Have You Purchased Leather From.......

[Red Cent]

PREMIUM GRADE, #1, #2, A , B, craftsmen grade, Oak grade (Tandy), tannery run,......

Is there a chart somewhere?

In addition, some of the leather sales companies supply other retailers from which we buy. Quite a circus for the uninitiated.

I did learn that you can show your business license or number and the prices drop. Gotta go do some research on leather production.

[Treed]

I have not been able to find a chart.....It is mostly based on the tannery as to how they label them. Herman Oak is A and B are premium hides with little or no blemishes..... hides are very uniform in thickness and firmness. The TR's have more blemishes, may have brands, cuts, can vary in thickness and firmness. The only thing that I really pay attention to is the brands and amount of blemishes. I can work around any thickness issues as holsters and books are small and the thickness issue is very small. I can work around any firmness issue with holsters coming out of the firm parts and books getting stiffeners fixes that issue. For the price difference I have found that the TR's work great.

[camano ridge]

Red, here are two items that might help you although I believe that any grading system can and is loosely interpeted by some tanneries and or resellers. The second one is a free ebook from Weaver, it does a pretty good job of explaining the grades and other information you might find useful if you have not already seen it. Page three gives a explanation of grades. THere is also a page that gives the attributes of the different areasof a hide and there is a page on costing out leather and on yield. Here is a link to a post by Chuck Burrows over on cascity with his explanation of grades and some other good info. http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,24427.0.html

As to Tandy grades as near as I can find out

Royal Oak is what they believe to be there A grade

Oak Leaf = B grade

Craftsman = C

And Economy grade is their bottom

I looked at some Royl Oak the other day and it was worse then a comparable size Crafstman both were marked Brasil

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/infoandservices/leatherguide/leatherguide.aspx

http://offers.weaverleathersupply.com/insiders-guide-to-leather-learn-to-work-with-leather

Edited July 10, 2014 by camano ridge

[Red Cent]

Thanks Camano

[vaalpens]

Thanks CR for the information. I pulled down the eBook from Weaver.

And a big thanks to Red for starting this discussion. It has helped me a lot since it gives me some additional leather purchasing options.