Anyone that has any experience buying leather will know that depending on the quality and demand, it can sometimes be extremely expensive. Whether it’s a piece of leather clothing or simply buying the leather outright for projects at home, it can often be a serious involvement in both time and money.
This is why so many people prefer to source their leather as cheaply as possible, without giving up too much on the overall quality. Here we will look at ways to get a hold of leather without having to purchase expensive pieces.
Second-Hand Stores
Getting pieces of leather from a normal materials shop isn’t always an option. The prices can be high, and sometimes it can just be difficult to find one of these shops. But there is another great way of getting pieces of decent leather for a much lower price: second-hand shops. It’s worth taking a few hours on the weekend to visit all of the local charity and second-hand clothing shops and seeing what they have on offer.
While leather items tend to be rarer and slightly more expensive, second-hand they will still be much cheaper than buying the same item brand new. There are also many online stores that sell used clothing, which is a great opportunity to keep an eye out for old leather clothing that can be scrapped.
Buying From The Butchery
When it comes to leather scrap, we tend to think that the only place to really get it from is a materials shop, especially when we live in a city. But leather actually comes from the slaughterhouse, and sometimes makes its way to the butchery. The slaughterhouse is perhaps the best place to start, as the fresh leather will be sold from this kind of establishment at factory price.
These are usually found out in the countryside, and may not always be a pleasant visit, but it is one of the best and more affordable methods of acquiring a large amount of leather for a relatively low cost.
Advertise Online
People have a lot of leather items at home that they’ve put in a drawer or cupboard somewhere in the house and have forgotten about. For this reason, it can be worth jumping on to social media and asking friends and family whether they have any spare leather lying around that they might not be using. Leather jackets, shoes, bags, and more can easily be taken apart and turned into a range of useful scraps that can then be made into something entirely new.
This can even be the case for leather items that are no longer in the greatest condition; even if the leather is not in the best shape, as long as it isn’t completely ruined, it can generally be fixed up and returned to excellent quality, meaning some extra cash for a new hobby, or even just to play bingo online.
Combine the three above methods of getting leather and it won’t take long to build up a sizeable stockpile of great leather for home-made projects.
