Ok, this is a BIG one. It took me so long to find the appropriate leather online. To make most model horse tack you need two types of leather, 2/3 oz (0.8mm) tooling leather and skiver.
Sliver is really thin and it’s used to form around tack parts. For example around the saddle seat. Sliver has a nice drape to it and it can me folded and stretched really easily.
Tooling leather is used for saddle flaps, sweat flaps and more. It’s the stiffer, thicker leather for the foundations of a saddle or other model horse tack piece.
Leather this thin is very hard to come by. I've found that Etsy and Ebay are two great places to find leather.
For the skiver I just type razor-thin leather in the search bar. Your looking for leather that is paper thin and has a nice drape. I usually buy my skiver from FrankLeatherShop on Etsy. You could ask him for really thin sheepskin leather. Bookbinding leather is also usually thin enough.
The tooling leather was the most difficult to find. You don't want leather that is too thick or else it'll look to bulky on your horses. I found that 2/3 oz leather is the perfect thickness, you won't be skiving* for ages. Recently I bought tooling leather from here.
*thicker tooling leather will also work if you don’t mind spending more time prepping it.*
Love it!we still have some leather from when we used to send our sgeep hides to get tanned!
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