Leather On Ebay

[Shaunread]

Hi all,

Im looking to start learning to work leather and make my own items out of it, however since im pretty much brand-new to the idea im not sure what to look out for. I dont want to spend a massive amount of money on leather at the moment because I simply dont know if i'll be any good or want to use an expensive piece knowing that it would well get ruined by me.

I was wondering what your experience was with buying leather on ebay I found this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10sq-ft-SUPPLE-NATURAL-VEG-TAN-LEATHER-1-5mm-thick-POUCH-RE-ENACTMENT-LARP-/130955394938?pt=UK_Crafts_Leathercraft_LE&hash=item1e7d8cbf7a and I was wondering what your opinions are on it, I was looking to make a fairly simple biker style wallet - or atleast attempt to and would appreciate any help or thoughts anybody could give me on this, thanks!

[humperdingle]

Hi, bear in mind this is 'split' leather, so not the nice, top surface. I bought some split previously on ebay and hardly used any of it

[Glendon]

If you want to buy cheaper leather for practice, find a supplier in your country that sells scrap leather. Thee is enough economy and mid grade stuff out there. You don't want top quality as a beginner but you don't want unknown quality either.

[celticleather]

Next time you're in town, why not call in at Le Prevo's shop and see if they have any offcuts of veg-tan tooling leather that you can buy? They're usually pretty helpful.

http://www.leprevo.co.uk/contact.htm

Edited December 16, 2013 by celticleather

[Matty]

Practice with some vinyl.

Check out this place: http://www.fabricdirect.com/acatalog/solid-vinyl-II-black.html

They're selling "Vinyl II" (not quite sure exactly what the "II" is for) for $3.99 / yd. The stuff is 54" wide, BUT you have to buy a whole 50yd roll, and at 32oz to the yard (that's 32oz WEIGHT, which I believe is sort of equal to 3-4oz leather THICKNESS??? Sorry if that's not totally correct) that roll is going to weigh about 100lbs and cost about $200, not including shipping and the cost of 100lbs shipping is going to be considerable. But, when you think about it, you could easily spend $200+ for just a little bit of leather. So, with all that vinyl, you, and lots of other people could practice like crazy.

Ah, sorry, just realized you're in the UK. BUT I'm sure you could find a vinyl supplier somewhere there and you probably won't have to buy 50yds of it. Unless, of course, you want to buy that much. Vinyl might not stretch exactly like leather, but it flops and drapes just like it. And in the long run it would be cheaper to practice with it before you try the real thing, just like a silversmith starts out working with copper or pewter before moving on to silver. Good luck.