Author: Leather Man

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Making a leather braid, 12 strand round plait youtube video

Hi everyone! Well I made it up to Vermont. Beautiful weather up here right now. I’m still waiting for a box of stuff I shipped up, but for the most part I’m settled in. It’s been a long day today, so I thought I’d show you a quick youtube video on leather braiding. Now this type is called a 12 strand round plait.

They use it for whips, handles and lots of other decorative purposes. I myself could never learn how the hell they do this. It looks like it takes a long time to learn how to do it. But it sure is fun to watch someone else who does know how. So take a peek at this leather braiding youtube video and see a master at work!

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Is using leather humane for animals?

is using leather items humane?


Well here we are, the big Labor day weekend! I’m flying up to Vermont to see my mom and take in the fall foliage. I’ll stay there about 2 months and work on my laptop. I may even get to meet a pretty babe, life is good! So anyway I wanted to set the record straight as far as if using leather is humane.

Now we know leather comes from animals, mainly cows, pigs, buffalo, goats, sheep and lambs. So there is no denying that wearing leather comes from a dead animal. But the question is, do any animals die because of the leather from their hides? That is, do any animals get killed to take their hide and turn it into leather? The answer is a big NO!

Now I am not talking about fur coats or other items made from fur. Yes, animals like mink, fox and several other types of animals do get raised and killed for the main purpose of using their fur and hide. But for leather items, the hide is a byproduct of the main reason the animal is used for, which is their meat. There is no way it is cost effective to raise an animal just for the hide of it, especially big animals like cows and pigs. Continue reading Is using leather humane for animals?

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How much should a good leather jacket cost?

womens leather coat


What’s going on everyone? Today I’m going to talk about the sticky part of just how leather jackets are sold as far as the price goes. If you’ve every gone online and visited several different sites, you may have seen what seems to be the same leather jacket. What surprises you is everyone has a different price, and some are real cheap while others are real high. How can that be?

Well let me tell you just how leather jackets get bought and sold. If your dealing with a major manufacture of brand name items, you have to become a dealer of that brand. Once your approved you are told how much you can mark up an item for, or even flat out told “this sells for X amount, so sell it at that price.

But any item that is a non brand item, like most leather jackets and leather items, anyone can buy it from a wholesaler and then sell it for whatever they want to sell it for. A Harley Davidson leather jacket is a brand name, so you have to become a dealer and then you would be told what to sell that leather jacket for. But all these motorcycle sites and leather shops that sell leather jackets buy non brand name items. So then they can sell them for whatever they want. So how much DO they mark up? Continue reading How much should a good leather jacket cost?

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What countries do we get leather hides from?

where do leather hides come from?


Time for another post from Uncle Bill here! Just in case you were wondering, I have not been getting much of that storm from hurricane Fay here in Orlando. It really flooded parts of the coast and all, but Orlando is in the middle of the state. So we have a steady rain, but no real storm or flooding here.

So on with the post of today, which is, just where does all our leather come from? I don’t mean what animal, I mean who produces it, tans it and so on. What county or countries are the biggest suppliers of leather in the USA? If you think most come from right here, your wrong, and the top country that produces leather may surprise you.

Most of the leather jackets you see in any store was made outside of the USA. That pretty much is the way most everything is today. Even Harley-Davidson has their leather apparel made outside the USA. Now that does not mean it’s not quality. Leather made outside the USA can be the finest quality. In fact most quality leather in the USA is imported, simply because most leather is imported. Continue reading What countries do we get leather hides from?

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leather hide thickness in leather jackets

thickness of leather hides in leather jackets

Hi everybody. I thought I’d make a quick post today about leather thickness after Curt asked about his buffalo leather jacket vs his cowhide one. Now as I’ve said many times, a leather hide is split into two or more layers when they process it. The top layer that had the hair on it is called the top grain layer. The other layers below it are the split grain layers.

So just how thick do they make the splits? How do they know how thick to make them? Well after all these years of making leather, the leather industry has come up with some standards for leather hide thicknesses. There basically are three main thickness levels, with some differences in each one.

The three levels are:
1.0 mm (or less) used for fashion leathers, purses and so on.
1.3 mm (1.3 to 1.5 average) This is the most common for motorcycle jackets and riding leather.
2.0 mm only used in Naked Leather.
So lets review those levels a bit more, shall we? Continue reading leather hide thickness in leather jackets

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How to put studs on a leather jacket, vest or saddlebags



Hope everyone is having a good weekend. I’ve been asked a lot how to put studs, crystals and other decorations on a leather jacket, vest or saddlebags. So today I’ll tell you. Now, this is how you put them on anything leather, not just leather jackets, vest or saddlebags. Those are just the ones most people put them on.

leather studs for leather jacketshow to put on leather studs on leather jackets

But you can put them on dusters, pants, chaps, hats, motorcycle seats, anything at all made of leather. There are two different types of studs. The ones that most use and are simple to put on have two prongs on the bottom. All you do is make two small holes for the prongs to go through, then bend them over with some pliers.

The other type has a screw on back. You make a hole in the leather, push the stud through, then screw the bottom part in. Sort of like putting a nut on a bolt. The above youtube video shows how to put the prong type on your leather item. The guys a bit of a punk head, but he does a good job showing how to do it. Continue reading How to put studs on a leather jacket, vest or saddlebags