Horse Hide

[ABC3]

I have somewhat of a dilemma about Horse Hide: I am told that ALL the slaughter houses in the US have been closed and now all Horse Hide comes from overseas. Then the Hides sent back to the US, for the most part, to be tanned. I realize that the Hides come from older livestock & thus pron to a great many imperfections. #1 is this true ?

I have purchased Horse Hides from 2 different Leather Dist & the Hides look pretty good until they are dyed. Then the scratches, marks, imperfections come out (especially with light colors). It's to the point where I am thinking of not offering Horse products, in the future.

Have I got my facts straight or am I being misled ?

[Dave B]

I have somewhat of a dilemma about Horse Hide:....<snip> ....

I have purchased Horse Hides from 2 different Leather Dist & the Hides look pretty good until they are dyed. Then the scratches, marks, imperfections come out (especially with light colors). It's to the point where I am thinking of not offering Horse products, in the future.

First, I'd also like to add my horse hide question. Namely, does horse hide lend itself well for making whips?

Now to your question: Think Positive. You could always continue offering horse products, but make it a selling point that the leather comes complete with all the signs of life that the horses' lived. Implication is that the hides did not come from animals slaughtered just for that purpose, but from horses that had lived good lives. That the leather comes from animals that are not simply rounded up to be slaughtered for their hides. In other words, look upon those imperfections as a selling point, not a detriment. Like the old adage says: If you get lemons, then make lemonade.

I don't know if this is fact or a bit of stretching of the truth, but making the imperfections a positive feature seems worth considering.

Dave

Dave

[NoahL]

The Horween Tannery is still up and running in Chicago, and still tanning horsehide. Not sure who told you that all of the US tanneries for horsehide were closed. It just depends what supplier you buy it from whether or not it comes from Horween (you can't get it from there directly yourself unless you buy 100lbs or more) because each supplier will choose where to get the horsehide from. As far as the imperfections, I agree with Dave's comments above--I tend to like the imperfections, myself. Then again, mine usually only have very minor imperfections, so it could be that your supplier IS getting theirs from overseas instead of from Horween like my supplier.

~Noah

[Kate]

The Horween Tannery is still up and running in Chicago, and still tanning horsehide. Not sure who told you that all of the US tanneries for horsehide were closed. It just depends what supplier you buy it from whether or not it comes from Horween (you can't get it from there directly yourself unless you buy 100lbs or more) <SNIP>

~Noah

OK, question one, who is your supplier? and are these actual hides, or the horse butts (which is all I have been seeing for many years)? Since the butts are sold by the pound... Well, I guess harness backs are sold by the pound too, but most leather is per square foot, hence my question.

I do use horsehide, love the stuff, but every now and then you do get an odd piece - I got an appy piece once, ended up having to do black out of it and the posts STILL showed, almost like watermarked silk. It was COOL.