Finished leather dog collar with a brass buckle and D-ring on a wooden workbench.
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A Leather Dog Collar

ByPeter Joeseph 'Briefcase Maker' Kalafatis

A strap, a buckle and a ring, and the dog tests all three every day.

A leather dog collar is the smallest piece of tack most people will ever make, and it is tack in the full sense: a strap of vegetable-tanned leather, a buckle, a ring for the leash, and a living animal that pulls, scratches, swims and rolls in things nobody wants to name. I burnish dog leashes on the same bench where I edge briefcase straps, and the two jobs share a rule. The leather is rarely what fails. What fails is a fold, a rivet, a cheap ring, or a measurement somebody guessed.

Video: Making a Simple Leather Dog Collar and Lead, from Weaver Leather Supply on YouTube.

Measure the dog, then measure again

Every bad collar starts with a tape held too tight or too loose.

Hands skiving the buckle end of a leather dog collar strap to half its thickness.

The neck comes first, before you touch a hide. The American Kennel Club’s guide to measuring for dog gear says a collar needs only one number, the neck circumference, taken around the base of the neck where the collar will sit. It wants the tape snug but not tight, and once the collar is on, two fingers should slide between leather and dog. If the dog lands between two sizes, the AKC says go up.

Sellers do not agree on the slack. Dogids’ measuring page tells owners to add one inch for small dogs, two for medium and large, and three for extra-large, and it gives both a one-finger and a two-finger fit in different places on the same page. So take the AKC’s two fingers as the working rule and treat the rest as a range.

Then comes the length of the strap, which is a different number. Ana Poe’s collar how-to for CRAFT, republished on Make:, cuts the strip at the exact neck size plus ten inches, and Tandy’s dog collar project says the same, about ten inches over. The extra covers the fold around the buckle and a tail long enough to sit in a keeper. Poe’s reason fits on a sticky note: “you can always subtract, you can never add.”

Both patterns line up the second hole at the dog’s exact neck size. That leaves room to tighten and room to loosen. A puppy grows into that second direction faster than anyone expects.

The materials list

Buy the strap from the strongest part of the hide, and buy the metal last.

Weaver’s collar and lead project, demonstrated on video by Chuck Dorsett, uses 7/8 oz. leather for a simple collar. For a heavier collar on a bigger dog it suggests a heavier weight or a liner. Ounces in leather are thickness, not weight: Weaver’s thickness chart page puts one ounce at 1/64 of an inch, so 7/8 oz. runs a little over an eighth of an inch.

Here is the list, pulled together from Weaver’s project materials page and the Tandy and Make: builds:

  • Vegetable-tanned strap leather, 7/8 oz. or heavier for a big dog (Make: suggests latigo as another choice)
  • A buckle sized to the strap, a D-ring, and a keeper
  • Rivets (Weaver lists double cap rivets) or Chicago screws
  • Strap cutter, scratch awl, strap end punch, oblong punch, round or revolving punch
  • Skiving knife or splitter, edge beveler, slicker, rawhide mallet, rivet setter
  • Leather balm or conditioner and clean cloths

My strap would come from the bend. I use only the bend for briefcases, because the fiber there is the tightest on the hide, and I send the belly to the trash and keep the shoulder for small parts. A collar is a small part. It still takes a pull like a big one, so I would not hand it the shoulder.

On thickness, my own Leather Choices page calls Hermann Oak bridle thick, around 8 to 12 oz., and describes its harness leather as stuffed with heavy tallows. That family of leather was built for horses. A dog is easier work for it, which is the point.

Cutting, skiving and the buckle end

The fold around the buckle is where a collar gets thick, stiff and ugly.

Macro view of the riveted buckle fold and D-ring on a handmade leather dog collar.

Cut the strap with a strap cutter so the width stays dead even down the whole run. Tandy’s EU build uses a strap one inch wide. Nicole Bradford’s Tandy project uses a 1¼ inch heavyweight strap and a matching keeper. Pick the width for the dog’s size and the buckle you can actually buy in that size, then round the tail with the strap end punch.

The buckle end folds back on itself, which doubles the leather right where the dog’s throat sits. Thin it first. Tandy’s EU instructions mark the flesh side seven inches from the end and skive about half the thickness from that mark to the buckle end. Poe skives the same end from the suede side. The oblong slot for the buckle tongue gets punched on the fold, three and a half inches in, in the EU pattern.

Skiving by knife is slow and honest work, and the knife shows every lapse of attention. I split strap leather on an old hand-crank splitter, and on straps I have stitched two thinned pieces together flesh to flesh so the face is good on both sides. That trick belongs on a collar too. The dog’s neck gets a finished surface instead of rough flesh grinding into the fur.

