Questions About An Elephant Project

[Eagle Crest]

in a couple of weeks I have to start on a holster that will be using elephant. customer has had this elephant hide for years and was looking for someone to make him a holster with it. he want the entire holster made of elephant. we havnt worked out all of the fine details yet but i have a few preemptive questions from you guys.

around the edges should i wrap the hide over the edge of the leather and mate the front and back of the holster together, or should i leave the elephant even with the edges of the leather and burnish all to the same edge. im not sure which will be better appearance wise as well as for longevity.

secondly i use either a resolene/water mixture. or saddle lac. will either of these products work on the elephant. will it behave similar to cowhide.

any tips or pointers would be greatly appreciated. i feel im doing a good job with my projects but the elephant hide is new territory.

[Leela Valley Leather]

If there is enough elephant hide I definitely be doing some test pieces to see what works best as it may behave differently from the regular leather

[Ed in Tx]

I am not an expert by any stretch, I have however used elephant hide for several things I have made including a holster. With the holster I used a veg-tan cowhide and covered it with the elephant, basically a "lined" holster. On the edges I did the just like I would using veg-tan cowhide only and burnished them using resolene/water mix but first step was sandpaper of progressively finer grit then wetting and rubbing edges with glycerin soap and burnish with denim that had saddle soap rubbed in. A lot is going to depend on how the hide was finished in the first place, burnishing would be the same but dye and final seal coat will be dependent on existing finish. I know I didn't cover every step but you get the general idea.

[jus10]

What finish did u do ?

[renegadelizard]

i use angelul 600 on all of my elephant holsters...and i burnish the edges just like i would with cow hide..sand, dye, burnish, wax

[jus10]

I just made some small things with elephant and the edges burnish easier then cheap cow leather ill have to look that finish up . Would carnauba creme work or 50/50 mop n glow ?

[renegadelizard]

mop n glo works, i just dont like the sheen it gives...the angelus is about the same as mop n glo but has a bit higher sheen to it..not sure about carnuba creme, i have used it on shark but not elephant yet..

[jus10]

On second thought carnauba creme is for smooth areas I bet it would be bad

I know it leaves white powder looking stuff if its not smooth

[Dwight]

Every time I see an article on elephant hide, . . . I remember my elephant hide wallet I bought in Vietnam in '66 or '67.

Brought it home, . . . used it till I got tired of it, . . . bought a leather one, . . . wore it out, . . . got out the elephant and used it again till I got tired of it, . . . bought another leather one, . . . wore it out, . . .

This went on for almost 25 years, . . . and the elephant billfold is still somewhere in the upstairs, . . . still useable I would suspect.

Eagle Crest, . . . I hope your customer has as good fortune as I had. I probably wouldn't use it now as it didn't have slots for credit cards, licenses, etc. . . . but I jusst may go see.

May God bless,

Dwight