First Time Working With Gator Hide

[Jaboyd2u]

I am a self taught newbie. Started out tanning hides for myself to use later. Then sort of progressed from there. The photo hopefully will post, shows the very first order I made for a guy. He actually killed the gator and had it professionally tanned then aske me to make a belt, sheath and skeet shooting bag for holding shotgun shells. Maybe someone will like it...?

[Rohn]

Looks good from here. That is really cool - harvesting a gator and having stuff made from it. Looks like you are doing a great job.

[Jaboyd2u]

Thank you Rohn. Appreciate the complement. I thought it was really cool to be able to say the belt you're wearing or knife sheath was from a gator you caught.

[capsterdog]

Very nice. Your stitching looks well done. It is pretty cool to say yea, caught this one and now I am wearing it. Pretty cool. Job well done!

[Jaboyd2u]

Thank you for the compliment. I sew everything by hand. The belt alone took around 2.5-3 hours if memory serves me right.

[MonicaJacobson]

That is awesome. You probably don't have it anymore, but I'd love to see if you have any more detailed pictures.

[Jaboyd2u]

That is awesome. You probably don't have it anymore, but I'd love to see if you have any more detailed pictures.

Thank you!

Unfortunately I don't have real detailed photos of this. I have a couple more pics that are just a little closer and thats all. I will try to post them now.. The bag was for skeet shooting it is made to hold several boxes of shotgun shells at a time. I used the neck of the gator for that part so you can see the different pattern. The sheath was made using the back leg, that's why there are more raised portions there. the the belt was a cut away from the tail to the neck. Giving it a couple different patterns all flowing from the front to back...

Closer shot of all together

Skeet bag

Sheath welt

close up of sheath

[MonicaJacobson]

Wow, the sheath is even more knobbly than I thought. Very cool. Thanks for the additional pictures! I've only worked with a couple of scraps of alligator - enough to know that it isn't easy to work with.

[Jaboyd2u]

Hey you're welcome! I was shacked at their different patterns you have on one hide. It was nerve racking for me to say the least. As this was not something I bought but something someone else killed and tanned. So messing up wasn't an option. I made sure to triple check the checks. I am thankful it turned out like it did. This was actually my first attempt at any exotic leather. I had only made a couple sheaths. No belts at the time. Certainly not bags. Thank you for your compliments. They truly mean a lot.

[Wild Bill46]

Never thought of any type container? wheather it be for paper, skeet, knives, binoclears, Etc.

Nice looking indeed ! Stay with it your a natural. ---- Wild Bill46

[Jaboyd2u]

Never thought of any type container? wheather it be for paper, skeet, knives, binoclears, Etc.

Nice looking indeed ! Stay with it your a natural. ---- Wild Bill46

Thank you very much. Really means a lot.

[Windrider30]

That is really cool looking. How hard was it to cut only exotic leather that I have worked with is stingray

[Jon P]

Those are great looking pieces. I bet the person was excited to get them!!

[Jaboyd2u]

That is really cool looking. How hard was it to cut only exotic leather that I have worked with is stingray

It wasn't that difficult to cut. I was using the belly though so that does play a huge role. The back with the nodules would be pretty difficult to work with. The main thing was getting the "fuzzy" portion off the flesh side. Seems like gator hide has a lot of it ( or at least this one and one other one I worked with had ) I had to use a sharp knife and lighter to get it all off. The hide is malleable as well so I used veg. tanned leather as the base to keep everything solid.

[SkullCanyon]

PM sent

[l2bravo]

Very nice. I just did a bag with some croc backstrap/armor this week, and it royally sucked. Good job on using the pattern of the gator. That seems like a difficult time for me, during layout.

[Jaboyd2u]

Oh man! I bet that did suck! I had a small piece of gator back an man it's tough.

Thanks for noticing the pattern layout. That took me a while to figure out. The hide already had pieces missing from someone else messing with it. So trying to get everything to look right did take a while.