9 Leather Working Tools Under $100 Worth Investing In

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Leatherworking is a challenging and time-consuming craft that'll have you putting in hours of work at a table for your projects. These tasks are not easy, and although your hands and skill play a crucial part in this, the tools you use are also important. Because of how important these tools are to your process, you don't want to get something that's going to break, but you also don't want to pay too much for something. Similar to when we did this for woodworking tools, or breaking down metal working tools for beginners.

We've gone through to find some of the most important leatherworking tools that you can get on the market, and found options available for under $100. These options are good for beginners and professionals, but we'll be breaking down in more detail why we chose these products toward the end. Here, we'll be sharing with you nine different leatherworking tools that are worth investing in for less than $100.

When it comes to selecting a cutting tool for leatherworking, options like a utility knife or box cutter are common picks. For anyone who does prefer using a utility knife, we ranked every major utility knife brand to help you choose your best option. However, a well-known and popular tool used for this trade is the round knife, which allows you to perform freehand cutting and to have precise control of your cutting technique. 

The Al Stohlman Round Knife has a wood and resin composite handle, designed to last and provide a suitable grip as you use this sharp tool. It's heat- and moisture-resistant, making it suitable for working for several hours, and it's should hold up against sweat and whatever else it comes into contact with at a workstation. The blade is made from a high-carbon stainless steel, so it should hold an edge for a long time, and it can be removed from the handle if you ever need to get a replacement or want to swap it out for a different one. You can get it for $89.99 from Tandy Leather.

When you're working on leather for a project, having suitable workspace is crucial. All of the cutting, hammering, and puncturing you'll be doing has the potential to damage the table underneath you, and it won't last for the years you expect it to without protection. Plus, cutting into a hard surface will dull your blade quickly. A good mat will offer the protection both your table and blade need, and the Dahle Vantage Premium Self-Healing Cutting Mat seems like a suitable one to endure leatherworking demands.

This five-layer PVC mat is ⅛-inch thick, ideal for placing a piece of leather on and cutting into without having to worry about the surface beneath. You can also use it as a measuring device, as it has inch and metric rulers along the outside of it, broken up with a ½-inch grid for you to quickly align. There are also angle guides for creating small cuts throughout the mat. It comes in a handful of colors, and you can get it in various sizes, from 12 x 9 inches, 18 x 12 inches, 24 x 18 inches, 36 x 24 inches, and 48 x 36 inches.

You can get the Dahle self-healing cutting mat for $57.99 on Amazon, though it's not the only option on the market. For instance, among Ryobi's many nifty accessories, the brand makes also a very similar mat.

The stitching and sewing process is critical to any leatherworking project and is one you'll be doing often at your workstation. It's an essential step, and you don't want to feel like you're fighting your piece of leather to add in your thread, which is why a suitable awl tool is so important. Awl tools come with various tips (different from the awl tool you have on a Swiss Army knife and its alternative uses) meant to poke holes of different shapes and sizes, and serve more purposes beyond that, and the Owden Professional 4-in-1 Awl Tool set gives you four with a single, easy-to-grip and use handle. 

Included with the tool are two sizes of diamond shaped blades, as well as a square-tipped lacing fid blade meant to help with stretching, shaping, or enlarging holes, and a round-shaped scratch blade, which you'll also be able to use for scribing lines or making layout points in your leather. 

You can get the Owden Professional 4-in-1 Awl Tool Set for $19.90 on Amazon. 

Another worthwhile tool to have in your leatherworking workshop is a leather hole puncher. Making sure you have the correct handheld tool should ensure you're making your job easier on your hands while you work, and the Herm Sprenger leather hole puncher is a worthwhile, one-handed tool option.

The device is made from plastic-coated stainless steel and comes with six different uniquely sized punches for you to use to create distinct holes in your leather. The punches come down using lever action as you press down on the handle, ensuring you don't use as much power while using this tool but walk away with a worthwhile result. It's a tool that weighs less than a pound and is 10 inches long, making it easy to carry around with you. The Herm Sprenger leather hole puncher is designed to work on a various types of leather items and leather qualities, such as shoes, handbags, pet collars, stirrup leathers, bridles, saddles, and much more. There are six different hole types on this device: 2-millimeter, 2.5-millimeter, 3-millimeter, 3.5-millimeter, 4-millimeter, and 4.5-millimeter sizes.

You can get the Herm Sprenger leather hole punch for $64.55 on Amazon.

