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We wrote a free educational series about our favorite material, delivered to your inbox.

When it comes to leathercrafting projects, we wrote the book on it for DK Publishing!

Original, unique designs to help with lifting and carrying your bicycle

Stunning handcrafted bicycle bags carry the essentials and turn heads!

Best-selling "commuter essentials" for making the daily commute easier

Lifetime leather bar wraps in five styles for every type of handlebar and bicycle

Our best-selling Original Travel Cribbage Boards has fans worldwide

Unique travel-sized classic games: dice, dominoes, cribbage

Free hand-drawn printable scoresheets, rules of play & puzzles

One-of-a-kind cribbage boards: driftwood, leather, and even a belt

Leather handles in 8 styles, 4 leather colors, and 3 metal finishes

Strong yet soft, durable and sustainable, no-bumps and no-bruises

Add a label to handles and pulls for superior organization

Flexible but sturdy, creative solutions to tricky problem corners

Why I use USA-made, vegetable-tanned leather

Once in a while, I get an email from a customer who really, really likes our stuff, but wishes we didn't make it out of leather. I'm sympathetic to the need to live ethically and to make purchases that reflect our own ethics.

I am interested in exploring new, non-petroleum-based materials, but there are a few reasons we use vegetable-tanned leather right now.

One, our workshop (which is our garage, and is very space-limited) is tooled up with hand tools specifically for working with vegetable-tanned leather. We haven't found a material that has the same features as this leather that we can use with our existing toolset.

Two, I really like working with leather as a lifetime material that gets better with age, as well as its unique textural combination of both pliability and structural integrity.

Three, I like using leather because it is a byproduct of another industry. Only a small fraction of cattle hides get tanned into leather. I feel strongly about using USDA beef cattle hides, because if they don't get used, they will simply get landfilled.

Four, I also feel strongly that they are vegetable-tanned in the USA, where tanneries must follow more stringent US environmental laws, and plant tannins such as bark from woodmills are used in the tanning process. That's why all the vegetable-tanned leather I use comes from 100% US-tanned leather made with USDA beef cattle hides.

This is also why I do not use chrome-tanned leather ("garment leather"), which is tanned with toxic chemicals including mercury and chromium sulfate and often made in countries without the protection of US environmental laws. It would provide more color options, but at an environmental cost.

For those with ethical concerns, we are able to make some (not all) of our products out of entirely scrap materials from our workshop, which will ensure that no leather was purchased for your product and verifiable diversion of waste material. If you ever want to purchase one made out of scrap material, please email me and I'll let you know if we have the scrap available.

5 Responses

walnutstudiolo

walnutstudiolo

July 11, 2023

Hi Grace,
That’s a great question. We source ours from our local leather store, Oregon Leather, which has locations in Oregon and Washington. You might check with your local store – ask for Hermann Oaks Tannery: http://www.hermannoakleather.com/about/find-a-distributor
Happy crafting!

walnutstudiolo

walnutstudiolo

July 11, 2023

Thanks for the share! :)

-M-

-M-

July 11, 2023

Thank you for sharing with us! So, any time my good man!!

-M-

-M-

July 11, 2023

Sharing this to my blog over at madidos.wordpress.com if that’s ok?

Grace

Grace

July 11, 2023

I have your Idiot’s Guide to Leathercrafting book and would like to make some projects. I am having trouble sourcing hides that are tanned in the USA and from USDA beef cattle. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction? Thanks!

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