Super thick leather

[Tugadude]

On 12/16/2022 at 10:46 PM, Vinces0583 said:

SLC?  I've tried laminated pieces in the past.  Doesn't work for this application.  It's a very odd application to be honest.  If I can find the right material and get it to work it'll be patentable for me.

You say you've used laminated pieces, but how were they laminated?  If I took two pieces of 10 oz. veg tan that had unfinished flesh sides and glued them together with a quality contact adhesive I would defy anyone to tear them apart without literally destroying the leather.  If you laminate by gluing a finished back to a smooth outer layer of leather with a so-so glue, then maybe you might be able to separate them.  

Even you indicated that others have tried laminated leather with mixed results... "I  have considered most options including laminated pieces but believe it or not that's already being tried by many others with mixed degrees of success. "

Also, is there a reason it HAS to be leather?  Surely there is another material out there that might substitute, and maybe even do a better job?

[jcuk]

You might want to take a look at sole leather i know of some companies this side of the pond that will get near 20 oz leather but they won't be cheap so take a look your side of the pond.

Hope this helps

JCUK

 

[nstarleather]

10 hours ago, Burkhardt said:

SLC has Herman Oaks old splitter so during busy times like currently they get the hides in full thickness and split to order. I have a hide now that I had split the lower belly area to 6oz and the rest is natural. 8-9oz up to 12-14oz in areas from shoulders to the butt.

I would guess you’re talking about “dry slitting” in that they are tanning at their highest “stock” thickness and reducing to order.   
 

If I understand correctly every tannery splits the raw hides first for uniformity as hide thickness would vary depending on each section of the hide.  You can imagine how hard leather would be to work with if it wasn’t uniform in thickness.

[billybopp]

2 minutes ago, nstarleather said:

I would guess you’re talking about “dry slitting” in that they are tanning at their highest “stock” thickness and reducing to order.   
 

If I understand correctly every tannery splits the raw hides first for uniformity as hide thickness would vary depending on each section of the hide.  You can imagine how hard leather would be to work with if it wasn’t uniform in thickness.

W&C will split to your requested thickness, and offers pasting the back if you wish as well.  Unfortunately, the will not cut a full hide and split parts to different thickness anymore.  They used to do that.

- Bill

[nstarleather]

2 hours ago, billybopp said:

W&C will split to your requested thickness, and offers pasting the back if you wish as well.  Unfortunately, the will not cut a full hide and split parts to different thickness anymore.  They used to do that.

- Bill

For sure...what I was alluding to is that fact that leather is split before tanning too...just to get it to a uniform thickness.  Just like my skin is thicker on my elbow than my eyelid, in a cow you'll have parts that would naturally thicker if they didn't split for uniformity first. 

[billybopp]

Just now, nstarleather said:

For sure...what I was alluding to is that fact that leather is split before tanning too...just to get it to a uniform thickness.  Just like my skin is thicker on my elbow than my eyelid, in a cow you'll have parts that would naturally thicker if they didn't split for uniformity first. 

Some say my skin is particularly thick around my skull. 

- Bill

[Vinces0583]

I'm learning a heck of a lot.  Thanks for all your input so far.

 

[Burkhardt]

SLC said Herman Oak is/has been running at full capacity (tanning pits) to keep up with demand so SLC is taking the hides after drying from the pits to get them faster rather than waiting for HO to do all the splitting themselves. They have videos explaining it and on the HO veg on their site most weights/sizes are mto.

[Matt S]

@Vinces0583 try emailing J & FJ Baker. They're a traditional pit tannery in England who are amenable to "special orders" and if it's something that can be done I expect that they can do it. I can't vouch for whether you'll like the price or lead time though! 

Do you need large panels or specific parts of the hide for your mysterious project? Some parts of a beast's hide are thicker than others and if you can make do with small parts where grain is irrelevant you might be able to find that more readily than entire hides or large cuts. Remember a cow's whole hide is about 50 SQFT once the less useful pieces are trimmed out. That's about a third the size of a single garage for context. The likelihood of getting a whole hide at that thickness is, I reckon, much less than being able to get "bits" at 20oz/8mm.

[Vinces0583]

I was in contact with a gent named Victor at Springfield Leather......they're able to get me super thick stuff.  I'll be ordering a sample tomorrow when I talk to Victor....he was out today.  As for the size of the panels; no, they don't need to be large at all.  I could get away with pieces that are relatively small.......10 or 12 inches square would work just fine.

