Am I able to buy and use leather as a new member? I don’t initially plan on using any machines or anything that requires training. But I want to make sure I didn’t miss a sign that said I couldn’t use leather. I’m wanting to hand stitch a belt holster for my Swiss army knife as my first project here at DMS
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Bones, 90ish% of Dallas Makerspace is bring in your own materials. There are some leather scraps for learning, and some that are for teacher use only for classes. But not typically leather to buy. There was recently a donation that members could buy from, but that was a rarity. There is a intro class that will walk you through how not to damage the tools. I haven’t been involved with leatherworking SIG for awhile, @HankCowdog or @Webdevel or @Lordrook might know who is heading it up these days.
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Hey @Bones , the current Leatherworking SIG leader is @jnorine
The leather at DMS is for classes and not for sale. You would need to bring your own supply of leather.
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And the donated leather mentioned is square samples of upholstery weight leather. Eight or nine inch square. Not the heavy-duty veg tan you would want to use for a holster. Closest local source for that sort of leather would probably be Frogjelly Leather in Mansfield. Or poking around on Craigslist.
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Thank you!
@jrkriehn is completely correct - Frogjelly Leather is about it now for local leather supply; all the local Tandy stores have closed.
I’ve also had good luck ordering from Weaver Leather Supply as well as Maker’s Leather Supply. If you’re up for a road trip, Maker’s Supply is in Mott - just north of Waco (though they may be curbside only because of COVID).
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Some pretty nice heavy duty stuff can be sourced from saddleback leather company in Fort worth as well. They’ve got a shop just off 820 on Railhead Rd. Mostly finished goods, but a decent selection of sides as well. Good prices on their rejects and scraps.
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Brilliant! Thanks for this - I’ll have to check them out too!
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Looks like the leather suppliers page needs some updating.
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Leather_Suppliers_List
I might get to it, but if anyone else wants, it’s fun&easy!
Liar, liar, pants on fire!
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One person’s heaven, another’s hell…
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Just a note on stores.
Maker’s as of last week is not curbside. I don’t believe that has change so far. The Tandy store off 20 in Fort Worth is open. The one is Watuaga is opening the 6th afaik. Not sure about the ones in Dallas.
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I’ll defer to any information you might have - I was just going off the website that lists (as of this morning) that they were curbside only.
As for Tandy, just before everything shut down, they closed a bunch of stores - as of today, the only two stores listed in Texas are the Ft. Worth store (which was rumored to be closing as well; I’m glad it didn’t) and El Paso.
Long and short of it - it’s a great lesson on checking before you make the trek.
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I thought the plastic totes with upholstery leather samples was for general use?
So, Capt just came back from the Tandy’s in Ft Worth. They didn’t know much about the other stores, but they did say that the store in Mesquite is open. I mean, I’d call first…
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This list for Tandy has been pretty current.
Things are fluid. Looks like Watuaga is off the list now. They were on there.
When things started coming back they announced 8 stores across the US would be permanently closed. Watuaga wasn’t one of those, at least at the time.
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Yeah the Fort Worth store is still open. 4 miles from my house, so I drive by it everyday. They process online orders pretty quickly.
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I stand corrected. When Nick posted that it appeared the stores were all suddenly closed, the nearest outpost listed on their website was El Paso. I thought it seemed weird to close the store that is next door to their corporate offices, but… Glad that one is still an option.