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A plated product is going to be inferior where abrasion occurs. It would be simple to machine spikes from rod stock on a lathe. Zinc and brass (which is copper and zinc) would definitely be easier to machine which is why those materials are most likely to be found. With the right tool, you could machine stainless steel spikes. Stainless steel would be the best white metal. It won't take or keep the polish of nickel-plate with chrome, but it will last longer. There are different alloys of stainless steel. 304 (also called 18/8) is easy to machine, highly corrosion resistant, readily accepts a polish, and is easy to find. With 304 rod, use a carbide cutter and a pattern or cnc program to turn out spikes on a lathe. With that said, I have to say I despise the aesthetic of spiked collars. I understand they had a practical purpose to protect unsupervised livestock protection dogs from wolves, but that is hardly ever their purpose today. They are poor protection for a modern pet or working dog which should be supervised and protected from attacks from other dogs by the handler. It is more a matter of my subjective opinion, but I hate wide leather collars with or without spikes. I think the wide collars are uncomfortable and inhibit mobility, and leather is an unsanitary material for collars.

Al Stohlman details it in _The Art of Hand Sewing Leather_ The bristles are commonly used for brush-making, brushes for all purposes, so it would be easier to find them offered for that purpose rather than sewing.

I suggest Barbour's linen cord. For leather, I prefer the linen to poly and nylon for sure. I would only use poly to sew poly, nylon to sew nylon, and cotton, well I would probably use poly thread to sew that. I don't see how you could go wrong with a fine quality linen like Barbour's or Fil Au Chinois Lin Cable from Ets Toulemonde. For heavier work, the Barbour's is ideal and it can easily be dyed or stained the basic colors. If you do finer/lighter work or want more choice of bright colors, then the Fil Au Chinois is the choice.

For my leather thread, I just have a 1 lb spool of Barbour linen that will last a while. I cut and dye about a cupful at a time, which I keep in a little box. I'll taper the ends, wax and thread the needles from that. I only hand-stitch so I am not using more than that in a month. For machine sewing, which I do not do with leather, I have a rack like this: For odd spools, bobbins, notions and other things, I keep them in a Sterilite drawer tower.

I use a Hand Screw. I just clamp it to a chair or bench with a second one, but it could also be bolted to a pony/horse. The jaws are probably too broad, but it's maple and could easily be cut or shaved down to whatever you want.

Now you asked about pet collars in particular. Again the main options there for standard/traditional hardware like buckles and snap-hooks are zinc, plated-steel or iron, stainless steel, brass, and bronze. You have to consider whether the product is cast or made of wire. A snap-hook is cast, and a ring or buckle is typically made of wire and welded or brazed. I can tell you that if you use zinc or plated-steel for pet products, you will be competing with the imported stuff at Petco and Petsmart and you'll have to plan on prices around the $10 range. For premium and traditional items (meaning traditional hardware designs), the desired color is going to make the biggest difference. For white metal, it needs to be stainless steel or German silver (white brass). Stainless steel is widely available but it is usually significantly more costly than brass/bronze because the manufacturing process is costlier (the raw metal is not). German silver is just harder to find because it is mostly replaced by stainless steel. One problem for stainless steel, besides the premium price, is it is hard to polish to the highest luster. It tends to go dull gray. It does not compare to nickel and chrome plated steel in shine, but it is more durable as those plated steels will eventually rust. Stainless steel is also usually lighter and/or stronger than mild plated steels that are not heat-treated. One of the best sources for stainless hardware for horses and dogs is Herm Sprenger. www.sprenger.de For yellow metal, it will be brass or bronze. These terms get used interchangeably a lot, and it can be hard to tell what is what. For most hardware, either is a good choice, but bronze (copper and tin) has an advantage in strength and resistance to abrasion. For example, the links of a brass chain tend to wear each other away, whereas bronze will last longer. I think bronze resists corrosion better, which is why it is used for bearings and propellers in saltwater. With stainless steel, it is not practical to make your own hardware. You might be able to bend wire and weld, but castings would be a major undertaking. With brass and bronze you could quite practically cast your own either with sand casting or the lost-wax (investment) method. You can also bend brass or bronze rod and braze it with a torch. Another option for premium products is to go to non-traditional hardware. The two most popular sources for this is the technical climbing equipment market, and the tactical/military market. For example, instead of using a traditional cast snap-hook, use a forged aluminum carabiner. Instead of using a traditional style roller buckle, use a AustriAlpin D-ring Cobra quick release buckle. http://www.austrialpin.net/

One of the main reasons brass and bronze are attractive is because they can be alloyed to a color that when polished is most similar to gold. By itself, the copper is reddish (and fairly soft), but when alloyed with a white metal like zinc or tin, the result is a yellow to white color depending on how much of each element is used. There are a few other metals that can make brass or bronze very strong. Aluminum has been used very successfully in brass, and in bronze we have very useful alloys with aluminum, silicon, and manganese. One thing to watch out for is the lead content. In modern alloys, lead is usually added for machineability. Brass keys contain too much of it, and practically all the big lock and key manufacturers are under lawsuit. For a lot of leather goods that are personal items, leaded hardware is really not acceptable.

