Leather Belting & Leather Goods

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OUR GUIDE TO LEATHER HIDES


If you are thinking about starting a leather project but are unsure what type of leather to use, you've come to the right place. We've put together a handy guide for the best kind of leather to use for your leather goods.

Leather

Dog Collars

The type of leather you use for making dog collars will depend on the look of your final product. The weight and thickness of the leather will also depend on the type of dog you collar is designed for. For example, a 2 mm leather would not be suitable for a larger dog and a 4 mm leather would not be suitable for a small dog. Due to its strength, we recommend using bridle butt leather in black, Australian nut, dark Havana, hazel or conker. These colours are more resistant to water spot damage and are less likely to fade. Red, Green, Blue, Light Havana and London Tan are not recommended however. Our mini bridle butts are a good option if you do not require the additional length of a standard butt.

If you want to add some padding to your collar, we recommend the soft plastazote in 6mm thickness.

Dog Leads

Like leather belting, bridle butts are best for dog leads, as you don’t want them to stretch. If you are looking to make a longer lead, you may require bridle back leather.

Wallets

For wallet making, you ideally want your leather to be around 1mm – 1.5mm thick. We recommend using vegetable tanned pig skin, which has a beautiful texture to it. Our top choice is the greased pig skin as it has a lovely soft feel.

Belts

Our Sedgwick mini butts is the perfect leather for making belts. Shorter than bridle butts, traditional belt makers use these mini butts as they tend to be the correct length. This means you will end up with less wastage and these butts don’t have the slightly stretchy part of the shoulder at one end.

If you want to make a longer belt, then the bridle butt is also an ideal leather for making belts. We stock the Sedgwick’s range of bridle butts, as well as a range of John Whites bridle butt and Italian bridle butts.

Although shoulder leather is not a recommended leather for belting, if you would like a non-grease option you could use the Sedgwick 1900 Collection in 3.2 mm thickness. Note that shoulder leather should only be used in 3mm thickness.

Bags

Our top choice for bag making is the Sedgwick 1900 Collection, a lovely looking leather with everything on show, available in a range of colours. The 2.3mm thickness is perfect for making a whole range of bags.

If you are looking to make a cartridge bag, we recommend using a vegetable tanned shoulder that is around 2.5mm thick. The Sedgwick 1900 collection would be suitable or, if you are after something a bit different, the Sedgwick’s bag hide would be a good option in the wheat print option.

Alternatives for out of stock items

Sometimes you may find your top choice is out of stock. Whilst we do our best keep up stock levels, if your top choice isn’t in stock we will always have alternative choices:  

LEATHER

As an alternative to the Sedgwick’s Bridle Butt, the Sedgwick’s Mini Butt is suitable if you don’t mind a shorter length. Alternatively, if you don’t mind the extra length, we recommend the the Sedgwick Bridle Back.

If you prefer the bridle butt length the Abbey English Bridle Butt is a good choice and has a wide range of colours.

COLOURS

Alternatives to Light Havana: Hazel which is a more Reddish Brown and a few shades lighter than Australian Nut or Conker, which has the same colour tones as Light Havana but is a darker colour.

An alternative to London Tan is Light Havana.

An alternative to Dark Havana is Chocco.