Original Release: October 2020
FFF Desk Pad
$128.00
A thick piece of solid, heavyweight leather. Top beveled for comfort. Standard A2 size (594mm x 420mm; roughly 23.5 x 16.5″) or the Big Boi, a 36″x18″ piece of massive hide with enough space to do…well…whatever you need to do on your desk on top of some sweet leather (???). Includes a standard 4×4″ engraving of your choice (monogram, company logo, etc.). We recommend the engraving on one of the corners or the top center to keep a smooth work surface. Due to the large size and full grain nature of these hides, some marks or blemishes are to be expected in the final product.
What kind of leather does FFF use?All of our leather goods are made using Horween leather. Horween is a tannery in Chicago, Illinois that has been in business since 1905. There are excellent tanneries around the world, and others based in the US, but we’ve chosen to use only Horween as we just love their product and their history of commitment to excellence. You can find more information about the leathers themselves all over the web, and particularly straight from the source at Horween, but here are some notes focusing mainly how we use their various tannages in our products (obviously color is a key factor for us when choosing a leather to make a product, but perhaps more important is how the leather ‘works’, as some work excellently in one product but not in another…and not every color is available in every tannage, so a part of the FFF design process is choosing which leathers will be used to make a product and accounting for its particular characteristics while designing).A note on tannages in general – “Tannage” is just the process that is applied to a hide to get the eventual hide that is used in making products. So if you start with two sides from the same animal (a full hide is split in half along the spine to get two sides), and apply different tannages to each, you will get a two sides with distinctly different properties; one might be a glossier waxy product that changes color as it’s bent (Chromexcel), while the other could be a more matte finish that is lower stretch, more resistant to scuffs, and does not exhibit color variations (Latigo).
Chromexcel leather (CXL) – Chromexcel is sort of Horween’s bread-and-butter. Alongside Cordovan (below), it’s what Horween is known for, and it’s definitely Shawn’s overall favorite–particularly Natural Chromexcel. When this tannage is applied to a cow hide, you get beautiful pull-up (“Pull-up is the temporary displacement of these oil and wax blends that cause a lightening of the leather.” -Horween). Other tanneries produce pull-up leathers…we just think Horween does a particularly great job at it.
For our products, a regular CXL leather is used when we can use a thicker leather that doesn’t need to be size-critical; CXL will stretch a bit with use to conform to whatever it’s used for…so, we can’t use a regular cowhide CXL leather for a custom length watchband but it works great for an adjustable watchband or a clutch. It will scuff easily, but a little friction with your thumb will remove all but the deepest gouges easily.
For our products, a regular CXL leather is used when we can use a thicker leather that doesn’t need to be size-critical; CXL will stretch a bit with use to conform to whatever it’s used for…so, we can’t use a regular cowhide CXL leather for a custom length watchband but it works great for an adjustable watchband or a clutch. It will scuff easily, but a little friction with your thumb will remove all but the deepest gouges easily.
Veg Tan leathers – This is SOMEWHAT of a fake name when you’re dealing with Horween. Other tanneries produce a “real” veg tan product, which ages beautifully and develops an incredible patina over time. However, a true veg tan is rather stiff and unwieldy at first, while Horween’s is much softer right from the beginning. Horween’s ‘veg tan’ (or what we call ‘veg tan’) is their Essex/Dublin/Derby (dublin and derby are the base tannage and then re-tanned with a waxier tannage; derby is then tumbled to give it a somewhat aged look). Essex/Dublin/Derby are also relatively high stretch leathers, like Chromexcel, so they’re used for products where a bit of stretch is fine. We love the feel and patina of the veg tan hides.
Latigo leathers – Latigo tannage produces a hide without any pull-up characteristics (where the leather temporarily lightens with stretch/crease/pressure). It is a uniform color hide that will resist scuffs more than CXL or Veg Tan hides, and is used primarily when we want a product with relatively strict sizing such as a custom length watchband or a strap.
Predator leathers – Predator was originally developed for boots, is incredibly durable, and somewhat similar to chromexcel, except that it is a ‘drier’ waxy finish as opposed to the more glossy/eggshell wax appearance of CXL, and is lower stretch than CXL.
HF leathers – the ‘front’ part of the horse hide is HF: HorseFront. It comes from the tannery as relatively light weight (thin) leather that is remarkably low stretch; comparing a hide in horse and cow in the same weight would show that the cow is almost unusably stretchy in the same light weight as horse. We use horse primarily for items that need to hold their shape but do so without a lot of bulk; primarily wallets to keep their shape without a lot of bulk that would be there with a similarly durable piece of cowhide that would be way thicker leading to a bulky wallet.
