Storing And Organizing Scrap Material

[needles]

thanks cyberthrasher, thats another one i want to try....... I love this site.......

[benlilly1]

My question is: How does anyone have enough leather dust to mix with the rubber cement? Or are you making the dust and how?

[Cyberthrasher]

All those little trimmings you cut off (cutting to size as well as edge beveling) and holes you punch out and other garbage that's too small - grind it up in a blender.

[chiefjason]

I'm about to the point of needing to pitch some. Finally forcing myself to throw more of the small stuff out. I've got a buddy that makes a lot of belts. He's taken to giving the bellies and strap ends to a local Boy Scout troop when they build up too much.

[horseplay]

Well think I've got it organized for now. I got a new 3 shelf rack and baskets. Sorted all the scrap while throwing out the true crap. Taking this bit of time to organize has already made a huge difference in making better use of my scrap. I also have a couple items that I make regularly so if I have leather that fits a certain pattern piece I will cut it and store it for future use.

[cgleathercraft]

Last weekend I went through two large totes of scrap and threw away enough small non-usable pieces to nearly fill up one of them. It's the first time I've went through my scrap box since I started a couple of years ago. I try to be as efficient as possible!

I have a limited space otherwise I would have kept it to try out the putty idea!

[biglew]

when I get too much....I sort the big and desirable pieces into 1 bin and donate the other to a school / group .. I recently donated about 10-15 lbs to a group for holiday decorations. Or you can always ebay them

[Gregory]

How long do you keep old (well organized or not ) pieces of leather? I assume it gets too old to use but I found my Dad's scrap bag and I'm wondering if I'm working too hard using old leather compared to new. There's no leather shops in my area to compare.. I also don't want to be wasteful if it's not causing problems.

Thanks- Greg

[Bev478]

After a slight hiatus (at least 25 years) I dug out my tools & the 1/2 side of 2.5mm Tandy leather I still had. A tad green in places & a little..ahem...firm, but it was still useable after a little TLC.

I have only used it for projects that are "backed" - clocks, keyracks etc. & although a little problematic to cut it worked ok.

So absolutely no need to throw away any leather any time soon

Example of the old leather!

[AfroCrafter]

I had a piece of black kudu hide from when I was at school in Zimbabwe and at the tender age of 35 I made a tooled tablet cover and it is wonderfully soft. so don't throw anything out. just keep it nicely and it will work out.

cheers Alex