leather chart ?

[lc]

Is there a chart out there to show how many hides it would take to recover certain furniture ?

I burned myself twice now under-
estimating the amount I needed  having to order more.

[sofadoc]

It does seem like every hide is just on the fringe of being not enough.
I've had pretty good luck just figuring 1 hide for every 3 yards that a piece would normally take. So a 7 yard chair would take 3 1/2 hides.

Where it gets tricky, is with say, a 6 yard chair.
They recommend that you order 18 sq.ft. for every yard, so 54 sq. ft. would net you 3 yards.  But most hides are around 48-50 sq. ft.,  so you can come up a little short if you just order 2 hides for a 6 yard job.

I don't know if a truly accurate chart exists, since the square footage of hides vary.

[gene]

http://www.cortinaleathers.com/fact_sheets/leather_conversion_chart.pdf

There are so many variables such as having to cut around the tears and bad marks, different sizes of hides, etc., that a general rule of thumb may be better than a chart.

gene

[lc]

At least your giving me a general idea to figure it out better, Thank you.

I had two separate leather jobs in which I had to order an extra hide for both of them  the frustrating part was the one hide all I needed was a 12 by 20 panel  so I am stuck with the rest.

I didn't feel right telling the customer they had to pay for more, it was my error, am I right on this ?

[MinUph]

At least your giving me a general idea to figure it out better, Thank you.

I had two separate leather jobs in which I had to order an extra hide for both of them  the frustrating part was the one hide all I needed was a 12 by 20 panel  so I am stuck with the rest.

I didn't feel right telling the customer they had to pay for more, it was my error, am I right on this ?

Yes your right on this unless you explained to the customer that you will try to get it out of 2 but may need to order another if required. Alway better to sell an extra hide when not sure.

[sofadoc]

So a 7 yard chair would take 3 1/2 hides.

Sorry, typo. I meant 2 1/2 hides.

[NDAV8R]

Hey Gang:
   In the aviation upholstery, I deal with leather 95% of the time. The leather usuage is a lot less. There is usually 10 to 15% of the hide I don't use. Those areas are in the flanks and armpits. You can identify those by looking on the back and see longer flesh hairs, followed with a dramatic wrinkle appearance on the top side. The strongest area is along the spline of the hide. 
  However I do use some inferior parts for places of the airplane where there is a minimum contact area such as a map pocket or a bottom seat pedestal. Also be aware of cheap hides that are processed poorly with skive or cut marks on the flesh side during the splitting process. Those are also weak areas. When I get the hides, I will flip them over flesh side up and while reaching with chalk underneath, marking the good side of all the flaws. For me it's a constant battle to give my clients really what's best.

NDAV8R

[trimacar]

I too use leather, on antique automobiles.  I agree that over 10% "waste" is normal.  The one good thing about early cars, though, particularly doing button tufting with leather, that gives lots of seams where the defects can end up.

It just takes time and planning, much more so than just cutting yardage of fabric or that nauga stuff.