hey guys Cameron Laughlin here I'm going
to show you today how to cut leather
straight seems a little hard at first I
prefer using a utility knife which I
have right here but the first thing I'm
going to do is go ahead and make some
lines on the side of the leather here
I'm going to mark it just so I know
exactly where I'm gonna cut so I'm going
to start off with my steel square by the
way I bought this off tandy leather
factory now it's just a ruler basically
with a 90 degree angle and I'm going to
mark it a half an inch on this side of
the hide right here and then on this
side I'm going to mark as well at half
an inch now that I have two marks on the
side of my hide I'm going to go ahead
and take my steel ruler I'm sure you've
probably seen one of these before and
mark a line now there's many ways to cut
a side straight and there's people with
ploud gauges and different kinds of
tools you can use but ultimately I like
using this method here and I'll show you
in a second how to do that this is new
buck leather by the way it's six ounces
which isn't the thickest leather out
there you'll see I typically use
vegetable vegetable I'm at the edge ten
so you see I'm using a pin here just to
mark the line where I'm going to be
cutting and now I'm gonna have to do
this little by little so I don't know
what size cutting board you have but I
don't want to mark up my table so I'm
going to go ahead and use that and that
cutting board by the way I got off tandy
leather factory as well you can find it
there so now that I have my cutting
board underneath I'm gonna bring out my
steel square again and I find this thing
handy now I'm not using the big steel
ruler that you saw before this one here
this I just feel like I have more
control with this small ruler so I'm
going to go ahead and put that here and
then I'm gonna start cutting and I'm
gonna do that using my utility knife
again this is a special utility knife so
make sure you don't buy just any old
utility knife you want to get one made
for cutting leather and make sure the
blade is really sharp
so we're going to start here from the
top applying some pressure moving
straight down the side of the ruler here
and usually I do a couple passes
actually so that was my first here's my
second sometimes it takes three for me
to cut the leather all the way through
but you can kind of hear less friction
on that last cut because you realize the
leather is already cut let's just finish
the top there we go now I'm gonna move
the ruler down I should say the hide
down this way and we're just gonna keep
cutting and do this little by little
because once you have a straight edge
then you can cut straps or whatever you
want using a strap cutter maybe you have
a strap cutting machine if you're a
little more sophisticated but this just
helps you get the straight cut down the
side that you really need to do straps
or belts okay let's do this again
gone through one second gone go through
it again twice that wouldn't felt like a
good cut all right it's good I need one
more alright so now we're gonna keep
passing before we do that to make sure
this is a nice clean cut down the side
here all right keep moving the fried
down looks like we can finish it on this
cut so let's start from the top you
notice I'm applying medium pressure I
think ultimately you can push a little
harder than I am but I just want to make
sure that I'm being really clear because
it's important to have this straight
line down the side of your hide and here
we go yeah so we finished the edge here
you can see how straight this is thanks
for watching