If part of your leather rips or tears, use a cutting tool to make a clean from another piece of leather for repairing your torn piece. Shears and leather knives cut leather into pieces. The shears are made of strong steel to prevent it from breaking while the cutting knives are made from the thick steel with sharp edges to allow for cutting of large pieces of leather.
Leather patches are pieces of leather used to bind torn or worn out parts of larger leather products. Make patches from out-of-use leather materials. For instance you can use leather patches from an old seat to repair a torn saddle. Patches help restore damaged leather items.
Use punch tools to repair broken saddle straps. The awl is a punch tool with a wooden handle attached to pointed steel shaft. It resembles a large ice pick. Use a hammer to drive the point of the awl into the leather and make a new hole in a saddle strap. Some punch awls have replaceable tips to create different sized holes. Power punches are useful if the leather is too thick to punch with hand tools.
After cutting and punching your leather, bind it to the piece of leather you are repairing. Bind leather using leather threads. The leather threads are made of tightly twisted leather. Use a leather needle with the leather thread to bind two pieces of leather together. An alternative to the leather needle is a sewing awl. A rivet can join thick leather permanently.