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rickeyfro

What cowhide for lace?

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For you guys and gals that make your own lace, what do you use? Type of leather, weight, shoulder,side,belly? Im just starting to make my own lace, hoping to save some money, Ive been using Florentine cuz its the widest Tandy has, and I go through a lot of it, I think making my own may increase my profits any thoughts on that also, is it worth it to make your own??

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Ricky,

I usually make my own, but I use kangaroo hide. I usually split it down to about 1-2 oz or less after I cut the thongs.

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Hi Rickey,

It takes a pretty special leather to make good lace. Usually, a very tight grained calf skin is the best. It also helps if you have a way to bevel it, and possibly split it. Normally, leather like that will (under normal circumstances) run anywhere from 3.50 to 6.00 per sq ft, depending on what it is, and who you get it from. Right now I've got some calf that would work pretty well, but the color might not be something that you can live with. I've got a midnite blue, for 2.00 per ft, and it could be made black pretty easily, but you'd have it to do. It came from Charles Hardtke, and was originally a 4.00 per ft leather. I've probably got some others around the place as well, but I'd have to scrounge a bit. But, that's what my wife says I'm best at! :)

If you try to make it out of anything other than calf, it might work fine, but it would depend on what you're doing with it. I think since you're doing seats, (nice ones, I might add) I'd simply stick to the best and pay the money. Your customers will pay for quality if you sell it correctly.

Happy Lacing!

Kevin Hopkins

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I do think im gonna go with kangaroo, Kevin do you guys sell Roo hides? If so what do the go for a sq ft

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I'd like to jump in here and cure a case of ignorance. For "general" lacing purposes, is it better to use vegtan or chrometan? Oddly, the answer is just something I've never run across.

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At least for the Roo, it's veg-tan... the veg is much stronger than the chrome...I'm not sure if the same applies to cow/calf.

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I've always used veg-tan cow or calf (I prefer calf but have not always had it on hand) when I am making a braided project. Let me say it's because I did not have kangaroo available. Now that I have kangaroo available I far prefer it as the strength is amazing, and yes, I like the veg-tan kangaroo.

I've only cut a small amount of chrome-tan lace. It was strong, but I left it fairly thick. I don't know how well it would work to skive it down. The only chrome-tan I have experience with is really heavy hides.

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There's a couple of reasons why I won't use chrome tan.

#1 is that the process actually destroys cells, thereby making the leather a bit weaker. Yes, it comes off as a super-soft leather, but at what cost?

#2 is something that is near and dear to my heart :deadsubject: The chemical used in the process is chromium sulphate, which is considered a cancer-causing product - especially in California. I once worked for a company that cleaned up hazardous waste and there were a lot of companies that walked away and left barrels and vats of chromium sulphate lying around. We would have to suit up and put it into drums and haul it away to Idaho where it was either burned or buried.

So, since I breed 'hi-dolla, hi-class' German Shepherds, I'm very particular with what I'm going to put up near the 'intake' of my dogs.

That's my $.02

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