Panels for New Purse

[Tim Schroeder]

Decided to try some Wickett and Craig  American Vachetta from The Buckle Guy. Been using Herman Oak for 15 yrs and still love they way it tools but personally I think the HO quality has just gone downhill. When you order A grade you should get A grade. There's not anything A grade about any of the A grade HO I've been getting lately. It's nice to be able to order by the square foot but I have to order double what I need to get a usable piece. It turns out there prices are really good. Try to buy HO by the foot anywhere else it is 3x the price.  Now it takes a min of 3 days to get an order out and then for some reason it gets to Dallas in 2 days and then takes at least 3 more days to get to my door and then you open it and you get crap. I called The Buckle Guy and ordered The American Vachetta Tues. at 3:30 and it was at my door Fri. at noon. It was also two almost perfect pieces. I don't know what was wrong with them but nothing is perfect. 

 I think this W&C tools better than the HO. It is very soft and you have to be very careful not to make unwanted marks. After tooling the W&C was all one color like I tooled it to wet. Almost no burnishing color. This is what it looked like after oiling. Still not as much burnishing color as the HO. I usually dye and antique finish everything so the burnishing color is not really an issue. 

Edited April 10 by Tim Schroeder

[AEBL]

Nice work! Good to know about W&C ... sorry to hear that HO has declined ...

[Jan236]

That looks really nice!

[Tim Schroeder]

Thanks @AEBL and @Jan236. I have them dyed now and was supposed to have this done by 4/28 for our anniversary. Not gonna make it because of physical issues. 

I will definitely be using the W&C from now on. It is very soft and you can make unwanted marks very easily. But it tools and dyes better than the HO I have been getting lately. I will try the regular tooling W&C to see how it tools and dyes. 

[Ledhep]

On 4/27/2025 at 5:43 AM, Tim Schroeder said:

Thanks @AEBL and @Jan236. I have them dyed now and was supposed to have this done by 4/28 for our anniversary. Not gonna make it because of physical issues. 

I will definitely be using the W&C from now on. It is very soft and you can make unwanted marks very easily. But it tools and dyes better than the HO I have been getting lately. I will try the regular tooling W&C to see how it tools and dyes. 

 

I would love to see your dying technique. I am forever messing up my work at the colorizing phase. Do you have any videos?

 

[Tim Schroeder]

I spray my dye thru an automotive spray gun (HVLP). It turns out a lot more even than wiping dye on. The black I do with trimmed sheepskin. 

[Paul M]

I would like you to try a different leather, that i love to tool with. It's from ALD American Leather Direct. Look at their strap leather and order what they call their Golden Strap. i like it better than Herman Oak. i just got some HO from Panhandle Leather and it was horrible! The Golden Strap from ALD is beautiful and they are huge, they are the same size if not bigger than any HO i have gotten. if you get a business account the grade A side is $196! i even applied for a business account after my first order and they refunded me the difference on what it should have been per side. 

 

I heard about the side through Jim Linnell on his weekly tool time at 6pmCST on Tuesdays. 

 

i wish i was going to the Rocky Mountain Trade Show this weekend but i will just have to wait to do the one in Waco.

 

Paul May

Texan Leatherworks 

[JLSleather]

On 4/27/2025 at 5:43 AM, Tim Schroeder said:

I will definitely be using the W&C from now on. It is very soft and you can make unwanted marks very easily. But it tools and dyes better than the HO I have been getting lately. I will try the regular tooling W&C to see how it tools and dyes. 

YEah, having tried both extensively -- I prefer to tool the HO.  W/C does tool up nicely, but i rather like the firm HO after its done

STILL, I like this work and as a rule I've always liked your work 👍
 

On 5/12/2025 at 1:52 PM, Paul M said:

I would like you to try a different leather, that i love to tool with. It's from ALD American Leather Direct.

I'll say it out loud ... I ordered from ALD- ONCE. And will not do it again.  Robert (mecopocketholsters) and I decided to try them a few years back.  So we ordered three different TYPES of leather cuts from them, to try them out.  Qute bad. I considered using it for lining other projects, but in the end, I threw it out.  Robert - in TX - said the same thing.  This would be THAT Robert, who made the best looking holster I ever dun seen, right down to this day ...