The thing you have to watch out for is die-cast zinc. Zinc is easy to cast but it is pretty weak and makes for cheap-quality fasteners. I think it's fair to say the cheapest and most shoddy metal fasteners and hardware are made of zinc. The idea of "solid brass" comes from the propensity of cheap zinc hardware to simply be brass-plated to give it the yellow color. "Solid brass" is in contrast to brass-plated zinc, or brass-plated steel. Steel is the strongest metal commonly found in hardware. It is strongest when it is forged and heat-treated, but that can make a small piece of hardware an order of magnitude more expensive. Mild steel rusts, but "stainless steel" alloys that incorporate a lot of nickel are very resistant to corrosion. Nickel can cause allergies on some people and animal's skin, and it can discolor light-colored fur. Another white metal alternative to stainless steel is "German" silver or nickel silver. It is an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc. In essence, this is "white" brass. It is non-ferrous so it doesn't "rust," and it has a white appearance similar to silver. Silver is a wonderful metal for fasteners and hardware but it is most often excluded from consideration due to the cost. Leathercrafters whose products might be fitted with silver hardware could consider allowing for the buyer to add their own. For example, I bought a ranger belt from a leathercrafter once, and fitted it with a silver buckle I acquired from a smith. The buckle could have been anywhere from 2x to 10x the price of the belt. So it wouldn't always behoove the leathercrafter to force the buyer into a 10x option when they may not be willing. Brass is copper and zinc. It is mostly copper, but the alloy has the characteristic of being stronger than either pure copper or zinc alone. It is also very malleable. It is non-ferrous so it doesn't "rust" but it does corrode. Chiefly, the zinc erodes due to a chemical reaction (dezincification), and the copper corrodes (by itself the surface turns the familiar green, but in alloy it usually develops a "patina"). Bronze is a copper and tin alloy that is often has higher tensile strength than brass but is less malleable. Iron is often not as strong or as durable as bronze, but ductile iron can be tough and would be much stronger than brass or zinc and is more affordable than bronze for larger items.

It doesn't make sense to me to punch the leather three times. Every time you put the awl in, you're cutting some leather fibers making the leather weaker around the hole and making it so the hole will close-up to a larger size. Ideally, the awl only pushes the fibers to the side, the needle goes through with the thread, and the fibers close-up around the thread. Practically, the awl cuts some fibers. The fewer the better. Edit: reading more carefully, it looks like the welt being sewn amounts to 6 layers of 8 oz. which would be 3/4" of leather. I regularly sew up to half an inch with a single awl pierce but I have not tried 3/4". I imagine the technique is to obtain good alignment of the holes through all the layers.

Here are two Z-twist cables in Z-twist Here are two Z-twist cables in S-twist I didn't do anything to these cables except twist two of them together either S or Z, the same way they would be twisted were they stitched in leather, except I twisted them more turns per length than most stitching would result in to exaggerate the effect.

I also became convinced that S and Z threads do make a difference in hand stitching. However, it is not based on whether you are left or right-handed. The difference is made based on whether your stitching twists S, Z or is straight. As you lay the cables through the awl holes, is one cable passing over, under, over under... or the other, or is one always on top. If you always stitch with the same needle-handling, you will be twisting them S or Z because the needles are alternating and your hand technique is not. If you alternate your needles and your handling technique, then they will be straight. A right-handed person can use either S or Z twisted cable, but they should pay attention to whether their stitching is twisting the two cables S or Z, or straight.

That's right, Cordura is for abrasion resistance, not tensile strength, and of course it is much thinner than webbing. The 1050d ballistic is slightly better for tear resistance, but it is still probably less than 200 lbs tensile strength compared to webbing which can be ~4000 lbs for a 1" strap. But the OP's stated use did not mention reinforcement, but rather a "liner." In any event, I appreciate the advice from experience. I am working on another project now to build a semi-tactical dog harness/vest with nylon. While leather is the traditional material for harness, it is typically heavy and stiff and not comfortable for all-day wear. I have several webbing harness that I use for carting, ski and bike joring, and for the highest loads (with broad 2" straps). But all of them are overbuilt for light-duty use. I made another one with grosgrain ribbon (polyester). This is normally only a decorative material, but I found 1 3/4" ribbons to be excellent for light-duty use, and obviously much more comfortable than nylon webbing. The grosgrain ribbon would also make a luxurious strap liner, but I can't recommend it for anything that would see abrasion and it hardly adds any tensile strength. Presently I am working on a jacket/harness sewn of a woven nylon fabric for personal use. Most tactical harness incorporate both a Cordura-type woven fabric and webbing straps.

Another suggestion I have is to consider using ballistic nylon or Cordura instead of webbing. You haven't detailed your design at all, so I wouldn't know how the leather/webbing composite is intended to work, but you mentioned thin, shiny webbing. Invista 1050d ballistic nylon is shiny and smoother than Cordura, and it is thinner than webbing. It has great tear resistance a texture that makes it very pleasing for bag use. For webbing, my favorite is Blue Water tubular nylon. It is a little smoother, thicker and stronger than seatbelt webbing and because it is tubular the edges are perfectly smooth. The flat webbing has rough edges. Of course, any webbing is going to add a lot more bulk than just a woven sheet like the 1050d.

Have you tried piercing the webbing with a harness needle? Since it is woven, you probably do not need to make holes in it. The hard thing with webbing is to get neat ends. I suggest covering the ends with leather, or overstitching them.

I have read mentioned in the topics linked in the first post about "throwing the back loop." Throwing the back loop results in an S twist stitch. Passing the needle from the right over the loop on the left results in a Z twist stitch. I alternate these techniques depending on which edge of a strap I am sewing. I have also read mentioned in the topics linked in the first post, and in related tutorials of a technique to pass the needle through the loop to form an overhand knot in each stitch. I have a made a model of what I believe the result of this technique is. I do not believe this increases the strength of the stitching. Knotting a cable does not increase its strength. There are, of course, many other types of stitching, such as chain-stitching, which may have decorative purposes.