BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Dracon" data-source="post: 3255270" data-attributes="member: 14799">Rathaus - Years ago when I was deep into my leather hobby, I bought several full size cow hides.  One was vegetable tanned, the other chrome tanned.  From that I learned that thickness varies considerably based on what part of the body was covered. A hobbyist doesn't have access to commercial machines for thinning or splitting leather.  I acquired over the years many hand tools which could craft anything out of leather.  Individual talent, quality leather,  and time were the three ingredients for a nice looking job.I took the time, but my talent leather skills were marginal.  All this time I was learning about the different kinds of leather - cow, horse, pig, goat, deer, elk, alligator, etc.  and the tanning methods which were employed to come up with a useful product.  One time I found myself in Morocco for part of a week and watched how goat skin was tanned.  Zeiss used Moroccan leather (goat) for some of their soft cases - the Dialyt series.  The earlier Zeiss cases featured top grained leather.  The Japanese often used split grain leather glued to cardboard to help shape the case.  Canon cases made for their later porros (now discontinued) were all-leather cases.  Leather called Italian is considered the best leather made today and is frightfully expensive.  The stuff sold by Tandy is so-so, mostly chrome tanned leather.  Earlier German and particularly Swiss cases were first rate.Your Habicht case is very attractive.  I would have to examine it closely to see how it is really assembled.  When the sheer volume of quality leather, and craftsmen (women too) making it happen,  and when the associated costs of producing thousands of a kind of product for a world wide market are considered, the phasing out of leather cases was inevitable.  Sure, there are the independent specialty businesses making purses and cases, and like you have said, you would pay extra for it.  But the majority of binocular purchasers of alphas already faced with premium prices IMO wouldn't. With soft covering featured on almost all binoculars, the protection given by the case is no longer needed. Just having the right pattern is an issue.  I disassemble old cases for the pattern to make new ones.  But I don't do this commercially.  Hand sewing is too time consuming. The custom case made by a local artist is indeed functional, but it lacks in two ways: the color of the hardware needs to be brass, copper, or bronze.  Perhaps the artist didn't have access to this selection.  The other is the stitching which is a lace stitching.  It exposes the stitches to wear and fraying, which the classic needle stitching doesn't. You could duplicate your Habicht case.  All you need are (1) quality leather (2) a precise pattern (3) appropriatehardware (4) a few leather tools (5) thread (6) needles (7) awl (8) lining material and (9) plenty of time.  Now I am teasing you.  But I think you understand.  You were fortunate to come into possession of that case.John</blockquote>

Verification