Inkleaf Leather Covers

[dapv]

If I can shed a little light on the prices, even I agree they're too high. Not for the product sold or for the amount of labor and materials that goes into them, but for what most people would consider reasonable given the nature of the product, certainly. If I were a customer rather than a maker, I don't think I personally would save up my money for one. That said however, there are an awful lot of steps which going into making a single cover. It is pretty hardcore craftsmanship. There are less expensive options available though which are still very good quality just not with the same level of hand work.

 

In fact, since our current hand tooled, hand dyed, hand stitched lineup has proven so difficult to make a living at, we're going to be introducing a less expensive line of products soon made of Horween Chromexcel. They'll still be hand stitched, but the leather comes to us already dyed and we're planning on leaving the edges unburnished (virtually all makers edges are like this) which will drastically cut down on the time it takes to make them and hence will lower the price that we can offer them at. I can easily say our prices will be very competitive with similar products out there.

 

All that said, we're going to continue to offer the veg tan products as well.

 

"All that said, we're going to continue to offer the veg tan products as well." YEAH ....

Edited April 9, 2013 by dapv

[Bogie]

By the way, I was going to mention, as far as the smell, or lack thereof goes, vegetable tanned leather really doesn't have a strong leather smell in itself. The smell comes almost entirely from the oiling and waxing. We use neatsfoot oil before we send it out because it's one of the more traditional leather oils and it does a better job of holding the oils inside the leather (as opposed to rising to the surface, which can stain clothes), but the smell isn't all that pleasant. It's generally masked by our wax which is custom blend, but primarily beeswax based. If you want a more conventional leather scent, apply a coat of something like mink oil.

[Papermate]

+1 for the veg-tan burnished Field Notes cover. Mine's the "walnut" shade. I have Midori TNs and an Oberon cover as well, but the Inkleaf is my EDC.