Horsefront can be tanned in several different ways, and each way produces pluses and minuses:
Horsefront can be tanned in several different ways, and each way produces pluses and minuses:
HF Chromexcel- The same blend of oils and waxes as applied to regular cowhide, HF CXL gets some pull-up (less than in cowhide), is the thicker of the HF varieties (though still lighter than cowhide). We use it for many products that need the lighter weight leather. The downside is that there aren’t many vibrant colors available in CXL tannages.
HF Mustang- Slightly lighter weight than HF CXL, it works excellently in products that need to be very minimalist or have very tight folds without adding bulk. Some examples are interior card slots of wallets (where the exterior could be a heavier weight leather), or a wallet designed to be as small as possible (such as the Sidestep.) Mustang’s tannage allows for some more vibrant colors than are available in regular HF CXL.
HF Waxed- Somewhat of a hybrid between the pull-up characteristics of CXL and the colors of Mustang, it is thicker like CXL but allows for some beautiful colors that aren’t possible in standard CXL.
HF Predator- Almost as light weight as a mustang HF but more durable in a dry waxy finish. Only available in deeper browns/blacks, but is very durable as a result of the predator tannage applied (predator was originally developed for boot leathers, so it is by nature very durable).
Russet leathers – Admittedly we’re sort of fibbing here; russet is a particular tannage of the ‘strip’ (sort of the waistline) part of the hide of a horse. We would be more correct in just calling it a strip, but that feels like it’s just confusing so we call them russet leathers. A true russet strip is more of a raw veg tan leather that is quite stiff and develops an excellent patina over time. Horween produces these leathers, but we opt for the strips that have then been retanned with Chromexcel oils/waxes to get a softer product with some great colors and available tannery-stamped patterns that are also very low stretch. Our main use for these is our Apple Watchbands, or custom length watchbands in general. The limiting factor with these is that the pieces are relatively small. That’s fine for use in a watchband, but larger products become more difficult to produce with russet/strips.
Suede – suede leathers are produced when the top/outer layer of the hide is shaved off, resulting in a slightly ‘fuzzy’ leather. Suede can be made in some really excellent colors (a wider variation than is available in more full grain leathers, from our experience with horween leathers), but with the tradeoff that it is by nature more prone to stains and is not as resistant to stretch as a full grain hide would be. Horween produces some ‘straight’ suedes, and also some suedes that have a waxed finish, some that are waterproof, and even more variations. We use a limited number of suede leathers, particularly in watchbands and some clutch products. We usually say “you have to embrace the fact that suede is going to darken up with time as it inevitably gets dirty.” You can use suede protectant (we like 3M’s suede/nubuck spray) and a suede brush/eraser but it’s more work than a full grain hide.
Cordovan leathers – While chromexcel is our PERSONAL favorite product that Horween produces, their premium leather is Cordovan. Cordovan is unique in that it’s the only type of leather that has grain in both directions, and only comes from horse and zebra hides in small quantities. Due to the rarity of appropriate hides (horween only uses domestic horse hides) and the extremely labor intensive production process, cordovan is a very expensive product. It is very low stretch in both directions (while even the lowest stretch cow hide is stretchier in one direction than the other due to the single grain in the hide), and is a very firm, high-gloss material. We use it for a very limited amount of products like custom watchbands and some wallets. It doesn’t like to be creased tightly and is a heavier weight than regular horsefront leather, so we tend not to use it for a majority of our products because Shawn tends to design things using folds to minimize stitching for a cleaner look.
We make all orders by hand. We carry very little ‘pre-made’ stock (just enough for displays in our shop), so we make each thing you order in our workshop/retail studio and ship it out to you, typically within a 2-3 day crafting time.
Due to the hand-made-to-order nature of our products, if it is the holidays or during one of our very rare sales when orders spike, the crafting time will increase, and your ‘to the door’ time will also increase.
Due to the hand-made-to-order nature of our products, if it is the holidays or during one of our very rare sales when orders spike, the crafting time will increase, and your ‘to the door’ time will also increase.
Your order gets to your door as (crafting time)+(time in transit). You will receive an email when your order ships with tracking information to follow its progress (check your spam folder for an email from us)…do note that USPS/international tracking (and shipping speed in general) is a bit less reliable than FedEx, particularly during the holidays–you get what you pay for, but if you’re willing to wait a bit the USPS is a great lower cost option.
