I was speaking with a friend last night about a leather seat for a cafe racer I’m wanting to make and discussing leathers, etc. I mentioned to her that I would probably make it out of vinyl the first time so that if I mess it up it won’t cost as much as leather. She mentioned to me a free way to get a lot of leather you can practice with or use. Check out Craigslist as people are always trying to get rid of old leather coaches. Most are just happy if you come and haul it away. She said the leather on the back is usually in great shape.
I thought it was a good idea and might be a good source for leather for folks.
Come to think of it, most of the wood that makes up the structure is hardwood I believe.
This is only free if you don’t place any value on your time. Even ignoring the ‘stain’ issues Andrew mentioned above, there is a fair bit of work disassembling such a piece, and then you have the problem of disposing of all of the left overs.
Of course, when I first saw the title for the thread I thought it was going to involve hunting, skinning, and tanning…
No.
Just a dick.
Amusingly, a search on google for “coaches” dosen’t pull up the whistle-blowing cretins of my youth, as expected. It pulls up…leather handbags made by “Coach” (well, sold under the “Coach” brand name). I reckon that’d work, too, but I’ve never seen THOSE for free…
Still trying to figure out if this is real or fake (without googling about whether this is real or fake)…
Dare I ask how YOU came to know about this?
Yikes…
I believe it is real. It has been around a while, but you used to be only able to get the product from eastern block countries and China…
Not sure where a UK company would obtain the raw material.
I heard about it, when I was given access to a rare old book that I was told was bound in human leather… First time I was ever glad they made us wear gloves to handle the old books…
I have to say, after my initial recoil, I’m finding my reaction hard to justify. 55.3 million deaths annually is a LOT of raw material to just pitch in the garbage. The idea of “farms” is still creeping me out, though (which I think is ENTIRELY appropriate).
And no, I’m in no rush to participate in this particular exchange, but I find it little different from cultures which eat meat from animals I choose to call “pets” (dogs, cats, horses, etc.)… Since I personally place little or no value on the remains of people, why not use them for something?
(Still a little creeped out, though)
oh man, that is the nastiest thing you can say to a leather worker 