[Tim Schroeder]

Thanks, Yes I agree with you. I love the way the HO tools better than the WC but I don't do much so I buy just what I need for any project. Nice to be able to order by the foot. I ordered double what I needed for a wallet and these two panels and the piece I received wouldn't dye right. I tooled two of those wallet covers to match these (8 hours each) and the dye just looked like hammered crap.  I still have that piece of HO but it doesn't dye good. I spray all my dye so I thought the first one was something I did wrong but the second one came exactly the same. I've never had a problem with HO where I get it but the last couple of pieces just weren't usable. 

[JLSleather]

On 8/31/2025 at 6:02 AM, Tim Schroeder said:

Nice to be able to order by the foot.

Oh, you're buying it 'retail" - that's different indeed.
I generally get HO ..FROM H.0.  This means buying 10 sides, but I figger I'll use it so it's fine.  Just going through it a bit slower than the saddle makin' crew.

The ONLY place I ever recommend for buying HO in smaller quantities is GOLIGER LEATHER. Cheryl has always shipped great leather (when you order "A" you GET "A") and the service is just as good.  Only thing I could possibly not like about it is the shipping CA to the midwest is a bit spendy,... but unavoidable.  So AGAIN - Goliger has never sent me a piece of leather I wasn't happy with.

I have TRIED to work with others over the years, with little to praise for it. 

YEARS ago I could walk into The Leather Factory (before it was "tandy leather factory - I don't know if they bot it or if they already owned it back then and were running under a different name), pick out some hides, and be tooling GOOD leather at a GOOD price in an hour.  That place is still in Des Moines, IA ... now called TANDY leather factory... and largely filled with JUNK (and the manager last time I was there is a jerk - if they know what's good for them they've got rid of him by now).  Back when, you could just call and in a couple days you had a solid chunk of leather that was 90% good stuff (and 10% of the less firm edges for testing dye and stain colors is fine).  Now, I won't buy anything there unless I find time to go hand pick it.

And HOW MANY times did I order at SLC and get ... EWWWW.  I explained to them that I buy from Hermann Oak, but sometimes I just need one or two sides of a different weight.  Usually I would order a "back", cuz i don't care for the belly leather.  More than once they cut it the wrong way (seriously, not a joke).  And SO many times the leather I got was FAR from being the "B" grade i ordered.  I'd call and explain to them again that I HAVE "B" from HO and yours looks nothing like that.  Honestly, I think they're SO geared at retail sales that they don't really "grasp" that somebody would actually know the difference (and they're counting on that).
ANY RATE, they'd always apologize, offer to send me a different piece... not charge me shipping for returning the doormat they called leather.... BUT I finally just had to tell em that while they'd never "stuck" me with a piece they refused to take back, the time I was having to spend straightening it out just made it not worth the trouble.

I have purchased some good leather from S-T Leather (st louis), but it has been hit and miss, not consistent.

I ordered leather from Weaver Leather.  Once.  Never again.  Some of the worst hides I've ever seen.

And you've already seen my vomiting up ALD above.

And the W/C I generally order FROM W/C as well.  I think the smallest piece they sell is backs, so like 17-18 sq ft.  But it's good leather.  I use the "holster" leather for what it sounds like, though it TOOLS very nicely.  I'M not sure how it's different from their "tooling" hides, which are quite nice.  As I mentioned before, it's a bit less "firm" than HO leather, assuming the same treatment.  The hides are generally quite clean - not a lot of waste.  I think like twice (or was it 3) over the years I had an issue worth discussing over there, and was always met with an acceptable outcome.

My "pitch" to the places I buy leather is simple.  I don't mind PAYING premium price, long as I'm GETTING premium leather.  I tell em right on the phone.... send me the best piece you have and charge me accordingly.  IF the leather is good, and the service is good, you won't hear me complain about the cost.  Other side of the coin is... free shipipng is no favor if you're shipping me landfill material.