3 Best Leather Draw Gauges: A Complete Guide!

Best Leather Draw Gauges

The leather draw gauge has one significant function that is cutting various types of straps for different leatherwork projects. The draw gauge is the best tool you can use to cut straps. But, what are the best leather draw gauges?

So, what’s the best leather draw gauge? The best leather draw gauge in no particular order are:

  • Draw Gauge by Co-Link – (Best Most Accurate Draw Gauge)
  • C.S. Osborne Draw Gauge – (Best Lightweight Draw Gauge)
  • Draw Gauge by Yanuten – (Best Budget Pick)

To give you a better idea of the best leather draw gauges, I have compiled a few information on 3 different draw gauges along with some of the features that make them so popular and a great fit.

What’s a Draw Gauge?

The draw gauge is a simple handheld device with measurements, a mounted blade, and a metal handle to pull on in order to make your strap cuts. It’s indeed one of the best professional ways to cut all types of straps for your leatherwork projects.

The best thing about the draw gauge is that with a sharp blade, you should be able to “draw” through relatively thick leathers. Compared to the other domestic forms of strapping leather like using the wood strap cutter, it offers a lot more range, fine edge, and accuracy.

While it’s a useful tool for all manner of straps and strap lengths, it, however, generally, has a strap width limit of not more than 4.5inches.

You will use a draw gauge to cut straps for all kinds of bags and belts. This tool is the master tool for cutting straps and it’s highly efficient for that purpose.

The down side to the leather draw gauge is that it’s has a downward learning curve to it and so will take you a bit of time to master its use. But once mastered you will cut down on the cost of getting straps for your projects and also you will be able to have control customizing all your straps according to your personal preference.

You can learn more about the leather draw gauge over here. In this article, I have a lot more information about the leather draw gauge including some pros and cons. You should and will definitely want to check it out!

How to Use The Draw Gauge

Buying Guide For The Leather Draw Gauge

Since the draw gauge is a very simple tool, this makes it a lot easy when it comes to the things you need to look at before getting one. These tools do just about the same thing and the effective use of this tool will depend largely on your skill and mastery level and how sharp the blade on the gauge is.

Before you see all of the best leather draw gauges on the market, I’m going to explain how you can tell when a draw gauge is worth your money. There are several key aspects that are common among the best draw gauges and a few more that are nice to have but aren’t strictly necessary for a good product.

The top features to look for in a draw gauge are blade sharpness (and no wobbly blades), ruler, and durable construction. These features will let you use most leather draw gauges for your strapping work.

On the other hand, the perks that are great to have but aren’t truly necessary are material, safety, thumb screw claps. I’ll explain how each of these factors can benefit you below.

Material

The most common materials used for the draw gauge that gives it the most durability is metal or stainless steel. These types of materials help to make the draw gauge very sturdy to be able to withstand strapping on much thicker leather than most strap cutters.

Ruler

A draw gauge will always have some form of measurements or ruler on it. This is to help you measure accurately a desired width you would want to strap. In most cases, the draw gauge you get will only measure up to 4inches and 4.5inches at most.

The most standard measurement readings you will find on the draw gauge is inches or centimeters or a combination of both.

This is because inches and centimeters are the most common forms of measurement around the world. But it’s also possible to find draw gauges with markings in centimeters or millimeters if those are what you might prefer.

Blade

The blade of a draw gauge will often come sharpened but in many cases, you would have to at least strop or resharpen the blade of your draw gauge to get the best out of it. The leather draw gauge depending on the brand you get will come with a set of 1-3 blades.

Dimensions

The overall dimensions of a product is something you might want to consider especially for storage purposes. The overall weight of the draw gauge, cross bar size, handle size will all determine how comfortable it’s going to be for you to use the draw gauge.

You wouldn’t want a super heavy or large draw gauge that’s going to be very uncomfortable for you to use. Especially if you would have to reproduce a lot of straps, you wouldn’t want to stop strapping because you’re tired but rather stop when you’re finished with your strapping projects.

Best Leather Draw Gauge – Reviews

Here’s a quick review of my 3 favorite draw gauges I have extensively researched and I’m very satisfied with the quality of products as a whole, the reviews and the quick before, during and after sales customer service.

Although these tools will perform the same functions, each has its strengths leaning towards a particular feature(s) that will influence your preference for one to another. In no particular order, here are the best draw gauges for leather!

1. Draw Gauge by Co-Link – (Best Most Accurate Draw Gauge)

This leather draw gauge from the camp of Co-link is a made of a stainless steel bar and an aluminum alloy handle. The handle has a pistol grip which is the most preferred type of grip for draw gauges by most crafters and professionals.

