Leather stiffness questions.

[nuki]

Hello,  

I am very new to leathercraft and have been taking in a lot of information and lurking for maybe 2 months.  I have been doing my research on leather types, tempers, weights including how to stiffen or soften and doing a lot of experimenting. So I have bought a quite a bit of leather strap from 1/2 inch to 1/5. One of my favorite pieces I finally deduced after going through a lot of receipts and orders from various online companies, came from Tandy.  

 

3/4 veg tan black strip, the heavyweight strip, and the economy veg strip.  How the heck are they so different? I love the weight and stiffness of the black and I figured it was a national chain, so they would have certain standards to keep to. I already had the heavy weight strip, so I got the econ for comparisons sake. I feel like I am missing something important. I am using basically nothing but strip now and will it just be a crapshoot every time I order any? I mean wouldn't the only difference between the black and the other be the fact that is just dyed in the process? Is there anything I can do to get a more consistent strip? All of this trying to learn on my own is ending up with me having a giant stack of leather I'm never going to use. Thanks for any direction.

[Hags]

This is why I buy Hermann Oak.  Consistency.  What you have there could be from different makers and heck, even different countries. However, dyed leather and not dyed leather can be a factor too.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Hags
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[Spyros]

If you want consistency you have to buy name brand leather like horween chromexcel, walpier buttero, sedgwick english bridle, H&O skirting, that sort of thing.  These brands are more expensive for a few reasons, one of which is consistency.  And even they are not 100% consisten because after all all it is leather, a natural product, so there will always be variations from animal to animal and of course different parts of the same animal.  For example you get the best belt leather out the bend, but some cheaper straps you find in various shops include partly shoulder, and that's not as consistent because shoulders have stretch marks.