Two Dog collars and two leashes

[Tove09Tilda]

Well, my mum called again and asked for a new collar. Planned was only the yellow one with a matching leash, but as her Spinone Italiono grew out of his old orange collar and I still have a little of this lovely red sheepskin plus some orange dye, she got two. I'm very happy with the collars as they turned out beautifully. The lashes, let's say they are part of a learning process. The blue one is for my dog, therefore the hardware is smaller. I always use the rule of thumb of the dogs weight times 4 as the minimum breakage point of the hardware. The yellow one is solid brass and about 1,70m (custom measure) and the blue one standard length with steel hardware. 

She already has such a set, entirely hand sewn, in green, that holds up lovely despite being used almost everyday. The orange collar, will for now on be his dog-training collar for when he has professional training. I'm feeling a bit nostalgic as I made his first collar as well as the last ones of our deceased dog. Her last collar was green, her first handmade one orange. This colour become something special therefore, and If I should ever sell collars one type, only available in green and orange, will be named Tilda! 

[TomE]

Good looking leads and collars!  I like the way you sewed the chapes on the ends of the rope leads.  You are motivating me to make a leather collar for our new border collie rescue.  He arrived a week ago and we've been his foster home until today when the mandatory hold on adoption is over and we can officially claim him as our own.  We have another border collie who is teaching him how to (mis)behave around the farm.

[kgg]

2 hours ago, Tove09Tilda said:

Well, my mum called again and asked for a new collar.

Nicely done I like the collars a real labour of love. The only word of caution is for the more powerful dogs that the dead ending of the rope lead at the clip where the leather folds through the ring of the clip and being secured to the lead by thread is a real weak point. I have seen a lot of that style fail due the leather weakness, wear of the leather, leather rot and thread failure particularly the inexpensive leads. Nothing worst then pulling back on the lead and the dog is gone leaving the owner holding a pretty lead. 

Since I deal with a wide range of customer breeds I have to be sure that no matter the breed the lead will not fail. To that end for nylon / polyester leads I pull back a couple internal core strands of the rope for about 4-6" (100-150mm), thread the end through the "O" ring, heat compress and melt two #9 copper rivets through. Then I install burrs and cover the end using shrink tubing to cover the end. The shrink tubing helps protect the rope from the dogs that like to chew at the clip. I do the same thing for kennel quick leads ranging in length from 4' to 8' (1.2m to 2.4m). 

The funny thing is I have a husband and wife who I made a 6' (1.8m) rope lead for the husband and a 4' (1.2m) leather lead for the lady. The dog loves to chew on the point where the clip attaches to the rope and never touches the leather lead. I had to install a extra layer of shrink wrap to protect the rope lead. 

kgg

Edited 1 hour ago by kgg