Difference Of Craftsman Oak, Oak Leaf, Live Oak Tooling Leather?

[naturalisme]

hello guys..

anyone can help me, becouse its make me confuse..

i look up the tandys to buy a leather, but i confuse the difference of craftman oak tooling leather, oak leaf tooling leather and live oak tooling leather..

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com.au/en-aud/home/department/cowhide/cowhide-tooling-leather/cowhide-tooling-leather.aspx

can you guys explain to me

i would appreciate that

thanks

[Northmount]

The catalog has some description. I'll abbreviate their descriptions.

Live Oak - Best, top quality, long life, superior performance, excellent carving, tooling, dyeing, oiling qualities, American sourced

Oak-Leaf - Good, premium import, excellent tooling and embossing, occasional blemishes and brands, fine hand carving leather

Craftsman Oak - Economy, imported, medium firm temper, stamp, carve and dye well, low cost, may have brands, blemishes, insect bites.

Tom

[jus10]

Does the cheaper stuff like economy last as long as better grade stuff ?

[JLSleather]

That's a tough question. Supposedly, there's more 'control' in the so-called higher grades. But I don't know that anyone is testing - say - tensile strength of the fibers.

Short version, I've bought some Tandy leather over the years. Some of it was fine. The craftsman stuff tends to be dry, loose grained, and sometimes even had visible 'stuff' on the surface that Im pretty sure dye won't penetrate evenly. In the past - oh, say two years - I have purchased a few of the 'live oak' double shoulders when I needed a small piece of 8/9 or 9/10. Not SO bad, though it seems like their quality is NOT improving lately.

I'll give them this much, though. If you're talking about 'grades' or 'brands', their "Royal Meadow" seems pretty good (though I admit I don't buy any without going to the store and picking it out). The belly is spongey as any, but cut that off to use for linings, for testing dyes, and setting machine tensions, and the rest is fine