[TonySFLDLTHR]

On 12/20/2022 at 7:20 PM, Vinces0583 said:

I was in contact with a gent named Victor at Springfield Leather......they're able to get me super thick stuff.  I'll be ordering a sample tomorrow when I talk to Victor....he was out today.  As for the size of the panels; no, they don't need to be large at all.  I could get away with pieces that are relatively small.......10 or 12 inches square would work just fine.

Victor is awesome and makes leather armor himself. 

20 oz might…might be possible. I can also touch base with him to see who he has talked with. Most of the unsplit sides we have are 16-18 oz from HO. As @nstarleather mentioned…leather is split wet and dry. Wet is done at the tannery and not something we do at SLC. 
 

We had a piece about 6 months ago that was around 26 oz, but it was super gnarly. 

[TomE]

@TonySFLDLTHR, planning to call SLC tomorrow to check stock on HO bridle sides.  9-10 oz sides in black, London brown, and havana.  Wanted to select 3 sides in person and I'm 3 hrs away from the store.  Do you know about current stock?

[nstarleather]

33 minutes ago, TonySFLDLTHR said:

We had a piece about 6 months ago that was around 26 oz, but it was super gnarly. 

You should have taken a picture for Instagram... I'd love to have something to show the people who say "full grain " is the same as "full thickness" smh...

[JerseyFirefighter]

The most I have seen is full thickness (14-16oz) natural saddle skirting with just a small portion of the butt area reaching 20oz and over. I would be impressed if there is someone out there that can produce a full 20oz thick side. Definitely seems like that would be an oddity that comes through the tannery every now and then, or else maybe a bit more common but they split it down because no one ever needs a single piece that thick. 

[TonySFLDLTHR]

5 hours ago, TomE said:

@TonySFLDLTHR, planning to call SLC tomorrow to check stock on HO bridle sides.  9-10 oz sides in black, London brown, and havana.  Wanted to select 3 sides in person and I'm 3 hrs away from the store.  Do you know about current stock?

Looking at the site it says we should have some good stock of it. However, I will be able to set eyes on it in the morning. 

5 hours ago, nstarleather said:

You should have taken a picture for Instagram... I'd love to have something to show the people who say "full grain " is the same as "full thickness" smh...

However, they are both genuine leather. *shhhh* LOL

[YinTx]

56 minutes ago, TonySFLDLTHR said:

However, they are both genuine leather. *shhhh* LOL

I see a hornets nest. Here ya go,  here's a stick.  Lemme know how it goes...

[nstarleather]

1 hour ago, YinTx said:

I see a hornets nest. Here ya go,  here's a stick.  Lemme know how it goes...

Nah! He’s referring to a bit of misinformation that got posted and was wisely removed

Springfield know their stuff.

[TonySFLDLTHR]

2 hours ago, nstarleather said:

Nah! He’s referring to a bit of misinformation that got posted and was wisely removed

Springfield know their stuff.

At times I think everyone has put something out that was taken incorrectly or misinterpreted. 

The use of Genuine has been misconstrued over time. Mostly as a marketing strategy. That has turned into the use of the term genuine as a negative term. 
 

When genuine at its base is defined as 

from Google: “truly what something is said to be; authentic.”

Then the sentence they give is humorous to this topic.HAHAH : "each book is bound in genuine leather"

[nstarleather]

11 minutes ago, TonySFLDLTHR said:

 

from Google: “truly what something is said to be; authentic.”

Then the sentence they give is humorous to this topic.HAHAH : "each book is bound in genuine leather"

Yeah books are one of the categories where "genuine" is very unlikely to be a positive.  Furniture is another 

[tsunkasapa]

We had a TV once that actually said "Genuine Simulated Wood Grain" on a sticker. 

[nstarleather]

4 minutes ago, tsunkasapa said:

We had a TV once that actually said "Genuine Simulated Wood Grain" on a sticker. 

Those are the most funny...like saying "genuine fake wood" why would you even bother?

[tsunkasapa]

Just now, nstarleather said:

Those are the most funny...like saying "genuine fake wood" why would you even bother?

Well, it WAS t 70s. 

[nstarleather]

1 minute ago, tsunkasapa said:

Well, it WAS t 70s. 

Ahhh...the same era as "rich corinthian leather"

[Gulrok]

4 hours ago, nstarleather said:

Ahhh...the same era as "rich corinthian leather"

"Fine Corinthian Leather"

Cmon man.. get the quote right. How can you even call yourself an expert?

(Sarcasm)

[nstarleather]

12 hours ago, Gulrok said:

"Fine Corinthian Leather"

Cmon man.. get the quote right. How can you even call yourself an expert?

(Sarcasm)

I wasn't alive in '74...my apologies.