Bevel both edges before any hardware goes on. Tandy uses a number 3 beveler on the top and bottom edges. A square edge on a collar rubs the same strip of skin all day, every day, which is why it is worth the extra pass.

Punch the tongue holes last, with the strap wrapped around the actual dog if you can get the dog to stand still. Good luck.

The hardware, the part you did not make

The cheapest piece of metal on the collar decides when it lets go.

A ring is a ring until it opens. Weaver’s materials list for the collar specifies a welded D-ring, the kind with its joint welded shut all the way round. To my eye, a ring with an open seam is a hook waiting for the right pull. Pet Hardware sells a sand-cast brass D-ring and describes it as suitable for “leather goods, saddlery and dog equipment,” with a breaking load stated for that one size. That number belongs to that part, not to the collar it hangs on. The same page says brass darkens and loses gloss over time, and calls that normal.

Make: recommends brass hardware. Pet Hardware’s brown leather collar build pairs the strap with a double-bar buckle and a heavy D-ring, both sand-cast brass, plus a small address tube for the owner’s phone number. A double-bar buckle holds the tail flat under its second bar. It also hides the end that a dog would otherwise chew.

Read every listing the way you would read a contract. Solid, cast or welded each say something about the metal and about whoever sold it. Plated, alloy or nothing at all tells you something too.

The dog does not read the listing. You have to.

Rivet, stitch or screw the fold

I stitch everything I can, and this is the one place I would let the rivet win.

Workbench with strap leather, punches and brass hardware laid out for a leather dog collar.

Hand saddle stitching is the heart of my work. I gave up sewing machines a long time ago and stitch every piece by hand, and The Maker page says why: the saddle stitch is the one that holds tack together “under a 2,000-pound horse.” On a collar, the fold around the buckle and the D-ring is exactly the kind of seam a saddle stitch was made for.

Now the turn. My hand-stitching page also says unskilled hand stitching is worse for the bond than unskilled machine stitching. Both lines are mine. A first collar is a first collar, and a stitch you are still learning is a gamble you are taking with somebody else’s dog at the edge of a road.

So the rivet earns its place. Weaver points builders of larger collars to Chicago screws or tubular rivets for strength, and Poe’s sequence is the sensible one: set the two rivets nearest the buckle, slip on the D-ring, set the remaining two, then tug hard on the leather to test them. Bradford’s Tandy build sets the posts facing outward, away from the neck. Poe also warns against rivet-back decorations on a collar worn every day.

Not every rivet is equal. I rank them: hollow tubular is the weakest, solid holds a good deal better, and copper is strong but too ugly for my bench. I use Chicago screws on briefcase handles, and on a collar they let you swap a buckle without cutting anything.

Stitch on both sides of the rivet and the fold has two ways to hold. Then test it before the dog does. Tandy’s own page puts it flatly: the maker is responsible for testing the hardware and the finished collar for pet safety.

Edges, finish and the first wet walk

The collar lives against skin, fur, rain and the floor of a car.

Burnish the edges the way you would a strap: beveled, sanded, then rubbed with a slicker until the fibers lie down hard and closed. Tandy’s Canadian build gives three choices, burnished, painted with edge coat, or left raw. On a collar I would burnish. The strap bends around a neck all day, and I want the edge made of the leather itself, closed and hard, rather than a coat sitting on top of it.

Water is the other enemy. My Leather Care page says no conditioner is waterproof; wax conditioners repel water, but water that sits soaks in and spots, so wipe it off at once. Poe conditions her collar with mink oil and cream and finishes with a light coat of beeswax for some protection. Weaver’s list ends with a leather balm. Rub it in with a clean cloth, let it sit, and buff off what the leather does not take.

A collar on a dog that swims every morning will darken and stiffen faster than one on a dog that sleeps on a couch. The leather keeps a record of the dog. That is not a defect.

The first week tells you more than the build did. Check the holes for stretch, the rivets for wobble, the ring for marks, the fur under the collar for rubbing. If the second hole has become the third, the leather has given at the tongue and the buckle end needs a closer look.

Then put it back on the dog, who has opinions about none of this.

Leather Carving Hammer Mallet: A nylon-headed mallet with a wooden handle for striking chisels. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

400 Sets Double Cap Leather Rivets, 9x10mm: A box of 400 double-cap rivet sets. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Dritz 750T Double-Cap Rivet Tools: A metal rivet setter and anvil set for double-cap rivets. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

OWDEN 9 Pieces Leather Hollow Punch Set: A nine-piece hollow punch set for round holes. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

304 Stainless Steel Chicago Screws Leather Assorted Kit: A kit of 90 stainless steel Chicago screw sets in seven sizes. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Heavy Duty Brass Belt Buckle, 1.5 inch: A heavy-duty brass belt buckle for 38 to 40 mm straps. See it on Amazon (affiliate link).

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