Wanted to bring up this discussion because I’ve been running into this a LOT. I craft and sell leather mugs. YES you can drink from them. I have them coated in FDA compliant Clearcast epoxy from a company called Alumilite. I had contacted the company prior to using, and had spoken to them about me using it to drink from and talked with them about the safety data on this type of epoxy. This epoxy is for cool liquids only. Epoxy softens at 110 degrees F, which takes away the FDA compliance. The info on this epoxy is always available on my site for my customers.

Now onto the discussion part.

Anytime I have ever. And I mean EVER so poked to another vendor about what they coat their mugs in, they all keep it a secret. They tend to claim their mugs hold hot and cold with the epoxy they use, but won’t reveal what the epoxy is.

And not only is this my own experience, but I’ve read this on leather forums as well. That for some reason, this is a HUGE guarded secret.

I feel this is a bit shady. I mean, I understand someone not wanting to give away their pattern, or maybe reveal how much the cost per production is, but when it comes to a possible health hazard of using something that isn’t FDA compliant…I dunno. That should be public knowledge. Especially to your customers. Especially to other leather workers. All of us should know and communicate on what’s safe to use.

Has anyone else had this experience with another leather worker?