@Leathercraft Masterclass I'm definitely blaming it on the goat 😂😂😂 My metric square, flip it over and it's marked in imperial. that's right, that's how we roll😁

@Fadi @Maru Tuchi @Fadi @Maru Tuchi Well peoples, I ordered some scrap leather from the guys above, and it arrived today! Heres a quick summary of what I think... - Chevre is meh...for the price, I think i'd be better off buying full skins for anything other than practice, they are creased, mostly scratched, maybe 1 or 2 areas that I may be able to get a couple of card wallet liners out of. But this is for practice anyways, so i'm not really fussed. - Cowhide...wellllll....these pieces were definitely bigger than I though they would be, and from my limited knowledge of leather, seem to be very good quality indeed. I got a mix of what I think is Clemence and Togo (check out the pics below) as well as 2 pieces which are out of place - grain is WAAAYYY to big - but overall, seems to be the real deal. Both sets of hides have a musty smell, indicating that they have been stored for quite some time - but it's not crazy bad and I think a good bit of airing out and some activated charcoal in a box should have them back to perfect. Here is the link to the taobao shop where I purchased these, and I have also added another link for another guys which I may buy some scrap from in the future, as he has a bit of a bigger range. I bought from here: https://shop274166959.taobao.com Here is the other shop I may buy from in the future with more of a range: https://shop307410931.taobao.com Both shops also offer larger offcuts of these leathers (4-6 square feet for a single piece) if you do a bit of digging around in their stores. Here are the photos and have fun!

Hi Phil, I've been doing alot of research into scrap leather suppliers, and eventually I want to be working with the top shelf leathers we all know and love, so I figured that it would be best if I could actually practice on the leathers I am wanting to use in the future, in the condition that they will be in (Split, bonded etc etc) so that when I make mistakes, it's not on $$$ leather. I had the same thought as you, there may be some pieces big enough in there for card holders, maybe a small wallet, clochets etc etc that I can use as starter projects without going out on a limb. It really surprises me what I have found, there is a big offcut market here in China for just about every single premium leather that you can think of from every major tannery. I had one guy send me some pics and he is telling me he purchases Herme's offcuts (check out the pic attached)..which I am taking with a grain of salt, but still...you never know. I did end up purchasing 2 pounds of Alran and 2 Pounds of mixed epsom,clemence, togo from the supplier I mentioned above, and got him to split 1 pound of each into 0.5mm and 1.2mm (0.5 for the goat, 1.2 for the cow) and also they offer a flattening service in addition to splitting, which I assume is a mirror hot plate, so I got them to do that on the split leathers, but not the "un-split" so I can assess how it's going to affect the grain (which I assume it will, as it's heat and pressure) That all should be arriving tomorrow, and I will post some pics here along with the supplier details as there are a couple of people here interested. Tool wise, I am still hunting around for hand tools - theres another funny story in that.... Your stitching video mentioned by No 3 John James needles...so I bought No. 3.....then after receiving them and thinking "this guy must've been inhaling too much contact adhesive" I realised that they should be 003, not #3.....hahaha Apart from that, i've purchased a blanchard awl, which is GREAT thru-hardened steel, but the setting, awl handle and all of that...i mean come on! add to that it was bent at least 15 degrees...straight out the box, left me less the impressed. I ended up purchasing a cheaper awl with a straight blade to practice sharpening and use first, and have another blanchard on the way with instructions to the supplier to pick one thats not bent. in addition to that I have the usual hammers, stiching pony, Wuta pricking irons in 3.38, some japanese skiving knives, hammers, I hot foil machine yada yada - the usual beginners tool set. I figure when i can figure out how to make these work acceptably for me, then I will upgrade. Moving on to machinery - which is something I hold close to my heart....... - I have my eye on a supplier here selling second hand Nippy Bell Skivers for around $400, heaps of stock, from factory liquidations. I've already sourced all the critical spares as well, new bell knives, feed rollers in different materials, all that jazz, so when I get it I'm going to completely overhaul the machine and get something close to brand new for around $600US - I ALMOST purchased a second hand Camoga band knife splitter (yes i'm insane) but i'm going to hold off until I am proficient enough and can sell some product so that it's worth it, till then, i'll get it split by the suppliers. I looked into hand splitters, and machine driven splitters, nothing is going to split the high end leathers nicely to the thicknesses required if its not a band splitter so I'm not even going to bother buying one - i'll hand skive small stuff as its a skill i need to learn. - In our factory here (which doesn't produce leather goods) - I have some stuff that may come in handy, mainly your usual lockstitch and walking foot sewing machines, overlockers, coverstitch, cylinder arm walking foot etc etc, prob good if I want to make up some cloth linings etc. Apart from that the 2 machines that will prob be of most use to me are my bonding machine (interfacing machine to some) - but thats going to require some tests to see how it affects grain, and I have a big ass roller diecut machine here too (6 Meters by 1.8M) If I get to the stage where i need to make stuff in bulk, i'll defiantly be getting some dies made up and use that to cut the material. Strangely enough, I also have a 3 Axis CNC Milling Machine here, (600 X 900mm) so I'll be making my own hot foil impression tools etc Apologies for the huge rant, I have a sickness where I cannot answer things in short sentences... Cheers Aaron Is it really straight from the Hermes Factory? Who Knows....

@Fadi hmmmm...I dunno....giving away my competitive advantage here....:)))) Ok...well.....the suppliers name is 天天天蓝皮料, they are in Foshan, Guangdong, which makes me 85% confident they are legit as the guangzhou area is the hub of leather bad and shoe making, which makes sense why they would start a business selling offcuts. I'm gonna order a couple of pounds to check out if what they are showing is actually what they are providing (you can't choose color btw - they give you a mixed bag - which I actually am excited about) and i'll report back with some pics etc for everyone to see. If anyone is interested, they can let me know and I'll do a bulk purchase from them and I can send out to anywhere from here (i'm in China). Heres some pics of the stock to get you excited, like me!

Hi Fadi - thanks for the welcome! There is a silver lining to my three hides story though.... I figured that eventually I am wanting to produce goods with top quality leathers and linings, so it would be a good thing if I could actually practice on those leathers themselves, rather than scraps of random vegtan....so I went on another sourcing journey, and guess what I found.......a supplier who sells offcuts of Alran, Walprox, Togo, all the top quality leathers and liners, even exotics like croc, stingray and shark BY THE POUND!!!!! I was afraid it would be little slivers and tiny pieces but nope - they come in decent size pieces, prob enough to make wallets, card holders etc and they also have belt strap sizes too! Add to this that they also offer free splitting of the leather and the price works out to about $8.50 US a pound for the Alran and $7 US a pound for the calfskin. So in the end - the leather goods decided to smile on me :0)

Thanks for the welcome Maru - I look forward to this adventure!

Thanks for the feedback! - I was really just struggling with how to get the edges around a gusseted bag nicely flat and matching prior to edge paint. I suppose it doesnt' matter so much as the edge paint will hide any minor mismatch, and you only really need perfect match for burnishing which will be hit with the sander anyways. I ended up ordering a couple as they were only like $6.50 US, so i guess they'll end up as an interesting little curiosity!