inkii

Can't speak to the tannery part. As far as sustainable / eco-friendly products once it reaches the crafter (dyes, etc), there's a brand called Eco-Flo which markets itself as more environmentally friendly that might be worth looking into if you're marketing your products on the basis of sustainability or low-impact products.

This will be the first leather I'll be purchasing with an eye toward selling the end product (rather than just practicing or making things for myself or friends). I really want to make sure that I get the best option for my needs within my budget. I don't feel like I know enough about hide selection to make an informed decision, so I would love some help with this choice from more experienced leather workers. I'm mostly making tooled leather dog collars for the most part. My budget is around $150. I'm trying to decide whether it makes more sense to get a double shoulder or a side. My options are Tandy Leather or Zack White (both local to me). So it looks like these are my options. I'm looking for 8-10 ounce leather. 1. Tandy Oak Leaf side: $167 (sale price) 2. Tandy Craftsman Oak double shoulder: $74 (sale price) 3. Tandy Oak Leaf double shoulder: $150 4. Zack White tannery run economy side: $167 5. Zack White tannery run Mexican double shoulder: $110 6. Zack White premium bullhide double shoulder: $125 7. Zack White Brazil double shoulder: $88 Of those options, which would you choose? And more importantly, why would you choose it? What makes it the best of these options? Also, a few smaller questions 1. When buying something listed as tannery run in person rather than online, that just means that they haven't already pre-categorized for quality, right? Customers are still allowed to choose which specific hide they want from the ones that are in the store? 2. Assuming that length doesn't matter for these projects, is there a reason to prefer either a double shoulder or a side? 3. When cutting strips, is there a directional grain? By which I mean, would the end result be stronger if cut either head-to-tail or side-to-side? Or no difference between them? Thanks for your input! I really want to do this right.

After a year of practicing tooling, I am ready to get down to business with my dog collars. I've made a lot of practice projects and "doodles." Now I want to try my hand at making customer-quality gear that I can be proud to put my name on. I'm designing the patterns for my example pieces and looking forward to making my debut. The problem: Right now, the only leather I have on hand is two sections of veg tan belly. I understand that's not ideal for collars which will see hard use, since belly tends to stretch. At a minimum, I need to use the belly to make example pieces for listing photos and prototypes to test with my own dogs -- that's unavoidable. Money is extremely tight. I'll be able to order a shoulder once the first order comes in, but I'm stuck with just belly until I get my first order. If possible, I would like to fix the stretching issue so that the example collars could be sold too without compromising on stability (rather than making them for example photos only and then being stuck with them forever as pretty paperweights). I've heard that using a lining would decrease a lot of the risk of stretch and minimize the impact of using belly. I haven't used a lining on any of my practice collars yet. I'm not finding much on Google -- lots of mentions of using lining, not much as far as specifics on how to do it. The questions: 1. How bad is the stretch when using belly? Are we talking "punch an extra hole" levels of stretch or more like "all of your tooling is ruined and you may as well dump it in the garbage right now" levels? How much force would it take to make a noticeable difference? 2. To what degree does adding a lining stabilize a potentially-stretchy piece of belly? 3. What type of lining would you recommend for the inside of a tooled leather dog collar made from belly? What weight of lining am I probably looking for? (I'm not sure of the weight of the belly I'm working with, but it was one of the thickest ones at the store if that makes a difference.) 4. Would doubling it over and lining the belly with another section of belly work at all? Can I take a "brute force" tack and just make it thick enough that stretching is unlikely without changing materials? 5. I've seen mention of using pigskin or cowhide as lining (although not in the context of collars). How would you finish that? Does it create a smooth seam if burnished to veg tan? Or do you just stitch it and rely on the adhesive to keep the edges tidy? If the latter, are there any special steps to take to ensure longevity? And would you attach the lining before or after burnishing the main veg tan piece? 6. Are there any good articles or videos on working with lining? Phew, I think that's it for now. I appreciate you taking the time to read through this whole thing -- I know I'm full of newbie questions. It's awesome to have an experienced community like this to reach out to.