Wickett & Craig Raising Prices

[RawhideLeather]

IMHO the two best leathers I have tried so far are herman oak and wickett and craig. WC is a nicer tooling leather IMHO (not to experienced compared to some) because it seems like the leather is almost fluffier in a way, it has a nice depth to it when you start carving. Now that being said HO is outstanding for carving as well just in a little different way. Christian (xianleather) uses HO top grade leather and as you can see from his work it is amazing and tools fantastically. For my inexperienced self it seemed easier to get depth and relief with the WC. The HO is a little firmer tannage. The WC is a little softer overall feel, not saggy feeling like some of the import tannages that you can get but softer then HO. This is where it pays to know what you will be making and go for what you need. For things like holsters and such I think I would personally recommend HO but for the other stuff WC but then again either works great for anything you wanna make in the end. Either way you cant go wrong.

Now as far as the price increase, in the last 4 years to my knowledge I have not scene a price increase from them from what I remember so that seems fair to me to increase price to cover inflation which seems to be about 2% a year for the most part. If you raise the price of your work by a dollor or half dollar and depending on what you make you will easily recoupe the cost of the hide increase of 5 or 7 dollars.

EDIT> ok after reading the actual pdf I guess I was just about right that they have not raised prices in 4 yrs so that seems about right.

Just to add something about W&C leather, you can order your leather "holstered" from them which makes the leather much stiffer/firmer. I believe they run it through rollers which compresses it somewhat. You can still get the final thickness you need by having them split it ("leveled") from a thicker hide. Makes for a good choice for holsters and knife sheaths IMHO.

Richard