We Are Living in a Material World, and I Am A Material Girl (especially when it comes to paper, grommets, and thread)

It goes without saying how important materials are in your leather goods. It’s the difference between something lasting a lifetime (or more) and getting thrown in the trash. In this post we’ll discuss everything that goes into our leather goods except the leather (which we covered here). So, what goes into our goods besides leather? Paper, hardware, thread, and elastic.

First up, paper. We’re major paper snobs over here. It’s the thick, acid-free stuff that we like. We chose a paper for our Classic leather journals that’s good for a variety of mediums— like pencils, pens, charcoals, and even light watercolor. And you can get it with the pages lined or unlined. And if you want to get really fancy, you can even do a custom printed title page! Our Refillable leather journals have Kraft notebooks inside that can be replaced when you’ve filled one up. Again, the paper is thick and acid-free because we-uh-like-uh-da-good-stuff! Did we mention those notebooks come in blank, lined, dot grid, and graph paper? You’re welcome. 😉

Then we’ve got the hardware. We’re talking snaps and grommets here. We know how much use they can get, and we wanted to find something that would hold up to the demand put on it. Our snaps and grommets are high quality and just asking  to be put into heavy use. We’ve been very particular about our steel cable rings meeting certain specifications because we can’t have them wimping out. You can always count on our hardware.


Okay, thread. Thread isn’t that interesting—or is it?! Ever heard of waxed linen thread? We geek out over the stuff. It’s the standard in bookbinding and takes some heavy abuse. We make our Classic leather journals with this magical thread.


And lastly, the elastic used on our Refillable journals. Elastic is usually black and stretchy with not much to it. Except we decided we wanted there to be a lot to it! We use a thick (but not so thick it’s bulky) elastic that’s much more durable than anything else you’ll find. Also, we like details, so we use elastics that match our leather colors. We’re fun like that!

Overall, we want you to be comfortable knowing you’re getting the best with Ox & Pine materials. And you never have to question if you’re getting high quality because the answer is: always.