Ep24. Non Traditional Leathers. Should We Use Them?

I discuss embracing unusual leathers for your next project. 🎁Want a FREE course? 👇Are you new to the Leathercraft Masterclass? 👇To get started, claim your video course (& discover the #1 thing every leathercrafter NEEDS to know). Go now and sign up! The video course (instant access) will be in your inbox in UNDER 60 seconds from now! ⏰📥 👉 https://www.leathercraftmasterclass.com/fineleathercraftcourses I'll see you there, Philip Discover how the online courses can help you and your leathercraft: https://www.leathercraftmasterclass.com/ Other useful resources: Follow on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/leathercraftmasterclass Read the Blog! https://www.leathercraftmasterclass.com/blog-1 Follow on Tik Tok! https://www.tiktok.com/@leathercraftmasterclass Follow on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/leathercraftmasterclass So today's vodcast or podcast if you're listening to the audio on this is all about using different kinds of leather different kinds of leather than what you're normally used to the normal cow the normal calf Etc in the meantime I'm talking to you from Dahab in Egypt um here on a diving holiday it's a very inspiring place and yesterday I was going through the market and I came across a store and as I normally do when I'm on a holiday vacation I like to stop at any store that sells leather products and this one was a little bit different it was a lot of tan bags a lot of Handbags and cases and things like that I'll show some pictures and I asked what leather that they were using in these bags and the man said to me that it was camel leather I've never seen camel leather before I I know of it but I've never seen it in any of the suppliers that I use any of the websites that I buy from and I thought it'd be really awesome to use some Camel leather in a bag because here camels are used for a multitude of different things from uh travel uh some milk to labor and of course meat and camel meat is quite popular here so naturally there is a byproduct of these skins that are going to be discarded or used for leather so I did try and asked the guy if he had any spare skins but these are kind of pre-made bags in Egypt that he sells but the leather was absolutely beautiful it was very soft to the touch not unlike calf if there was a leather that it was quite close to I'd say calf leather it was a very slight you could see pores in some of them that hadn't been finished which is a little bit like pigskin not exactly like it but kind of similar to it and I thought it'd be really cool to try and get hold of some Camel leather but the guy only sold bags pre-made bags in Egypt um he didn't actually sell the leather itself and I didn't really have time to try and find some is relatively small I think in the grand scheme of things I don't know if they would have a Tannery or leather supplier here but I will endeavor to get someone perhaps use it in the leather craft Master Class courses but I think it's really cool to sometimes use another kind of leather that we're not used to and it doesn't have to be exotic um kangaroo leather comes to mind in fact somebody I forget who now uh messaged me the other day and said something along the lines of uh Nike is dropping kangaroo leather in a lot of their products and replacing it with synthetic options now I did look a little into this I don't know if it's their entire line but I know that they were using camel leather on their football boots or their soccer boots and not camel leather sorry kangaroo leather um but also Puma is doing the same so a lot of the supplies of kangaroo leather and tanneries are rightfully worried as well and I think there's one Adelaide Tannery that is closing down because of it so I'm imagining that Nike and Puma collectively were using up a lot of kangaroo leather and keeping it going and again much like camel leather here kangaroo leather is a byproduct of the meat industry of course you can buy kangaroo I've tasted it myself before it's delicious so not only do I think it's good to diversify the kind of leathers that we use but I also think it's a good idea to support the tanneries that produce more unusual Leathers because the vast majority of leathers that we buy and are used in in pre-made products are going to be cowhide calf sheep lamb so for me I I want to try and include if I can some more unusual Leathers because there are benefits as well for example kangaroo leather is extremely strong a very very high tensile strength so if you want to use something that is similar in some ways and from what I've seen to Goat but you really want that extra strength kangaroo leather is fantastic camel leather stronger than cowhide as well I'm not sure I've heard anywhere from three to five times stronger and I don't know how they're measuring that but it seems to be an extremely tough skin which makes sense because it's an extremely durable hard wearing animal itself so I kind of wanted to ask you guys what unusual ...