Wickett & Craig Raising Prices

[EricDobson]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this, but I was recently in touch with Wickett & Craig and they reminded me that prices are going up October 1st. A day and a half left to save a few bucks!

Price Increase.pdf

Edited September 29, 2010 by EricDobson

[Spinner]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this, but I was recently in touch with Wickett & Craig and they reminded me that prices are going up October 1st. A day and a half left to save a few bucks!

Price Increase.pdf

Glad I got my order in already...unfortunately it's taking three times as long as they said it would to ship.

[King's X]

It is because they are trying to figure out where to store that extra cash.

[Spinner]

Glad I got my order in already...unfortunately it's taking three times as long as they said it would to ship.

After making a not so favorable comment, I thought I should update and say that I spoke with Glenn this morning about the order and after looking into it, he offered a favorable solution. This was my first order from W & C so to have an issue right off the bat normally isn't a good sign for me....BUT when the company recognizes a problem and then rectifies it, at probably a bit of extra expense to themselves, to make sure the client is taken care of, they're good in my book. I'll be back. Now I'm looking forward to seeing if their leather is as good as their customer service.

[EricDobson]

Good to hear Spinner. I really wanted to put an order in but I'm just not sure what I want yet for the project I have in mind. I figure better to pay 10% more and get what I really need than regret a rush decision. I'm sure W&C won't mind that I waited.

[Timd]

Gotta jump on the W&C bandwagon. After ordering my first side from them, I was amazed at the quality of the product, and the friendliness of the staff. It's the only leather I use now. Every once and a while, they run a special on thier #3 sides, last time the price was $95, split to any thickness, and they'll give you the split. The quality of these #3's are better than some #1's I gotten elsewhere. OK. I'm jumping down now.

[Spinner]

Gotta jump on the W&C bandwagon. After ordering my first side from them, I was amazed at the quality of the product, and the friendliness of the staff. It's the only leather I use now. Every once and a while, they run a special on thier #3 sides, last time the price was $95, split to any thickness, and they'll give you the split. The quality of these #3's are better than some #1's I gotten elsewhere. OK. I'm jumping down now.

Another update and thoughts - I received my hide from Wickett and Craig this morning as promised by Glenn. Nicely wrapped with a bundle of swatches of their leather selection. Upon opening the wrapping, my initial thought was "very nice" then I grabbed a piece of leather that I bought from Tandy, their #1 grade and compared the two.

The difference is night and day. My next response was "WOW". The W & C hide has excellent, even color throughout, very little marking (no brands and only 2 small abrasions) and the thickness is even throughout. I had it split to 5/6 from 9/10, they did a great job. The back has only about 2% roughed sections, all at the edges in mostly unused areas so the main hide is just about perfect. This is on their #3 special grade that was on overstock sale.

I still like having a local Tandy for the commeraderie and parts, etc. and the folks there are great. But, I will definitely be buying my big hides from W & C going forward. I just can't justify using lower grade hide at the same/higher prices just to save time for shipping.

[EricDobson]

I still like having a local Tandy for the commeraderie and parts, etc. and the folks there are great. But, I will definitely be buying my big hides from W & C going forward. I just can't justify using lower grade hide at the same/higher prices just to save time for shipping.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm just now getting started, and have all of my basic tools in the mail right now, but I still haven't ordered any leather yet. (It's going to be a painful time once my tools arrive.) I think I need to break down and order some Tandy leather to get started quickly, then put in my order with W&C and make sure I never run out!

[MADMAX22]

IMHO the two best leathers I have tried so far are herman oak and wickett and craig. WC is a nicer tooling leather IMHO (not to experienced compared to some) because it seems like the leather is almost fluffier in a way, it has a nice depth to it when you start carving. Now that being said HO is outstanding for carving as well just in a little different way. Christian (xianleather) uses HO top grade leather and as you can see from his work it is amazing and tools fantastically. For my inexperienced self it seemed easier to get depth and relief with the WC. The HO is a little firmer tannage. The WC is a little softer overall feel, not saggy feeling like some of the import tannages that you can get but softer then HO. This is where it pays to know what you will be making and go for what you need. For things like holsters and such I think I would personally recommend HO but for the other stuff WC but then again either works great for anything you wanna make in the end. Either way you cant go wrong.

Now as far as the price increase, in the last 4 years to my knowledge I have not scene a price increase from them from what I remember so that seems fair to me to increase price to cover inflation which seems to be about 2% a year for the most part. If you raise the price of your work by a dollor or half dollar and depending on what you make you will easily recoupe the cost of the hide increase of 5 or 7 dollars.

EDIT> ok after reading the actual pdf I guess I was just about right that they have not raised prices in 4 yrs so that seems about right.

Edited October 2, 2010 by MADMAX22

[billymac814]

I'm sure it'll be a fair price no matter what. I still think it's a pretty good deal for what you get and there's no middle man to deal with. I always got their #1 grade but the last time I ordered I got one side of #1 and one side of the #3 (special) grade to compare the two. I really can't tell much of a difference, there was a mark on the #3 but just at the very top and not an issue at all. The #3 was on special and it was 95.00 compared to the 185.00 for the number 1. I'll have a very hard time ordering #1 again as I don't think it will affect my final product unless it is not on sale then I'll just spend the few extra bucks, but for 95.00 it is hard to beat for a nice side. This may have been a fluke and I just got a really nice one but I'll try again. They are very close to me as well which is why I chose them(45 min) However I still have them ship it as they have to run it through the splitter, it takes usually a week to get.

[RawhideLeather]

IMHO the two best leathers I have tried so far are herman oak and wickett and craig. WC is a nicer tooling leather IMHO (not to experienced compared to some) because it seems like the leather is almost fluffier in a way, it has a nice depth to it when you start carving. Now that being said HO is outstanding for carving as well just in a little different way. Christian (xianleather) uses HO top grade leather and as you can see from his work it is amazing and tools fantastically. For my inexperienced self it seemed easier to get depth and relief with the WC. The HO is a little firmer tannage. The WC is a little softer overall feel, not saggy feeling like some of the import tannages that you can get but softer then HO. This is where it pays to know what you will be making and go for what you need. For things like holsters and such I think I would personally recommend HO but for the other stuff WC but then again either works great for anything you wanna make in the end. Either way you cant go wrong.

Now as far as the price increase, in the last 4 years to my knowledge I have not scene a price increase from them from what I remember so that seems fair to me to increase price to cover inflation which seems to be about 2% a year for the most part. If you raise the price of your work by a dollor or half dollar and depending on what you make you will easily recoupe the cost of the hide increase of 5 or 7 dollars.

EDIT> ok after reading the actual pdf I guess I was just about right that they have not raised prices in 4 yrs so that seems about right.

Just to add something about W&C leather, you can order your leather "holstered" from them which makes the leather much stiffer/firmer. I believe they run it through rollers which compresses it somewhat. You can still get the final thickness you need by having them split it ("leveled") from a thicker hide. Makes for a good choice for holsters and knife sheaths IMHO.

Richard