A 2-3oz veg. tan would be a nice choice.
1.5mm stitch hole. A 3mm distance is a prefect distance between stitching holes.
You definitely want the height of your leather cover to be the same height as the vinyl covers. If the leather is larger with the height overtime the leather cover will start to bend.
You will need to experiment with the width. You want the leather to be pliable so it can easily wrap around the vinyl notebooks.
Have a great time creating your covers.
Well, he said it was to be engraved. Although it all cuts, veg-tanned does take to engraving better in my experience. Likewise I prefer chrome tanned for tooling (after scoring/engraving the pattern that I can then follow with the applicable tools to impress the design in the leather).
I have used chrome tanned a few times, as well. No leather project I’ve ever made was large enough to pose any problems.
Thanks for all of the input everybody!
I knew that winging it would just be dumb. so I figured I’d tap all of the brain stored energy around here.
I will post the results. 
I haven’t noticed this before, but then I admittedly don’t engrave too much leather nor was I paying attention to if there was a difference wrt tanning method. All my leathers are different colors and weights so engraving performance is wildly different between say a heavyweight black oil-tan cowhide and a lightweight white chrome-tan deerhide liner.
The two pieces engrave very differently, but in this scenario I figured the physical limits of the leather and color contrasts are much larger factors than the tan method. Do you have any pics of what you mean about the difference between veg and chrome?
I’ve made a couple of large book and notebook covers, so if you want to chat more feel free to message me. You’ll be looking at quite a few stitches, a standard 3-4 mm diamond setup would be perfect. Honestly for the sizes of the standard binder I don’t think you’ll be able to use the proof grade leather since it’s not big enough. There are a few different size recommendations I have that might help in regards to the thickness of the leather, but in the end you’ll want what what works your budget best. There are some snafu’s I’ve ran into on my last project that I’d recommend you check out my post on it here
Now that solution might not be the best for your situation and that’s fine but there is much I learned from this petticuler instance that really did help shape my projects going forward.
Genuine Leather is not a real thing. There is cow hide, top grain ect but “Genuine Leather” is not real leather but a phrase used to make those who have no idea what they are looking at , think it’s the real deal. Here’s an article by a leatherworker who’s been in the business for years has put together.
Unfortunately no. What leather lasering I’ve done in the past few years has been for engraving and I’ve been buying from Tandy (we have a local store that gives me a Makerspace discount - I think because I used to get their First Responder discount and the manager felt bad I didn’t qualify after I stopped riding on the ambulance). So I get decently priced veg tanned pretty easily.
With chrome tanned leather, the metallic salts used seem to leave more of a carbon residue when engraving that then needs to be washed, wiped or otherwise cleaned off - more so than veg tanned seems to. Also, there are metallic compounds used in many of the colored chrome tanned leathers that apparently do the same thing with regards to carbon production/residue.
I was using low-power cuts (“scores” in GF parlance) to outline tooling patterns in chrome tanned when I was doing tooled pieces. That worked very well and because it’s only a kerf width being burned, I didn’t get the carbon residue I got from engraving. But it gave me perfect patterns to use stamps and irons on.
I don’t know about the semantics.
Real leather. You know, hide. Not plastic. Not sure who would have been confused about my meaning but if someone was… then that’s what I meant.
That’s how I took it. Actual animal hide.
Thanks for the link. Never knew that about leather.
When I started getting into leatherwork I wanted to know why my wallets never lasted more then a year, and that’s the reason I found after research. I actually found it several different sites but that one was worded the best for everyday readers not in the know, so I try to keep it handy.
I’m very late to this party (vacation will do that!) but I’ll throw out there that felt makes a pretty good stand-in for leather when you’re patterning. I pick up large pieces at yard sales and resale shops for crazy cheap - but even in fabric stores you can get yards for only a few bucks each.
the thing to keep in mind is that a lot of places like to say, “genuine leather” when they’re giving you bonded leather. which, technically, is a leather product. but it’s not just leather. and it’s awful in a laser cutter. just ran into this over teh weekend when a buddy asked me to engrave his re:markable case. on the web site, it says, “genuine leather.” but when i picked it up from him, it’s 100% a bonded leather case.
Yeah it’s why you can get a “Genuine Leather” wallet from Walmart or any department store and it will crack to high hell within a years time. I’m just waiting for my current one to get to the unusable stage so I can deconstruct it and make a pattern from it.
The MDF of leather : powdered leather mixed with glue.
My current wallet is 15 years old. I know because I switched from a single in my back pocket to bi-fold in the front on advice from a chiropractor when I got back into riding. The only issue is the middle plastic-covered pocket for a DL has split away, so I often drop my DL and carry permit when I have to show ID.
That sounds like it was actual leather before they started cheaping out to me
there are still actual leather wallets out there. i have a saddleback full grain wallet. other than some wabi from 15-20 years of carrying it, mine is still in perfect condition. i expect it to outlast me.
Typically if they are real leather they will be called whatever type of leather that they are: top grain, full grain, cowhide, etc
