Twenty-two answers about hides, stitches and lead times.

You do not check out here — there is no basket and no card field. Write to the desk with the piece name or SKU, the colour and the quantity. We reply with stock, a price in US dollars and a lead time, usually within one working day. If you accept that written confirmation we issue a formal invoice, and the bench starts once cleared funds arrive. Standard packing is three working days from there.

Give us the SKU — for example TH-TOT-01 for the Cowhide Everyday Tote — the colour by name, the quantity per colour, the destination country and city, and the date you need it in hand rather than the date you want it to leave. Add any monogram text and placement, and say whether you want a hide swatch posted. A complete note saves three rounds of questions.

No minimum for a single piece. One card sleeve at USD 45 or one tote at USD 240 is a normal order, and a single bridle belt at USD 95 is our most common one-off. Trade pricing starts at twenty pieces per style and is quoted per hide lot, because the tannery price moves with the season. Below that threshold you pay the price shown on the product page. Consolidated freight for mixed styles is quoted separately.

We hold a quoted lot for fourteen days from the quote date. After that the hide may be cut for another order and the colour is re-quoted at the current tannery price. If you need a longer hold for a production run, ask in writing — for a deposit we can sometimes extend it to thirty days. We will not promise a lot we have not physically seen.

Full grain keeps the top layer of the hide intact, so the surface you touch is the animal's own grain, with its healed scars and vein lines. Corrected grain is sanded flat and often embossed; split leather is the lower layer. Full grain takes oil and develops patina instead of flaking, and a hide yields fewer usable full-grain panels, which is why a tote costs more than a bag of the same size in corrected grain.

Both, by purpose. The tote and most small goods use vegetable-tanned cowhide, tanned with tree tannins: it starts firm and pale and darkens to a deep honey over six to twelve months. Belts and bifolds use English bridle leather, pit-tanned and finished with tallow and wax for stiffness and long life. The backpack uses a pull-up hide stuffed with wax, so it lightens where the bag folds. Chrome-tanned leather is softer and more water-resistant, and we use it only where a piece has to be light and flexible.

Both, on purpose. Stress points — strap roots, gussets, belt loops, bifold corners — are saddle stitched by hand with two needles working in opposite directions through the same holes. If one thread breaks, the seam stays broken instead of unravelling along the line the way a machine lockstitch does. Long straight runs are machine stitched for consistency, and the product page says which is which rather than calling a machine seam handmade. Thread is bonded polyester in six colourways.

Solid brass or solid nickel wherever the piece carries load: buckles, D-rings, strap keepers and zip pulls. Plated pot metal can look identical on day one and then flakes at the edge, leaving a dark stain on the leather. Where a piece uses a plated component for weight or cost reasons, the product page says so. Brass is left unlacquered, so it darkens with use and may leave a faint verdigris ring that wipes off.

Send the exact characters, upper or lower case, the size and the position — outside centre, inside flap, or on the strap keeper. We cut and set the brass type, email a proof, and stamp only after you approve it. Up to three characters is USD 18; each extra character is USD 5. Stamping adds two to three working days to packing. It is done hot on a hand press, so depth varies slightly from piece to piece.

No, unless the stamp itself is wrong against the proof you approved — in that case we remake the piece at our cost, freight included. A monogram makes the piece unsellable to anyone else, so change-of-mind returns do not apply to it. If you are unsure about spelling, case or placement, ask for the proof twice and sit with it. We would rather wait a day than stamp the wrong initials on a USD 240 tote.

Usually, if you send a photograph taken in daylight with a ruler in the frame. We measure the character height and the distance from the seam and choose the nearest type in stock. We cannot promise an exact match to another maker's font, and we will tell you plainly if the difference will be obvious. Blind debossing on a dark hide shows less than gold foil; on tan or olive vegetable-tanned leather, foil is usually the cleaner choice.

Wipe off dust with a dry cloth, then work a thin layer of neutral leather cream or a light wax balm in with a fingertip, in circles. Leave it twenty minutes and buff off the excess. Once every three to six months is enough for a bag in daily use; a belt or a wallet carried every day may want it every two months. Do not use saddle soap on vegetable-tanned leather more than once a year, because it strips the oils the hide needs.

Water spotting is normal on vegetable-tanned cowhide and is not a defect. Do not rub it while the panel is wet — that spreads the mark. Let the piece dry away from direct heat, then condition the whole panel rather than the spot, so the oil sits evenly. Most rings fade within a few days and disappear into the patina. Rain is not the enemy; a soaking followed by slow drying in a warm room is. Never use a hairdryer or a radiator.

Yes, it will darken — that is patina, and it is the reason to buy full grain. Vegetable-tanned tan moves toward honey and then to a deep amber over six to twelve months of daily carry. Sunlight and hand oil accelerate it; keeping the bag in its cotton dust bag when it is not in use slows it. We do not recommend sealants or clear coats: they block the oil exchange that keeps the hide supple and they crack along the fold lines.

Do not overload a bag — a tote sized for a 13 inch laptop is not a tool bag, and the 18 litre backpack is rated for a 15 inch laptop, not for books and groceries together. Carry the weight in the centre rather than hanging the bag from one strap. Check the strap roots and gusset every few months for a frayed thread: one broken thread on a saddle seam can wait, two adjacent failures mean stop carrying it and write to us. Keep it out of long direct sun.

Fourteen calendar days from the delivery date on the courier's tracking record, for unused goods with their dust bag, care card and carton. Patina, grain marks, colour shift between panels and water spotting are character, not defects, and are never a return ground. A failed seam, sheared hardware or torn lining is a defect: we repair or replace it with freight paid by us, and that cover runs for two years from delivery. Monogrammed pieces are not returnable unless the stamp is wrong.

Email your invoice number and daylight photographs first, and do not take the piece to a local cobbler — a third-party stitch can make the seam unrepairable on our bench. We issue a return authorisation number, you send the piece to our registered office, and the bench re-stitches by hand through the original holes, re-burnishes the edge and returns it. Most jobs take two to three weeks including freight both ways; a strap or belt is often quicker.

For a defect or our mistake we pay freight both ways and send a prepaid label where our courier operates. For change of mind you pay the return freight, insured and tracked, and the original shipping charge is not refunded. Refunds are approved after inspection, within three working days of arrival, and paid to the original method within ten working days in US dollars. Bank charges on the original transfer are not refundable.

Photograph the carton and the piece on the day it arrives, before you use it, and send the pictures the same day — a courier claim is only open while the carton is intact. For customs, duties and VAT are payable by you and we cannot estimate them in advance. If you refuse a parcel or fail to clear it, we refund the goods less the outbound freight and any return-leg charge the courier bills us.

The seller is the Hong Kong company named on this page and on your invoice. It holds the stock, orders the hides, cuts the samples and answers the mail from one desk in Hong Kong, and the goods ship from Hong Kong. We do not dropship from a third party, we do not put our mark on someone else's carton, and we do not sell through resellers who present themselves as us.

No. There is no checkout, no card field and no payment processor on these pages. We never ask for a card number, a CVV code or a bank password by email or WhatsApp. Payment is by bank transfer against a formal invoice issued in the company name. If someone contacts you claiming to be us and asks for a card or a transfer to a personal account, stop and forward the message to our desk email so we can warn others.

Enquiry details are kept for twenty-four months; accounting records for seven years, as Hong Kong law requires. Monogram details and order correspondence stay with the order record so we can re-cut or repair a matching piece. We use no advertising cookies and no trackers. Data complaints come to us first, then to the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong. Orders are governed by Hong Kong law, with the Hong Kong courts having exclusive jurisdiction.