screwdriver.

An edging tool, medium in size (whatever that means). The complete Midas set is fairly cheap and will handle just about everything you will run into.

A "bone" of some sort for smoothing edges and such. I mostly use the nylon pulley's sold for that purpose.  You can use the grove, and the flat outside edge as well, depending on what you are trying to do.

I think you can get quite a ways with the above. You will learn what they can do, and what is semi-hard to do with just them.

Then as you later flip thru the various catalogs you will see an endless number of solutions to problems that you never knew you had before.

Rick

[Drayton Calhoun]

When I first started learning leather work, the guy teaching me always used a four hole lacing chisel for stitching holes. There are disadvantages to this, but overall, it works well up to 9-10 ounce leather.

[Slowhand Bob]

Once you have a pattern cut out, next on the absolute minimalist list will be a way to sew up the pouch.  Holes must be placed and most likely you would rather sew it than lace it so you will need a needle and thread.  I think this would be heart of a bunkhouse tool kit for holster making as you could steal a bit of usable oil from around the ranch to finish off your crude plains style holster.  With this in mind, my actual recommendation would be a few good needles and some thread, a good quality awl and an appropriate stitch spacer.  Chuck Burrows has listed the best hand sewing kit I have seen and a search might help you find it OR you could order his excellent video and learn a lot more than just those basics.     

[Scout53]

Thank you to all who have replied to my question. I have started working on assembling my "tool kit" and believe that I already am ahead of the learning curve due to your help.
                                                                                                            Thank you.
                                                                                                                    Scout53
If anyone thinks of other items, or advise,  to add to this beginners kit please contribute.

[Massive]

All you really need is some way to cut out the leather, and an awl, and some needles.  Your OP suggests that you just have one project in mind.  

- If you are trying to build a leather working toolset, then it is a different mater.  If I am planing on doing a hobby for my lifetime, I try to buy serious tools.  Sometimes I buy best quality, when they are available, sometime I just buy pro quality, but that is almost more an aesthetic decision.  I'm trying to make the best stuff I can, and that can go hand in hand with best quality tools as an experience.  A skilled set of hands can make nice quality work with minimal tools, but better tools will save time and money over the long haul.

- Both skill and tool wise, entering a new craft is affected by whether this is the first craft you have ever done or not.  Many steps, like laying out; skills like sharpening; and tools can also overlap.  If you have a deep well to draw on then you can often get by without other tools.  You may have a vise that can be pressed into service to hold a project for hand sewing.  I have several lathes, that can not only make tools and components, but can quickly be converted into edge finishers, buffers, etc...   I have spray guns that can shoot finish, computers that can print out drawings and transfers.  Just to take a few examples.

- If you are close to places that sell leather working tools, Tandy is not so bad, then you can simply buy tools as you need them.  You are right, there can be a lot of tools in leatherwork.  If you really want to get set up, I would recommend getting a membership at Tandy, at least for the first year if you plan heavy buying.  Also, it helps to never buy anything that isn't on sale.  At Tandy almost everything goes on sale sooner or later.  

- You can build an impressive list of tools from the projects themselves.  If you are working from a plan, you can simply go through the plan and itemize ever tool referred to.  You can do the same visualizing a plan you will be developing for yourself.  Or keep score when you watch videos.

-  Now comes the fun part, figuring out what you really need, and what you can work around:

1) For instance, let's say you saw a plan where the maker used dividers to lay out cartridge loops.  Great tool to have, but most home computers and printers can print out extremely accurate patterns using simple cad software, or drawing programs.  You can even make transfers that will allow you to print these patterns directly to the leather.  The computer I use to do this is a desktop that cost me 69 bucks refurbished...  

2) Another approach is to vary plans.  If a plan calls for rivets, you can sometimes do a better job substituting sewing, therefore no rivet setting tools, or punches.  Conversely sometimes (not necessarily holsters) you can work a plan that has a ton of hand sewing, into an even nicer one that uses rivets.  Or sometimes you can avoid rivets with an upgrade to Chicago screws.  Point being the design will determine what tools you will need and sometimes you can improve a design by substituting something that also uses less tools.  And obvious example being hand sewing with linen thread can be an upgrade on traditional leather work, and save you buying a sewing machine.  With carving you can choose designs that rely on the swivel knife and basic stamps to create unique work, compared to work that is all based on pattern stamps.

3)  Another way to save on money is to borrow techniques from other crafts.  For instance shoe makers don't use needles, they use wires or monofilament.  This method is easier to do since the "bristles" pass through the holes with less effort than needles, Or allow the use of finer holes, where that might be desirable.  You can save money on awls and sewing punches by using your drill press to shoot holes.