Leather

[outdoorgirl]

Look for 'leather factors & merchants' in the yellow pages.

The other place to get leather from is re-enactment fairs. The best one is the Original Re-enactment Market, now heald near Coventry twice a year, but if you Google 're-enactment' and 'market' or 'fair', you should get a fair list of dates and places. Many of the traders also provide a postal service, and will often send samples, or bags of off-cuts...

 

[ESpy]

Good point, although a large number of shoe shops seem to be listed there too...

http://www.kellysearch.com/gb-product-55400.html - I usually use Kellysearch for industrial materials, it hadn't occurred to me to look for less technical things too!

 

[Josh]

if the leather is too thick you can shave it down a bit with a piece of broken glass. dont get cut though...

 

[beachlover]

The other place to get leather from is re-enactment fairs. The best one is the Original Re-enactment Market, now heald near Coventry twice a year, ...

Do you happen to know when those are held, before I go googling?

 

[Rob]

Ok Guys. If you are out shopping and googling and stuff, check out these people, and make sure you let them know that Rob sent you. I wont get anything out of it, although I might be able to prise a bacon sarnie out of them at a shoot.

http://www.theworkshopuk.com

I use them, and they are most helpful, and reasonably priced. :biggthump

 

[outdoorgirl]

The original Re-enactors market is held mid-march and mid-november... Actual dates for the next march one:

Spring Market 2005

11th 12th and 13th March

Opening times

Friday 12.00 to 6.00
Saturday 10.00 to 5.00
Sunday 10.00 to 4.00

It's much quieter on Fridays, usually with just mad people like me, and other traders shopping. Saturday is always packed, and Sunday too, although you can get a bargain at the end of the day...

There's an entry fee of £3 per day, or a fast-track tickets of £7.50 that lets you all for the whole show, and lets you bypass the (usally very long) queues.

Hundreds of suppliers there, selling everything from raw materials to completed items - fabrics, leathers, etc, to daggers, knives, swords, full suits of armour etc...

 

[Bardster]

I am an amateur leather crafter as can be seen at my site crafts.probetech.co.uk and often have a few ofcuts lying around if you want to contact me. Also the identity store http://www.theidentitystore.co.uk/store/index.htm
does offcut packs (they are the tandy leathercraft distributor in the UK)

 

[Kim]

Hey Jak, I'm in the middle of trying to persuade the maintenance men to give me some leftover green leather if you're interested (and anybody else for that matter). I'm not sure how much yet but I'll post when I do.