My Favorite Things: 2021 Gift Guide
What do you buy for that tack making friend or Secret Santa partner? Here’s a list of my favorite things that might help you out.
Fiskars Easy Action Scissors
These scissors are AMAZING. The spring-loaded design opens the blades after each cut, significantly reducing hand strain. Teeny tiny tips are fantastic for fine detail work.
Squeeze Bottles & Luer Lock Dispensing Tips
Bottles and tips work great for precise glue application! Also useful for diluting glues. I use these ALL the time - they’re one of my favorite finds of 2021.
Chinese Knotting Cord
Chinese knotting cord is a fantastic substitute for all things paracord (rope halters!!) at model horse scales. Bobbins are less than $4 and have plenty of cord for even Traditional scale pieces, so you can choose several colors for your giftee! 0.4mm is great for Stablemates rope halters.
Silicone Clay Shapers
At some point, most tack makers branch out into sculpting. Maybe they’re dabbling in mane changes or maybe they find the need to sculpt a special saddle tree - either way, these silicone shapers will really speed up the process.
Needle Files
What can’t you do with a needle file? Take the burrs off of hardware, refine a saddle tree, polish up stirrups…they’re just. so. useful.
Picks
These are sometimes billed as test probes - they’re fantastic by any name.
Precision Tweezers
Look, we’re just always losing our tweezers. It’s a fact of life. I don’t care how many pairs of tweezers you have, you can always use more.
General 6 Inch Pocket Ruler
This thin, stainless steel ruler is the perfect straight edge for cutting lace (at least in mini). Marked to absolutely tiny fractions, this ruler is absolutely precise. It even has decimal conversions on the back! I’m constantly hunting for mine, so maybe buy the three pack. Pair it with some double sided tape and point them at my lace cutting tutorial for an even better gift!
Clothespins
Stay with me, here - clothespins make FANTASTIC clamps! An assortment of sizes can be incredibly useful. One inch, 1.5 inch, and standard sizes are all useful. Natural wood only, please - avoid painted or dyed wood that might damage leather.
White Jewelers Rouge & Leather Strop
Stropping is a skill I learned just this year and it’s revolutionized my workflow. Stropping my knife prolongs it’s life, makes skiving so much easier, and results in more precision and less waste. Anyone with leather and rouge can make a quick DIY strop, or you can pair the rouge with a premade leather strop that’s a little more polished. There are lots of videos on YouTube that will help the recipient learn how to use their new supplies. Do buy only white rouge, though - colored rouges might transfer to leather if blades aren’t meticulously clean!
Retractable X-Acto Knife
I have drawn blood exactly once with an x-acto knife, and it’s when an uncapped handle rolled off my desk and punctured my thigh. This retractable handle makes it easy to cap and if you still forget (like I do) the retracting button keeps the knife from rolling.
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I receive absolutely nothing in compensation from any of these links. These are products I use daily in the studio and I share only because I find them useful.
