The stitch behind the snap is the part that fails.

Cayuga mud is a fine clay. It works into the fold just behind the clasp, stays damp for a day, and cotton thread gives up before the leather does. The outside can look dry at noon. The pocket is still wet. Salt brine from East State does the same job in January, only it leaves a crust and then a crack.

• Traffic lead, 16 in, 3/4 in wideBrass snap, for a crowded sidewalk$48
• Everyday lead, 4 ft, 5/8 in wideThe length most people pick up first$58
• Trail lead, 6 ft, 5/8 in wideMore slack along the inlet$68
• Heavy lead, 6 ft, 3/4 in wideThicker leather for a strong pull$84

Counter prices in US dollars, before sales tax. If a shelf tag disagrees, the shelf tag is the price.

How a lead is made

Hide

Firm, oiled leather, closer to latigo than to a tooling side. Vegetable-tanned leather takes a watermark the first time the inlet hits it. We do not use it for leads.

Stitch

Saddle stitch, two needles, waxed polyester. A machine lockstitch can unravel from one cut. This stitch does not.

Rivet

A brass rivet through the fold, so one lunge on a slick patch does not load the thread alone.

Snap

Solid brass bolt snap. Not a zinc snap with a brass wash. The spring in a cheap snap rusts after one winter of salt.

Handle

A plain leather loop, long enough for a winter glove. No neoprene wrap. Neoprene stays wet and hides the stitching under it.

The traffic lead is short on purpose. Sixteen inches, three quarters of an inch wide, for the Commons when the paving is full and you do not want six feet of slack around a stroller. The everyday lead is four feet. The trail lead is six feet, which is the one people take toward the inlet. The heavy lead is the same six feet in thicker leather, for a dog that pulls when it hits the smell of the water.

Open the fold when you get home. If it stays shut overnight with clay in it, the thread is what you will be looking at next week, not the snap.

What we will resew

If a stitch opens on a lead we sold, under ordinary walking, we resew that fold. Chewing through the leather is not a defect. A snap spring that has gone soft, or brass with a crack at the hinge, does not get a split ring from a drawer. We will say so and sell you a new snap end if the hide will still hold one.

We will look at a lead we did not sell. If the leather has dried past the point where a needle will hold, we will tell you before we punch another hole. The bench is not a promise to save every strap.

Care, short version

• After clay or salt, rinse with lukewarm water, wipe, and hang the lead open.
• Do not dry it on a radiator. The pipe cooks the spot it touches and leaves the rest damp.
• Saddle soap is for real dirt or a salt crust, after the rinse, not instead of it.
• A little leather oil if the hide has gone stiff. Do not soak it, and do not oil the snap pivot. Oil there collects grit.

The longer version, including paws, is lake mud. Winter salt on this street is its own note: salt along East State. The March walk that packs the clay in is clay on the waterfront lead.