Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rambo 
Unlucky (Scott) is a great guy, and makes great shit, but he's too unreliable with his communication. I missed out on the forum special belt, and another belt I had interest in, because I just couldn't get to him reliably. I have a custom belt in #8 shell cordovan colored horsehide up for sale as well. Trying to branch out this time.
The forum special belt was organised through me though, so when you missed out on that, it would have been a miscommunication or problem with e-mail/PM on my end, not Scott's.
My go to guys for custom belts are Scott (
unlucky) for US leathers and Terry Dear for good old British oak-bark & bridle.
Can't say enough good things about Scott, I've had the most awesome, custom leathers done by him - from hand-stuffed American steer to deadstock brain-tanned horsehide.
He also does Horween veg. tanned horse butt in natural, worth checking out (AFAIK same as used by McCoy's Buco brand some time ago, and retailed ~ 20,000 yen). His new belting bends from Clayton, UK is also very unique - very different from American leathers, and worth having a handle if you've never experience British leather.
I usually hear back from him within a day, if not a couple of times in the day - dude does have a life though, so non-communication during, let's say a week of camping, is to be expected.
That's the thing about having stuff custom made by private crafters, you can't expect them to have a secretary handling e-mails.
I have not bought a belt from
zissou yet, but I like what I see!
For heavily oiled leathers, my favourite is still bridle from England. Lots of different professional craftsmen accessible through the web, and the pricing is really good. If you want a leather that is made the way it was back in the 19th century, give Terry Dear an e-mail and check out his bridles and oak-barks.
For a plain, natural cattlehide leather, IMO nothing on this Earth beats the 12 month oak-bark tanned butt from Baker's tanner, UK. I've previously organised a group buy with Terry using some custom oak-bark butt from Baker's, and it is now available as a regular offering called the Quercus. He can dye it in any colour too!
In Japan, some good options include Vintage Works, Dolce Vita, the dude at Kyoto Freemart, Tenjin, Kawatako, etc.
Would not recommend getting English bridle stuff in Japan, as it gets ridiculously expensive - grab a leather from Tochigi tannery.
You could buy from Sugar Cane or Samurai, but they don't make their own leathers, so bang for buck is not as good (although the Sugar Cane belts are pretty cheap, they are slightly thinner than their advertise weight the last time I checked them out.)
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