whipstitchwallets Report post Posted August 18, 2014 I've been searching amazon for some leather history books. I'm especially interested in old photos and illustrations. Old tanneries, cobblers, saddle makers, anient clothing; everything! Any books that you all particularly love? I found one on amazon about Peabody that looks pretty good Thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WyomingSlick Report post Posted August 19, 2014 I haven't seen many books that deal with only with leather history as I suspect it does not appeal to enough people to warrent the costs of publishing a book.. Most of what I have seen has been in magazines such as the Leather Craftsman and all of it's various reincarnations through the years. Of course there is some information to be found in many of the books that focus primarily on how to do the various operations involved in leather tooling and fabrication. The situation is that when it comes to learning about leather, it is a difficult process as much of the information is buried away in old magazines and some oldtimer's heads.......and there is some misinformation waundering around out there. For example, there are people on this forum that will aver that copper rivets are stronger than brass rivets! lol But don't be discouraged because there are a lot of facts and useful information out there if you look hard for it. Trivia: The term "suede" comes from the French. The Swedish actually developed the process for making the soft buffed finish leather and it became popular in France where the word for Swede, or Swedish, was suede. When you see a pair of cowboy boots that are made from elephant, know that you are looking from leather that came from the elephant's ears. It is the only part that is thin enough to be easily into leather as the rest of the elephant's hide can be up to 4 inches thick ! Leatherworking is one of the oldest working professions of humans. Bone needles used for sewing leather have been found that date back at least 30,000 years and perhaps as far back as 100,000 years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HollyNelson Report post Posted October 8, 2014 There are a few old leatherworking books, digitized, at the Project Gutenberg site, for free. Just do a search there under "leather." http://www.gutenberg.org/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LoriF Report post Posted October 9, 2014 Thanks for the link! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
