Our Materials

We use only Bridle Butt, that is the portion of the leather from behind the shoulder to the tail. This is the best part of the hide, the shoulder area is thinner and weaker, and also often has more scars and imperfections than typically is found in the butt. In addition we generally only use the belly edge of the Butt for items such as loops and keepers as this area is softer and more spongy, meaning that items such as belts made from this area wear more quickly than those made from leather from closer to the top of the butt as the leather is spongier and becomes creased and "worn" looking faster.

The leather that we use is exclusively from a Walsall, UK, based tanner called J & E Sedgwick. Sedgwick leather is some of the finest bridle leather available anywhere in the world, and is a key part of our commitment to producing products to the very highest standards. The cost of the leather in each of our products is many times more than those of some of our competitors, however we feel that the investment is a worthwhile necessity in our drive to produce the best products that we can. Certainly you as a consumer will understand why we this is our policy if you compare, for example, one of our belts with a high street sourced belt that may have cost two or three times as much but will be visibly inferior in both materials and manufacture.

The thread we use is always twisted linen thread that is hand waxed before it is used. We use linen thread rather than nylon as nylon would cut the leather (and we have a horror of man made materials), and we wax the thread to help give it some water resistance and to help with the stitching process. We generally use 18/4 thread which is used in weight bearing saddlery such as bridles and headcollars. All of our items are over engineered for the applications they are intended for - we believe in longevity and manufacture accordingly.

The hardware that we use in our products depends on the nature of the product and the wishes of our customer. Much of our work uses solid Brass fittings. Brass is a strong material that is both lustrous, eye catching and smart. All of our buckles and fittings are sourced from the saddlery trade so are designed for use with horses and are strong enough to last for years in that kind of environment. For applications where a silver coloured material is called for we use either Stainless Steel or solid Nickel. Neither material, in common with brass, will rust meaning they are suitable in environments where they will be exposed to the elements. Stainless Steel has a bright, clean finish where as Nickel has a deep, rich lustre and is perhaps more aesthetically pleasing.

The Manufacturing Process

We make every one of our leather items by hand. That is, we cut the straps by hand from a butt of leather, cut to size, cut the points, bevel and crease mark the edges, punch holes and chape holes. This leaves us with a blank that needs finishing and and stitching into the finished product.We have invested much time and money over the years on tools and our ability to use them, but continue to refine and improve our techiniques as we work towards continuously improving our work.

At this stage that we dye, burnish and polish the edge, a multi stage process that takes a considerable proportion of the manufacturing time for an item such as a belt. We work hard to produce goods with beautiful, tactile edges and continually refine our processes. Edge finish is one of the easiest way you are able to tell the quality of an item of saddlery or leather work - quality work will have smooth, polished, tactile edges that are an appropriate colour for the leather.

Once edge finishing is complete buckles and fixings are stitched in. All of our products are hand stitched, never riveted. Though it may seem counter intuitive stitching is always stronger than rivets as the leather has far less damage done to it when stitched, and any load is distributed over the far larger area of stitching. In addition stitched leatherwork can easily and cheaply be restitched if the original stitching does rot, not something that can be said of riveted work. In our experience rivets anywhere in a piece of leatherwork point to corners cut by the manufacturer.

We stitch any weight or pressure bearing seam with a harness stitch using two needles and hand knot each stitch. This ensures that should an individual stitch wear through or be damaged the rest of the line of stitching will not come undone as machine stitching would. We use several feet of thread in a product such as a belt, and stitch at an average of 10 stitches per inch, far more than a cheaply manufactured item would have.

Once the item is complete we will re polish any edges as necessary and give your newly finished item a once over to check for any flaws previously missed and a wipe over with a cloth to remove some of the wax used on the grain side during tanning. However there will still be quite a bit left on the surface which you can either clean off or will wear off with use.