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Old 12-23-2019, 12:41 PM
jimmontg jimmontg is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Now live in Las Cruces NM.
Posts: 1,345
[QUOTE][jimmontg... very sorry to hear about your car accident and I wish you a speedy recovery! I rolled my truck last April and my dog and I were lucky to walk away without a scratch, counting my blessings. I'll be making my future purchases from Zach White. My last double shoulder from Springfield Leather (a subsidiary of Tandy) was terrible and I can't bring myself to order leather from them again./QUOTE]

I have never bought much leather from Zach White except a horse hide for straps for lined belts and 2 belt straps to see how good they are, because they had the best price for belt straps I've seen, they were very good straps and were good quality. Also I buy my leather from Tandy, but I hand pick it out. I've ordered from Springfield, but only on sale Hermann Oak single shoulders split to 3-4 oz and they were fine except a little small for a single. For wallets, but I don't make many, too labor intensive without a sewing machine.

Understand I have a Tandy store only an hour away and I don't just make sheaths. I do more leather than knives these days, mostly belts. I only use Tandy's Oak Leaf import hides. I know what to look for in a hide and watch out for import leather period. It's a crap shoot, some is good some isn't. I ordered a beautiful double shoulder on sale from Weaver supply and it looked good, only one problem, it was dried out and very hard to cut. Had to dampen it to cut it and sanding the edges only made them hairier. It had like 10 reviews all good except one and he said the same thing I said. All the other reviewers were only talking about it's looks and I'd bet they were all newbies.

If all you make is sheaths a Tandy single Oak Leaf shoulder in 8-9 oz should be ok if you can't pick out your leather in person. When you order from Tandy it comes from the store closest to you and ask the manager to pick you out a good one.

Zach White's leather is sold by the square foot and can get expensive. But they are helpful and will try to do their best for you. If you're thinking of making a few belts just order some 1 1/2 straps from them, they're almost cheap enough that if you count your labor it's about the same price as strapping out your own double shoulder. Of course they have a strapping machine that does a whole hide at one time. Tandy's straps are way too expensive, you'd think they did them by hand.

Oh, btw I buy my alligator and crocodile straps from Pan Am Leathers in NYC, NY. I made my son a croc belt worth $500 hand sewn, but that takes a while. Especially since the strap I sewed in onto was 8-9 oz, I have a splitter. I should have split it down to 5-6 oz. Oh well the holes for the buckle won't stretch out any time soon.
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