After you have your holes punched, the next step in many leather projects is to begin stitching and thread through those holes. For that, you'll need an assortment of reliable sewing needles, and you'll probably want to have multiples. The Tandy Leather harness needles 10-pack gives you multiple ready-to-use steel needles. Harness tip needles are the most common ones you'll expect to use in a leatherworking project. They're designed to glide through the holes you've created without damaging your work.

The 10-pack of needs is available in 4-extra small, 0-small, and 000-large sizes. Your choice of needle comes down to the thread size that you're planning to use, as these need to be the same so they can both glide through the hole you've made.

You can get this pack for $8.99 for the 4-extra small, $9.49 for the 0-small, and $9.99 for the 000-large at Tandy Leather.

It's important to have a reliable hammer at any leatherworking table, and there are several different types that you can use. However, a good, general-use choice for this craft is a nylon mallet. This type of hammer won't damage the leather you're using, and if you're using other metal pieces in your project it shouldn't harm that either. A worthwhile choice that will keep you well under a $100 budget is the Owden leather carving hammer.

This hammer comes with a 4.5-inch handle wrapped in leather to reduce the shock you feel as you strike with it and avoid slipping out of your grip or moving around as your palms begin to sweat. It should make it easier to apply rivets or drive a chisel through your current piece. The head is made from nylon, which is heavier than materials like rawhide or polyurethane, and therefore offers additional driving force for your tools. A downside is that it might become exhausting for longer sessions, but it's worth it when working with thicker and heavier leathers. You can get a 1-pound one for $39.90, or go with the larger 1.2-pound model for $42.90 on Amazon.

An edge beveler is another vital tool to make sure you get at a good price, and you don't want one that's too cheap. It's a small and precise tool meant to help you carefully trim your leather or carve intricate and personalized designs into your workpiece.

The master tool edge beveler from Weaver comes with four differently sized tips, from ¹⁄₃₂-inch to ⁷⁄₆₄-inch, with the smaller sizes ideal for lightweight leathers. The handle is made from hardwood maple, designed to fit in well in your palm, with an angled tip on the edge for you to use on tight corners and turns. You'll be able to keep careful control over the blade as you cut and design your piece, capable of making cuts from small to long, especially as you'll be using this tool at a 30- or 45-degree angle. You can get the master tool edge beveler from Weaver Leather Supply for $57. All sizes are the same price.

Another small and vital tool that regularly shows up in a leatherworking workstation is the burnisher, made for the final touches on your work when you've applied the glue and trim, cut off sections with an edge beveler, or if you've been sanding. There are large, motorized options, but a handheld wooden one can be faster and easier to use, as it doesn't require an outlet or a charged battery. Those larger, motorized ones can also be used to restore rusty old tools.

The Aliotech professional round-head burnisher is made from ebony, which means it should be a durable tool, with a smooth, hard surface to hold in your hand and brush out any rough edges along a leather piece. Using a wooden burnisher like this, you'll be able to control the amount of friction and force you put into it with ease. The tool comes with four different grooves at the end that you can use to roll along a leather edge, each with a different width to allow for leather of different thicknesses. You can get the Aliotech professional burnisher for $6.69 on Amazon.

Having a chisel set at the ready is always a good idea when you're looking to create a series of small, accurate stitching holes in a leather piece. You want them to be sharp, accurate, and a decent size, but you'll also want a handful of options to choose from so you can always make the right number of holes, spaced at the right distance from each other, no matter what you're working on. For a reliable set that won't break the bank, consider the diamond stitching chisel set from Weaver. The set comes with six different chisel sets for you to use, each with a unique color so you can tell them apart at a quick glance.

These chisels have diamond-point tips to cut through the leather, making holes ideal for swinging your stitching needles through them. They are made from durable carbon steel, which should be perfect for dealing with leather. Just remember to give the tips a small amount of beeswax before you use them, so they can slide into the leather without causing the holes to break. You can get the full set for $26.50 from Weaver Leather Supply, giving you chisel sets for 3-millimeter, 4-millimeter, 5-millimeter, and 6-millimeter hole spacing.

All of the tools chosen for this page were selected for their quality, versatility, and usefulness as leatherworking tools. These are options for both beginners and professionals in the trade. We've selected these particular tools given their use in leatherworking and their importance for someone to have in their workshop. Each of the items on the product page receives at least a 4.4-star rating from users.