Hello all! I’m new to leatherwork- embarking on this primarily to make my own custom horse tack. I want to get long lasting, versatile tools that will grow with me. Is a strap cutter necessary? I’m thinking I could get a knife, a ruler, and measure my own. Does anyone have direct experience with this?
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Hello Amiyra. For horse tack, yes. A simple wooden strap cutter is an inexpensive tool compared to most leather specific tools out there, and you're likely to be cutting lots of straps over time. Also, cutting long strips of vegetable tanned leather with a strap cutter is somehow deeply satisfying to do! Just remember to keep your blade very sharp at all times.
I would think it depends on how often you're cutting straps, like I've been doing this for almost 3 years and I've gotten by with just using a couple rulers but there have been a couple times cutting longer pieces where I either measured wrong on one side or the ruler moved slightly while cutting making it necessary to redo the piece completely and wishing I had bought a strap cutter. It's not often that I'm cutting longer pieces like that so I still haven't bought one but that's just something to consider. Also, if you're cutting a lot of straps that are the same width it would save a lot of time to not have to measure with the ruler and get everything lined up and weighted/clamped down and just be able to zip through cutting them all out with the cutter.