Leathercraft can be dangerous when not using well the tools or because we are not concentrated. I just did like you with my awl, several times and it's often when I'm thinking of something else or listening to someone talking to me :( When I was learning leathercraft, one of the student badly cut her hand with the skiving knife (It was quite traumatic for me so even if I used it well, I wouldn't use it anymore for a while and prefered use the skiving machine). Another one slightly peeled his finger with the sanding machine because he wasn't aware of what he was doing. Now, I'm practicing from home and I don't have these machines anymore, I have to use the skiving knife again and finally, It's alright. I use it with all precautions taught by our teacher and it's fine.

8 to 10 hours is very good. When I was at "school" learning leathercraft, the teacher told us we had to make a wallet quite like yours in 12 hours because we were beginners, but in factories, we would be asked to make it in 8 hours to be efficient. So bravo! For the moment I'm very slow with handstitch and only doing bags, so it takes me about two weeks to entirely complete it with sessions on the evenings after work or the weekends.

@Philip thank you for this warm welcome. I'll do my best to come here as often as possible, to read all o you and to share my work as well. For the moment, I'm looking for time between my son, my day job, and my leather work :D

Great job! Congratulations for this transformation, and have lots of leatherwork there.

Hi everyone. My name is Delphine, I’m French and live in the suburb of Paris. I learned the basis of leathercraft in 2017, and now I’m practicing at home and taking every tip I can to improve my skills. Next year I’ll open my shop online, selling bags and purses to begin. My dream is to be able to live of my craft. A big thank you Philip for creating this website, the courses and the forum. It helps a lot.