Recommendations for Leather

[BudS]

Good day all,

I make mainly knife sheaths and holsters with some belts occasionally and limited bags. I am having a bit of a frustrating time finding leather that I like particularly for my sheaths. I use an 8 to 9 oz leather and have for the past few years been using European bends from Tandy. The leather is easy to work with, the flesh side finishes out nice and smooth and tight but the grain side seems too porous when using certain dyes resulting in a rough finish. I recently bought a side of Herman Oak tooling veg tanned leather. The grain is nice and tight but the flesh side is rough as a corn cob. One of my primary customers likes integrated belt loops so the flesh side is exposed. What I found is that the flesh side is very fibrous and after burnishing the edges and dying, the loop edges looked as if they had not been burnished. On one sheath, the edge around the mouth of the sheath actually had splits in the leather. My finished product was not up to my standards.

Any recommendations as to a source of leather? Are others experiencing the same thing? Any tips for finishing the Herman Oak leather?

 

Thanks

[Squilchuck]

All the HO tooling leather I have bought has been excellent on both sides.  I only buy HO now.  I would have sent back the side you got if the flesh side was rough.  Maybe you can split it a bit to shave off the roughness? --John