This gives it a very durable and sturdy grip for cutting all your thick and heavy leathers. The ruler on this tool is marked in inches and suitable for strap width up to 4inches.

Product Features:

  • Product Dimensions: 6.61 x 5 x 1.34 inches
  • Product Weight: 9.8 oz.
  • Handle Size: 9x6x1.5cm
  • Bar Size: 13x2x1cm
  • Blade Size: 3.5×1.5cm

Pros:

  • The pistol grip it offers is fantastic for ergonomics.
  • With this tool cutting heavy-duty leathers, it’s fairly light-weight tool.
  • It comes with 3 extra blades.
  • Blades doesn’t require any sort of sharpening before usage because it’s comes very sharp.
  • Awesome price & value for money.

Cons:

  • This may sound cliche but like all other draw gauges, this strapping tool has exposed cutting blades.
  • As of the time this post was published, I couldn’t find its replacement blades available online.

If you want a draw gauge that’s going to give you the best most accurate strips and straps that comes at a fairly low price with a lot of value for your money, then this draw gauge from Co-like is your best choice.

If you’re interested in this draw gauge by Co-link, you can check it out over here on Amazon for additional information and pricing!

2. C.S. Osborne Draw Gauge – (Best Lightweight Draw Gauge)

The C.S. Osborne draw gauge is my next strapping tool. The House of C.S Osborne is a U.S based leather tools manufacturer and is well known in the leather fraternity for its quality tools.

This tool comes with an aluminum handle and an all metal construction. Like most leather draw gauges, this one also has a pistol grip.

One of the telling distinctions is that the C.S Osborne draw gauge is manufactured with polished sliding head. It’s sliding head has adjustments up to 4 inches just like that of Co-Link. It’s blade measures around 2 inches and it’s replacement blades are readily available.

If yours is to buy leather work tools that’s made by long-standing American companies in order to support and ensure their continuous existence, then the C.S Osborne draw gauge is certainly a tool through which you can support one of Americans leather work greats!

Product Features:

  • Product Dimensions: 11.38 x 6.18 x 2.64 inches
  • Product Weight: 4 ounce
  • Blade Size: 2inches

Pros:

  • Strong metal construction
  • Super lightweight
  • Its replacement blades are readily available on the market.
  • Made in U.S
  • It has a solid build so it’s very sturdy and durable.

Cons:

  • It’s blades may come dulled up a bit and will requires thorough sharpening before use.
  • Exposed blades like most draw gauges.

If you’re interested in the C.S Osborne draw gauge, you can check it out over here on Amazon!

3. Draw Gauge by Yanuten – (Best Budget Pick)

This is my budget pick for this list. It’s sourced from C.S Osborne. This draw gauge features a polished aluminum handle and stainless steel. This is especially marketed as ideal for both professionals and amateurs alike.

This draw gauge can cut leather strips up to 4inches width just like the ones highlighted earlier. The Yanuten draw gauge comes with 2 extra blades you can easily sharpen and reuse for long extended use.

If you’re on budget but want a draw gauge of substantial quality and also well designed not only to be efficient but also look awesome, then the Yanuten Draw gauge is your must-go-to!

Pros:

  • Come pre-sharpened and ready to use.
  • Durable
  • Great price point
  • Nice beautiful design
  • Nicely packaged

Cons:

  • Exposed blades so extra care must be give to its use and shouldn’t be allowed around children.

If you’re interested this draw gauge, you can check it out over here on Amazon!

Conclusion

There is no denying that buying leather work tools like the draw gauge is or will become sort of a necessity for a lot of leather crafters. While some will actually buy it just to furnish their tools box with cool tools, others do to get the right tools that can help improve their efficiency and finishing.

However, there is one important thing a lot of leather workers miss out on. Buying tools like the draw gauge doesn’t necessarily mean that your skills will improve by a drastic measure.

The draw gauge is a tool that will require you to practice quite a bit just to get some finesse in using it.

Thankfully, to make things easier for you who’s reading this article, my top selected choices of draw gauge should help you pick the best one you want.

Hopefully, this list should solve your leather strapping tools buying woes, and you will be able to buy the perfect draw gauge that will complement your skill set, as well as the type of grip you have.

Kwabena

Hi! I’m Kwabena, the owner and founder of Favored Leather. I’m a huge Leathercraft enthusiast and I’ve been that for almost 13 years now. I'm excited to share my experiences and all the new stuff I learn each day about leather craft, leather cleaning & care, and everything in-between!

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