The Armour Archive

Is upholstery leather suitable for shoes/boots? If so, what weight range? Nothing lasted.

Thanks,
Christopher

3/4/5 oz for the uppers and 8 oz for the bottoms

Most upholstery leather is heavily coated for soil and scuff resistance. This is generally termed "corrected grain" by leather wholesalers. Unfortunately leather trade terminology definitions vary wildly depending on the retailer and the craftsman you might meet. I've seen coat weight garment leather sold as "boot upper", highly finished upholster cowhide sold as "full grain" and stretchy lambskin sold as lining leather.

General advice; if you can grab a handful of the leather in your fingers and twist it up around them, its too stretchy for shoe uppers. Other than that, most medium to heavy "upholstery" leathers will make a nice tight fitted shoe.

I don't think upholstery leather has the right temper for shoes but if you have it on hand and want to use it as a test go for it; my first pair was a cowhide crome tanned to look like Native American deer; they lasted ne a year.

Christopher have you given more thought to going to Sapphire? I still plan to do a shoe making demo.

Well, I have a chance to get some at a dollar a sq foot, and am looking for ways to use it for more than just pouches. It's 2.3 - 3.5 oz.

One of those things I don't generally need, but sometimes something comes up where I REALLY needs it.

So, general concensus is that it would be wrong for shoes? How about gloves?

Maybe I'll just have to build some furniture...lol

Thanks,
Christopher

I've used such leather for shoes, it makes for comfortable shoes that wear out sooner than ones made with thicker leather. Thin leather like what you are looking at works really well for more form fit shoes. But like I said they WILL wear out sooner. I think it would be perfect leather for gloves belt pouches and such.

Brian

Maybe a jerkin?

With leather the big thing to think about is the edge when you cut it; for any leather item the edge will be seen and some leather tanning finishes do not have a good edge when cut. That is what I would think about before using that leather.

Karen Larsdatter wrote:Maybe a jerkin?

Mmmmaybe. I should have thought of that, actually. I need to make one for rapier.

Yeah, I don't know what the edges look like, I haven't gone to see it yet. But I should be able to keep edges out of sight if they're all uglified.

Would this be shite for covering a scabbard?

Thanks,
Christopher

If it stretches over the wood core it will be fine; you need a tight fit. I stitch veggie tanned leather on my scabbards while the leather is wet so it will stretch then shrink for a better fit.