Best Leather Creasers for Leather Working

Some projects benefit from having smooth folds in the leather, light crease marks along parts of the design, or guide lines in material for where stitching will go. Leather creasers work great for making these. Some recommendations include paid links to products that I trust.

The Kyoshin Elle Pro Edge Creaser & Groover is an excellent set that can both groove and crease, click here to see it on amazon. It has an adjustable guide arm for easy and accurate distance-setting, and interchangeable tips each for groowing, and creasing. It’s value and performance make it a great combination tool.

Let’s take a look at some of the situations in which we’d choose to use a leather creaser, and some great options when choosing this tool.

Types of Leather Creasers

There are a few commony types of creasers one might reach for depending on the job at hand and their preference for the tools. Let’s take a look into each, and how to determine which might be most useful in the shop.

Adjustable

An adjustable creaser allows for easy movement and securing of a guide arm. That guide arm can be set for any distance from the edge of the leather, usually a few millimeters inset from the edge. This allows for a crease to be placed at any distance within the guide arms adjustable range. The flexibility here is nice, as each project might benefit from having the crease at a different distance. Having one tool that is flexible can be helpful in these cases.

Fixed

A fixed creaser is often a singular piece of metal that is fixed in it’s form and shape. Thus, whatever spacing is set in it’s design (for example 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, etc.), it will always place a crease at that set distance. These provide a benefit in that to produce equally set creases on different pieces, or on parts of the same piece, it’s easy, since the crease will always be at the exact same distance from the edge.

While adjustable creasers afford flexiblity in a single tool, fixed creasers offer easy, consistent results if one is open to having a few tools around if they often vary the crease distance used across projects.

Edge Creaser - Liberty Leather Goods — Edge Creaser

Machine

Machine creasers for leather working are tools that are powered by electricity that generates heat that is focused onto the leather through fixed-sized, metal creasing bits. The bits are very much like fixed creasers, where they always set the crease a fixed distance from the leather’s edge. The heat generated by the electricity help make the crease smoother, and more easily permanent into the leather that is being worked on.

Crafters that seek quality, repeatable, and smooth creases often lean towards machine creasers. Luxury brands and high-volume production facilities also use powered creasers for the finished look they help provide to the leather goods, and benefits that working with electricity for this particular technique offer.

Leather Creaser Embosser Machine - Liberty Leather Goods — Leather Creaser Embosser Machine

Best Leather Creasers

Preference for the type of work being done, as well as budget, are factors that help influence what might be a great option for the shop. Let’s look at the recommendations for the best of each type of leather creaser.

Adjustable Leather Creaser

Kyoshin Elle makes the Pro Edge Creaser & Groover, it is a great all-around creaser for most common needs, click here to see it on amazon. The adjustable guide arm makes for easy and accurate distance-setting. Interchangeable tips are included each for groowing, and creasing. Also, the brand is known for producing quality tools that perform well, at very fair prices.

If one is looking for a more premium adjustable creaser, produced with some finer materials and overall nice fit and finish, the Vergez Blanchard Adjustable Edge Creaser / Marking Tool is worth a look, click here to see it on Rocky Mountain Leather. It’s made of steel, brass, and wood, and can also be heated if one wants to utilize heated creasing in their crafting process. This tool, when maintained well, should perfoem well and last for a long time.

Fixed Leather Creaser

Wuta makes very quality tools, and their fixed creasers are fine choices, click here to see them on Amazon. They are made of stainless steel, and are available in a variety of fixed sizes including 1.5mm, 2mm, and 2.5mm. They can be used alone, or heated, and are a good option for a fixed creaser.

Alternative Option

If one is looking to make creases mainly for functional purposes, such as to create a fold in leather, a solid bone folder can serve that need very well. Wuta makes a nice one, colored white, that is about 7″ long x 2″ wide, polished smooth with a round end and a pointed end, click here to see it on Amazon. These can be helpful, too, for pressing areas of leather flat, and make for a nice universal tool to have in the shop.

A premium option for a bone folder is this one made from unbleached natural bone, giving it a unique look. It is about 5.25″ long. They’re polished to a smooth finish, and are pleasantly comfortable to work with, click here to see it on Rocky Mountain Leather.

Leather Working Bone Folder Creaser - Liberty Leather Goods — Leather Working Bone Folder Creaser

Leather Creaser Machine

Regad is well-known for their creasing machines, and the M3000 a classic model, click here to see it on Rocky Mountain Leather. It both creases, and edges, comes in 110v and 220v versions, options for straight, tapered, or cork handle.

Individual filleteuse tips can be purchased in a wide range of crease sizes, shapes (rounded creases), creasers with edge guide and without, and letters. This is a professional setup, often found in high-end shops and in luxury handbag production facilities.

In Closing

Manual or machine leather creasing can add a level of sophistication to design. They can also make routine tasks in leatherworking much easier, faster, and come out looking great. Considering a leather creaser can be a great addition to the shop.