For orders within the USA, we offer USPS (low-cost, relatively reliable shipping dates) and FedEx (higher cost, very reliable shipping dates) shipping options.
United States Postal Service (USPS) domestic shipping: Low cost, and typically reliable except during the holiday season or other times of heavy demand, when delivery times can slip drastically. Quoted USPS shipping times are an estimate, and are not guaranteed.
- Economy Shipping (USPS First Class; $0.00): standard crafting time, and then 2-6+ days in transit. NOTE: free economy shipping does not include replacement of lost/damaged/stolen-in-transit goods. You are rolling the dice with the USPS/porch pirates.
- Standard (USPS First Class; $2.50 per order + 1% of order total): Same shipping speed as Economy, but we will send a free replacement of any items damaged/lost in transit, and will re-make and re-ship your order if it has not arrived within 21 days of shipment.
FedEx domestic shipping: Higher cost, higher reliability, date-specific delivery. See FedEx US Service Guide for a more complete description of services and obligations. We do not require signatures on domestic FedEx shipments. All FedEx shipment options include the same replacement for lost/damaged goods as Standard shipping, above.
- FedEx 2day: ($8.25, free with $175 order) standard crafting time (will vary during holidays/other times of heavy demand), plus 2 business days in transit. You will receive an email when your order ships with a tracking number and a guaranteed delivery date.
- FedEx Overnight: Priority crafting (your order moves to the head of the current crafting line), plus next business day delivery.
Please note: International economy shipping is unreliable in terms of delivery date, package tracking, and possible fees assessed by customs officers. We include the required paperwork, but sometimes packages can and will sit in customs offices for weeks and weeks before clearance and delivery. There is NOTHING that we can do to hurry these packages along or get you more information about where your package is. If you want to follow your package, and know when it will arrive, please select the FedEx options. Overall, we have had great luck with our low-cost economy international shipping options, but customs delays DO happen–particularly during the holidays–so please be aware of that BEFORE ordering. Additionally, any customs duties/fees/VAT imposed by governmental authorities or local carrier shall be the customer’s responsibility (contact us with questions or concerns on this point).
Form•Function•Form shall not be responsible for loss damage, or theft of any order shipped internationally via USPS/your-local-government-postal-carrier. No refunds shall be offered on international shipping fees/product charges due to delays in transit or lost/stolen merchandise shipped via USPS. For guaranteed delivery dates and packages insured against loss, theft, and damage, please use the FedEx delivery options. CUSTOMS OFFICES IN YOUR COUNTRY CAN CAUSE EXTREMELY LONG DELAYS AT TIMES. THIS IS BEYOND OUR CONTROL, and unfortunately there is nothing we can do if your USPS order is taking a long time. If you need an order in a timely manner, we suggest FedEx.
- Economy shipping via USPS First Class Package International (about $12; price varies by location and shipment weight–max weight 4 pounds. Add products to cart to find your exact shipping fee): standard crafting time, plus 10-30+ days in transit (customs dependent, NOTE: customs delays are possible and completely unavoidable from our end. If your country’s customs office is slow, or backed up–particularly during the holidays–your package will simply sit until they get to it).
- Expedited via FedEx (price varies by location, depending on weight): Priority crafting (your order moves to the head of the current crafting line), plus 1-5 business days in transit. Check your specific country at the FedEx Rates and Transit Times estimator, from US zip code 32804. By default, we ship international orders as ‘signature required.’
- All returns are subject to our returns policy, visible here.
- Free return shipping for all US orders. Contact us via our contact page for a pre-paid label.
- International customers: we encourage you to ship return orders via insured, signature-confirmation methods AFTER contacting us–please do not ship items without first contacting us in case we need you to keep certain items for an exchange, or other specifics related to your order. Form•Function•Form shall not be responsible for return shipments that are lost, damaged, or otherwise do not make it to our studio in the condition they left your hands. Contact us before returning any goods; we reserve the right to refuse delivery/refund/replacement of any goods returned without prior authorization.
If you have a question about shipping policies (or anything else), contact us, and you should hear back within hours; if you haven’t heard back quickly enough, feel free to send another email without worrying that you’re bothering us–sometimes emails come in and in the rush of getting other things out the door they fall behind–we read every question, and we immediately respond to any problem.
How do I know which color leather is which?Select a leather color from the drop down menus below, and the photos in the gallery above will update to reflect your choice.
