Thor

It might help to point you in the right direction if you would tell where you're from Tom

Here you go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo What customs refers to is the cites which with the Kangaroo is no concern at all. There are several sources in Germany for Kangaroo leather lace, but it's not cheap.

So the common use of the word Cordovan wouldn't be correct? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cordovan this link suggests that Cordovan would mean the leather itself, and Shell Cordovan would be a more precise name for the Cordovan leather cut from the hind of the horse. Shell: A dense fiber structure found only in the hindquarters of equine animals. On their website I can only find this chart, which you posted already under the menu Equine Hide Chart and then under full tannage list the term Cordovan with the facts of its features, which are: Straight vegetable tanned, Vegetable Tanned: A tanning method that employs vegetable liquors derived from tree barks. This method of tanning is very traditional and takes longer to achieve than chrome tanning.therefore it's tanned without chrome. It is Hot Stuffed Hot Stuffed: Leather that has been nourished and conditioned with unrefined oils and greases. This is achieved without the use of water and emulsifiers and gives a much richer feel. Hot stuffed leathers typically exhibit pull-up and good water resistance.Only light weights are available (probably due to the fact that the grain is missing and swelling requires the epidermis) It's pasted, as I identified earlier Pasted: Leather that has been dried by fixing it to large glass or ceramic plates. Pasted leathers have very little stretch and smooth grain character.It's glazed as visible in the video as well Hand Glazed: Leather that has been polished with a glass rod.And it is aniline finished, meaning that there is no pigmented covering of the surface Aniline: Dyes and finishes that contain no pigment. When used on leather they provide a rich, clear stain that allows the natural character of the article to be seen.And at last it has a smooth feeling. Bulleted definitions are from Horween's page at http://horween.com/leathers/definitions/ So if Cordovan and Shell Cordovan are the same, I wonder if the rest is just called horse leather then. On this German page I found some more info http://www.leder-info.de/index.php/Cordovan. They say that only hides from heavy draft horses would be good for Shell Cordovan. Is there any confirmation on this? Further they are recommending only try cleaning of Cordovan as the leather would swell if cleaned wet. This sounds odd as it would be contrary to what was said before about the features of this leather.

Once again thank you Mike for clarifying this. I converted the article on kinowear.com to pdf due to the disturbing advertisements there and uploaded it here. Main key points are: From around 1600 until 1900 Cordovan was synonymous with goat leather from Cordoba, Spain Since 1900 it is synonymous with veg tanned horse leather There also is a deep red color by the name Cordovan Shell Cordovan is made from the dense portion of the horses rump, where the only difference is between the horses skin and cow skin. Showing a cross section of horse skin. The latest article you linked explains that the Epidermis is removed. This is what we generally refer to as grain. It then refers to a hyaline layer. So when the other article said below the skin it actually meant below the epidermis. That would make sense to me as it is a common mistake to refer to the Epidermis as the skin. Btw. hyaline layers are found in humans as well, but I doubt that it can be really compared. kinowear.com-Cordovan the masculine mans leather.pdf

Thanks Mike. That sounds odd to me or I don't understand it. The muscle layer doesn't have enough collagen to form leather. Leather is formed from the dermis of the skin. So either I really don't understand what you're trying to explain or something else is getting me off track here. Nick Horween writes here http://horween.com/101/chromexcel-2/ that in the case of Chromexcel the hides are chrome tanned, so the blue color would truly mean that those hides are chrome tanned. He then writes about "wet blue", which is the common name for an unfinished chrome tanned hide. Considering this I will have to change my definition of Shell Cordovan. They can either be veg or chrome tanned. Conrad do you have a link to this UK tannery?

Thank you ferg! I believe this is the video you're referring to: https://vimeo.com/81233973 I'm a little irritated by the color of the hide as it looks blue at one point and this would mean that it was chrome tanned which Cordovan leather shouldn't be and I believe it isn't. Is there an explanation on this somewhere? What I did notice is that Horween uses a pasting drying method. This increases (stretches) the amount of hide by about 10%. Nothing wrong with that. In fact I believe this is pretty good. Further I have seen that they are glazing the hide, which must be due to the fact that in Cordovan leather the flesh side is the "upper" side and the grain side will be the bottom side. If I observed it correctly they are even grinding off the grain side. Also as you pointed out already is that only the rump (shell) is used by Horween, which gives it the name Shell Cordovan and is visible by the oval shaped forms of leather. Its main use seems to be for shoe making according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_cordovan ferg, do you know which tannery in Italy is making Cordovan leather? Here's another video on the tanning process at Horween https://vimeo.com/47127960 and this one here is a bit more detailed. The person, I believe to be the "tanner" points out a hair line on the horse which must be the area between hind quarters and flank. Since Horween Leather Co. is existing since 1905, does that mean that they have ever since made Cordovan leather from horse hides?

I'm looking for some more facts about cordovan leather. What I know thus far is that the term initially described a certain kind of fine leather coming from Córdoba, Spain and that since the 1930s it was made mainly and later solely from horse hide. In some books it is mentioned as an old term for Marocco goat skin, which I can't really believe to be true as that would mean a specialization towards goat skin for it and not as in the definition I found in an old trade specific dictionary: Any further information on this is welcome.

