Hermann Oak Or Bullhide For Double Layer Ccw Belt?

[BigRiverLeather]

I'm offering gun belts now and have started out by ordering some 1.5 belt strips in HO from Springfield. I want them to match my HO holsters as close as possible.

I see a lot of belt makers promote Bullhide. Is there an advantage over HO? What are the drawbacks, if any, of HO?

I'll be stitching them on a Toro 3000.

Any other suggestions that someone wants to through my way before I start are welcome!

Scott

Edited June 8, 2010 by BigRiverLeather

[Art]

Hi Scott,

HO will have an occasional hard spot, but otherwise mighty consistent and high quality. Ditto Wickett and Craig, both good quality. Bullhide may be a little more dense to start, but after tanning and finishing I can't see much; you usually get a bigger hide though, good for reins.

Art

I see a lot of belt makers promote Bullhide. Is there an advantage over HO? What are the drawbacks, if any, of HO?

Scott

[horsewreck]

It,s all a matter of terms. I suspect most people selling "bullhide" leather goods are in fact selling products of 15oz. skirting. I have been in the leather buisness 35+ years and I don't even have a source of "bullhide" leather. If you are making your holsters from say hermann oak 9oz. strap leather and you want to make your belts a little heavier you could buy 11oz. stap sides or skirting up to 13-15oz. as long as you stay with product from the same tanner matching color isn't a problem. I hope this is of some help to you.....

[rickeyfro]

I use a premium bullhide shoulders and butts from Zack Whites all the time, love to stuff, comes in all weights and has nice clean pasted backs.

http://www.zackwhite...me.php?cat=1107

Edited June 14, 2010 by rickeyfro

[rdb]

Some of the bigger makers are using "Steerhide". Some are using steerhide, and calling "bullhide". A steer is a bull without a couple of things. Same difference. Steer is a stiffer hide than ordinary cow. Zack's has steerhide, and several belt makers use it, because it comes in 7 oz...which when glued back to back comes out to the 14 oz belt considered just the ideal weight for a carry belt.

[horsewreck]

The main point I was trying to make is that we should be buying leather by weight not sex. Bullhide is more of a marketing scheme than it is a class of leather. When we buy leather from say hermann oak or wickett and craig we are buying mostly feedlot finished steerhides. This leather is more than suitable for any item you wish to make, in this case belts, if we want to make heavier belts use heavier leather pure and simple.......

[BigRiverLeather]

I'm a little late getting back to this one. Good input here. It does make sense that HO and WC hides are coming from feedlot finished steerhides.

I ordered both 6-7 HO form Springfield and 7-8 (closer to 7 oz) from Zack White. I've not yet made a belt from the "bullhide" yet but here are my impressions.

The HO is a LOT more consitent in appearance, stretch and back marks etc. than the bullhide. I was told that ZW's hides were very consistent as far as that goes but I'm a bit underwhelmed.

I might make a go of it this weekend and make a couple from the ZW hide and see if those natural marks show through when finishing it. Even the HO I used which appeared very "clean" had some marks showing after dying it. Not a big deal and not noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

[rickeyfro]

I'm a little late getting back to this one. Good input here. It does make sense that HO and WC hides are coming from feedlot finished steerhides.

I ordered both 6-7 HO form Springfield and 7-8 (closer to 7 oz) from Zack White. I've not yet made a belt from the "bullhide" yet but here are my impressions.

The HO is a LOT more consitent in appearance, stretch and back marks etc. than the bullhide. I was told that ZW's hides were very consistent as far as that goes but I'm a bit underwhelmed.

I might make a go of it this weekend and make a couple from the ZW hide and see if those natural marks show through when finishing it. Even the HO I used which appeared very "clean" had some marks showing after dying it. Not a big deal and not noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

Id been getting Zack Whites Bull Hides for a couple years and they were consistantly awesome, the last order I placed I recieved a e mail saying they were back ordered for an unknown time, I recontacted them to cancel because its kinda hard to give a customer a wait time of indefinate length and was told that they were having trouble getting the hides from the Mexican tannerry that they were dealing with. About a month after I called and got a couple more, this time I was less than satisfied, the only thing that resembled the past hides were the clean pasted backs, they were uneven in color and far from clean, loaded with wrinkles and stretch marks, i'll be going back to kevin for the Hermann Oak.

[horsewreck]

This has been a good topic. Rickyfro I'm sorry your supply dried up, but over the years I have not seen all that much constant quality coming out of Mexico. Chahin Tannery does a pretty good job but they are tanning mostly U.S. steer hides. The other tanners down there don't seem to put out that good a product. As far as heavy wrinkles in the neck regions and scars, that is a function of age of the animal, not just sex the of the critter, though old bulls will have a little more weight, and more defects to their hide at a given age. Another problem we would have with "BULL" hide is the low numbers of mature bulls going to market compared to the number of cows or fed steers, which leads me back to my original point much of the leather we buy as BULL is infact old COW. In the cattle raising a rancher might keep only 1 mature bull to breed 25 or 30 cows, the rest of the bull calves born are steered and end up in the feedlots to get bigger and become our next steak and our new boots. That is why there aren't many places turning out bull hide, and who wants to buy something called REAL OLD COW.

I maintain to turn out a good belt and, or holster we should find a good supply of one brand of steer hide (wickett and craig, hermann oak, or even Chahin) and stay with it, as this will keep the people who buy what we make happy. When our supplier let's us down by shipping us not as advertised junk we should give them hell....... Jeff