How do you say...

dusg123
 July 16, 2011, 05:40 PM posted in I Have a Question

I doubt that anyone will be able to help me with this since this is a technical term used in the leather industry, but I'll post it anyway:

8 oz. tooling leather

:-/  I know... I know... but if you happen to know (or happen to know someone who might know), please do let me know.  I have to make a buy at the leather market in Guangzhou, but I'm probably going to end up relying a lot on pure description.

Sincerely,

George

Profile picture
bababardwan
 July 16, 2011, 10:06 PM

Sorry mate, I don't know. But, in case no-one else does, in the mean time, it would be cool if we could work it out. Do you mind describing exactly what "8 oz. tooling leather" is? Is it the leather used in this sheath?:

My guess is that 8 oz is the weight of the leather..it reflects the thickness, and it's leather specifically used for tools, like sheaths as above. Is that correct?

Profile picture
RJ

tooling leather is leather used for carving stamping or, you guessed it, tooling.

The "ounce" measurement is an indication of the thickness of certain kinds of leather.

An "ounce" in leather working is equal to 1/64 inch or 0.4 mm thickness.

see

http://www.sbearstradingpost.com/tooling-leather.html

Profile picture
bababardwan

thanks RJ. Yeah, that makes sense. I think the thickness and grade of leather are likely the key. It's a tough question translation wise though. The moment you bring 8 oz 【八盎司 】into the equation, you seem to get all these leather hip flasks come up, obviously referring to the quantity of alcohol the leather hip flask contains and not the leather thickness. I've come across 模具皮革， 工装皮，道具皮，工业用革等，皮革的工具【but this is obviously the tools for working the leather, 工具皮革 doesn't give convincing results], and some others that weren't convincing.

Not sure if this article helps at all George:

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9A%AE%E9%9D%A9

Profile picture
RJ

I think you got it baba,

三点二 毫米 工装皮

or maybe you can say

三 毫米二工装皮

that would be 3.2 mm (8x 0.4mm) tooling leather. I think. The other option is to point, and they will tell him what its called. (might be Cantonese in Guangzhou) Or take a sample with.

Profile picture
dusg123
 July 17, 2011, 02:33 PM

Hi guys,
 
Thank you so much for the responses.  I think those are great suggestions and will get me closer.  The leather I need to buy should be undyed, as well.  I know that undyed cloth is 坯布, so I imagine that undyed leather would be 坯皮.  Is that correct?
 
Between 8 and 10 oz. leather is fine, so I’ll just say between 3 and 4 mm thickness.  I am thinking of starting the conversation with:
"请问，你们这里有没有三到四毫米的工装坯皮?"

To mean:
 "Do you have 3 to 4 oz. undyed tooling leather?"
 
That and little bit of explanation should do it, I guess.  In fact, I’ll go try to make the purchase at the leather market next weekend and report back on how it went!
 
Cheers and thanks again,
 
George