If you'd be sizing the picture according to the circumference you want you could just us this picture as a rough out pattern and go from there. So say the diameter is 45 mm you would use this formula u = 2 π r and therefore u = 2 x 3.14 x 22.5 In the end the circumference would be 141.3 mm (roughly 5.5") and would equal the distance from center to center of the snap. Use whatever program (Gimp, Photoshop...) you're having there and convert it to a drawing. You may have to make some adjustments by hand, but it would solve your problem pretty fast.

The Ivan one doesn't hold a cutting edge. So that one is the better choice. I believe I mentioned that this was the reason that disappointed me about that as well and that I had to sharpen it first. If you are struggling with sharpening you might want to go here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showforum=221 and get some general help with sharpening.

Looking very nice Ryan

Interesting thought. I didn't think of that either, but that may be due to the fact that I have been tought the old traditional way of sharpening wood chisels and the more important side for stropping is the mirror side. In this case the side of the channel. You'll need a sharp edge on the leather for that.

Totally agree with the first paragraph. The second is a rumor. Anyhow, it also depends on the type of leather you are going to use. For almost all types of chrome tanned leather I wouldn't groove. If at all, only veg tan leather would be grooved. For most wallets I would say that a stitching groove isn't needed at all. I collected over 1,000 different wallets here https://www.pinterest.com/riding1493/wallets-portefeuille-geldb%C3%B6rse-billetera-%E8%B2%A1%E5%B8%83-%E9%92%B1%E5%8C%85-%D0%B1%D1%83%D0%BC/ and I hardly find a stitching groove on any of them.

I definitely did misunderstand that part... The only sense this would make to me is to get the acids into the hide better than just letting it sit on it.

Yeah I can't complain about their service. I'm chatting with him once in awhile. He's a hobby leatherworker himself. He'll tell you if a tool sucks or if it's really good. Also if it's not in their current stock they are trying to get it with one of their suppliers at a fair price. What I really like about them is that they are always trying to improve their stock. Usually if you order before noon you'll have it the next day. Once you get your gouge don't put it to work right away. Strop it first.

Just to be on the same page. Are you referring to this kind? https://www.google.de/search?q=incense+burner+wood&num=50&newwindow=1&client=ubuntu&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ54Tfr4PLAhXMWhoKHa7GAF0Q_AUIBygB&biw=1229&bih=818 If so I'd just try some sole bend leather first. If you're referring to just a holder, here's one of someone else http://www.maxandmoritz-la.com/lifestyle/leather-incense-holder-by-made-solid

I'm not absolutely certain on that particular step as for rawhide I don't think it is necessary. The so called staining process (sorry not sure what that relates to in the English explanations - maybe liming) usually follows the decalcification and would be used to promote further dilapidation of the hide to open the fibre structure for the following and actual tanning process. Pounding of cattle has a negative impact on the skin, but luckily it only damages the hypodermis, which is removed anyways. However, it doesn't help in loosening up fibres as adrenaline and the occurring bruising start a process we're trying to prevent today. But again, a fair amount of water would be needed to get this process really going. Traditionally dog, chicken and pigeon feces have been used for this procedure. Pigeon feces are still used a lot in Morocco for tanning goatskin. Unfortunately I'm not having a very good answer for this step but to guess that they are trying to make the rawhide more durable and making it "heavier" and therefore thicker. We are speaking of a swelling process. And yes it must be the ammonia in the urine and feces. Today's industrial mixtures are a combination of ammonia, pancreas extract and sawdust.

There's quite a bit of info on that available from organisations from and in Africa. There's even a Maasai Conservation organisation. The most info on leather tanneries etc. in Africa you would find in Morocco. Terms such as Fes Morocco Leather Tannery should return you some search results to start with.

Nothing wrong about that TinkerTailor if referred to the general term Alum. If we are using Alum for tanning today, we are usually referring to a Chrome Alum sulfate complex (technically chromium and potassium) as pure Alum only provides poor binding features with the fibers. Further tanning by just spreading pure Alum powder (would still be crystals) on the hide and let it cure in the sun doesn't happen. Even with today's Chrome Alum tanning compounds it takes 3 - 6 hours in a drum tanning process. Anyhow, the shields are obviously rawhide and the limestone is part of the mixture for the colors etc. No point to argue over it.

Alum would require access to that chemical compound and since this is supposed to be traditional and the old tribes certainly didn't have access to this I doubt that it is Alum. Ashing hide is the second step in preparation just after watering. Since the video doesn't really show anything past this point which could be considered tanning this should just be rawhide. Also you might want to read the article to the video here http://www.conserventures.org/news/ finding this text line "But one icon of Maasai history—those tall, intricately decorated rawhide shields, so universally recognizable that one features centrally on Kenya’s national flag—seemed lost forever, save as dusty relics in museums, rare and expensive objets d’art from exclusive curio dealers, or, tragically, as cheap, undersized, shoddily made tourist souvenirs."

Lovin' it!

If you're lucky she reads this post, if not go here http://leatherworker.net/content/index.php/about/

Wow jonasbo, that is well made.

Are they for horizontal or vertical holes?

Looks like this revolving punch could conflict with Selzer's patented revolving punch http://www.selzer-online.de/en/innovation

I have several patterns from them. Never had an issue. But I'm using Linux and not Windows. 7-zip is a good suggestion for windows. However, double check the package or just download it again. Go to your account and it should be in your downloads. Sometimes the package can get damaged while downloading or saving.