Make your glass case inside out. That will help keep fuzzys off the lens. Make your wife a coin purse or something similar. Then you'll be out of the doghouse. Have to disagree. Premium leather is not just cleaner (less flaws, like brands, scars etc). It does everything you do to the leather better. Cutting, stamping, tooling, edging, dyeing everything you do will be better. It is well worth the cost difference.
I agree. Without stepping on any toes I'll list my leather purchases in order of quality.
Hermann Oak- super premium by the foot, about $12/ft + shipping. Very good stamping and dyeing/molding quality, but vastly overpriced unless you are simply making a few small items.
Hide House "Premium Imported DS"- amazing quality, many of the feet easily match the Hermann Oak. A few stretch marks and, I believe, 1 scar/cut about the size of a quarter. Best stamping/dyeing/molding quality. Around $5-6 + shipping.
ST Leather Economy imported DS. Worked well for sheaths, however, it was a marked step down from the others. About the same price as the DS above. Actually, maybe a little more. Good stamping/molding, hard to dye.
Wicket&Craig remnant. Unsure of cut or storing quality. Dye is a pain and the back side is very nappy. Bought for using as inlay window leather and in that capacity it's fine, just takes a lot of work to dye nicely.
Various brands of strap leather, Tandy, HO etc... If you're going to make a lot of straps just have the tannery/seller cut you a straight edge on a large hide and cut the straps yourself. I use straps for danglers and wrist cuffs.
My observation on quality comes down to how much effort you are willing to put into working it. A somewhat shoddy piece can be sanded on the back and stamped on the front. Forget about dye (use neatsfoot like many often do) and you can turn out a good piece. If you're going to stamp/dye/finish the suppleness gets lost so that hasn't really been a huge concern, however, it's worth noting that I've had a couple of pieces of work with crazing at the fold (pouch designs), although this may be down to how deeply I stamped. I hate when stamping blows out on a bend and I'm fairly heavy handed.
I haven't tried the Eco piece from HH, but I'd venture to guess that it'll be suitable, especially if it comes from the same tannery as the premium DS. I'd love to hear how you find it. Obviously quality is going to vary from hide to hide, but if the Hide House's grading stays consistent I'll be most pleased to use their premium DS until that is no longer the case. It's well trimmed and nearly all of it is usable unlike some DS's.
