Looking for advice on starting supplies

[ThoughtFission]

Hi,

I'm about to get my leather business up and running and could use some advice regarding what supplies I should get as a starting point. Hope I can get some advice as to what to buy first. I will be making bags, wallets, watch straps. Hopefully I will be working in Veg Tan when possible.

Dyes for edge finishing, what colors and brands?

Threads - sizes, colors and brands in European sizes for both machine and hand stitching?

Any tools that you use regularly that you wouldn't have thought of in the beginning?

And finally, does anyone know of any suppliers in France (Europe) that will split leather to order? None of the suppliers in my area will do this but in the USA it's quite common.

Thanks!

[Danne]

Dyes: If you talk about leather dye then Fiebings is popular, and in combination with some burnishing compound like Tokonole is a good start.

if you talk about edge paint then you have Fenice, Vernis 600 (Vernis600 have a limited expire date, go bad after 1-2 years), Giardini, Uniters, Stahl, Beraud CT. From what I've seen Uniters and Fenice seems to be most popular. Avoid Fiebings edge kote (My opinion)

Meisi have both linen and synthetic threads suitable for both hand stitching and machine stitching. Personally I really like Xiange twist (Poly thread with a linen look)

Cuirtextilecrea have splitting service.

https://www.cuirtextilecrea.com/leather-splitting-c2x21848419

 

[jcuk]

I believe these will split for you, have some nice leather too.We are just about still in Europe at the moment.

http://www.metropolitanleather.com

Hope this helps

JCUK

 

[ThoughtFission]

13 minutes ago, jcuk said:

I believe these will split for you, have some nice leather too.We are just about still in Europe at the moment.

http://www.metropolitanleather.com

Hope this helps

JCUK

 

Thanks! Hope you will stay in some form or another. Sad to see the UK leave.