Splitting A Crocodile Hide And Making A Coat

[jimmy eng]

This fella John has asked me to make him a three quarter length coat in a few crocodile hides he's prepared (he hunts, taxidermies and tans leather of crocs and smaller animals in Australia and Papua New Guinea and gold prospects in PNG too) but they're about 4-5mm thick (10-12 ounces). I didn't get the ruler flush with the leather in my photo.

To make a garment I'd need it to be at last half that or ideally a quarter of that thickness.

I've never used a splitter before so I don't know how it would go with the scales of the skin side. I'm going to ask the companies Packer and Maclace in Australia and also thought you guys would have a great idea on how to do it. To do it myself, John suggested I could sand it off, he tried by hand but it's too laborous for him. A mate knows someone with a splitter with the width of 700mm so that should be sufficient so they'll get back to me. I'd cut off the limbs on the hide so it would be flat I reckon.

On a side note regarding the job: To make the coat John wants the scales in the centre of the back of the coat and that's the only requirement. The rest of the garment would look better using full belly pieces which are smooth and flat but I reckon he wouldn't have any hides cut down the back so the belly isn't divided down the middle so they'll be a lot of seams in the coat. If it ends up being only split half thickness I'd have to sew the seams on top of each other, without a seam allowance.

Edited November 26, 2013 by jimmy eng