Welcome. Corter Leather is a super-small, one man operation. Every product is 100% hand made by maker Eric Heins in a small apartment studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Each piece is designed in house, cut by memory, hand punched, and hand sewn. Templates are never made, so no two pieces perfectly alike. 

Custom Orders Due to overwhelming demand of stock items, Corter Leather is not able to take custom orders as of 5.20.2011. 

For available stock, please visit the shop. 

Contact Information

Email response time can take 1-2 weeks due to workload. If your email can be answered in the FAQ's, it will not be responded to (so check them first!) For the fastest response to small questions, please use Twitter (or Facebook, but that is checked less frequently). Those are the quickest ways to contact me!

@Corter

Facebook

CorterLeather@gmail.com

 

 

Corter Leather uses either hand dyed or natural vegetable tanned leather for most of it's products. This leather is easily maintainable, and is used because it ages beautifully and uniquely, molding itself to it's user's lifestyle. 

When you receive a natural Corter Leather product, you're getting a blank canvas. The leather has a very light tone, and is affected by sunlight much like our own skin is. It's not treated because it's meant to be interactive- the user (you) gets to decide what sort of way they will treat the piece, and then actually finish it off themselves. There are many different ways to go about this, so here is a short list of highly suggested options to both protect your new leather product, and pull as much beautiful color out of it as you can. 

Tanning: Natural leather tans just like human skin does. To tan your leather goods, simply place them outside in direct sunlight, and leave them for a couple days per side, or until they're a nice carmel brown. This will take much longer in the winter when UV rays aren't as strong, but it's still very possible. Tanning leather before oiling will bring out deeper reds and dimensionality, and also darken the piece up to a medium color. 

Treating: It is highly suggested that you treat your leather goods, both natural and dyed, with a leather care product before use. As leather is a natural material, it can mold and be ruined by moisture if it isn't properly hydrated. Oiling also prevents stains on the leather from denim and other fabrics. There are many care products you can use that affect the coloring of the product in different ways, these are some of the most popular:

Mink Oil: Gives the leather a reddish tone, and darkens the leather to a medium/dark carmel color. 

100% Neatsfoot Oil: Gives the leather a softer yellow tone, and darkens to a light/medium brown. 

Obenaufs Leather Oil: Be very careful with this stuff! Gives a medium brown color after 2 or 3 coats, but darkens to a muddy deep brown after that. 

Obenaufs Heavy Duty LP: This should be your top coat after any oils. Obenaufs LP is the leather care choice of Corter leather. It contains waxes and a mixture of oils to really protect leather from water. It will not change the color much if any at all once you've tanned or oiled it, and may leave the leather feeling waxy. Let it dry, and with a couple days use the leather will be shiny, super hydrated, and very protected. 

With all oils, apply a couple generous coats and let dry. Don't be afraid of any imperfections in the coloring of the leather, because as the oils dry and you use the piece the tones will settle. Retreat every 6 months with a single coat, or when leather feels dry. 

Dye: If you receive a natural product and would like to dye it, go for it! Just make sure to use a leather dye, and oil afterwards to prevent color bleeding. 

Cleaning: If your leather product starts to take on too much indigo from your pocket, or gets muddy and dirty, feel free to use a damp sponge with a dab of mild soap, saddle soap, or (for indigo especially) mink oil to clean it. Just remember to re-oil once dry after using water.