Thread: Did Illinois ever make Cordovan strops?

It looks like Cordovan came from the the region of Spain where it originally began. Also interestingly goat was originally used.

Originally Posted by aa1192

It looks like Cordovan came from the the region of Spain where it originally began. Also interestingly goat was originally used.

IIRC Neil Miller has mentioned that this tanning process to produce Cordovan leather was brought to the region of Spain now known as Andalucía. Cordoba is a city in this region of Spain for which the process was named, I believe, Córdoba, Andalusia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

Bob

I think the issue is the term cordovan has two meanings. For instance you can buy a pair of shoes with cordovan finish which is just the color-a shade of brown. It also has a technical meaning referring to the actual tanning and processing procedure and to complicate things further it seems to be used interchangeably with "shell".

Cordovan simply means 'of Cordoba' - a place in Spain. Shells are the two ovals found under the skin in a horses butt. As the skin has to be removed to get at the fibrous, muscular shell, it is not really leather at all. That is why it is found in such a small, localised area and why it is so expensive.

Today, shell refers to the (lets call it for simplicity's sake) leather, and cordovan refers to the tanning and finishing stages. It is vegetable tanned (some legend in his own lunch time writing in stropping forum recently and giving us the benefit of his microscopic leather lore erroneously led himself to believe otherwise), then hot stuffed with oils and waxes, then stretched out on a glass frame, dyed and hand polished.

The spaish city of Cordoba also gives us the rather old fashioned name of cordwainer, still used in the rarefied world of the gentlemans outfitter in places like Saville Row when I was a schoolboy), for makers of fine gentlemans shoes. In this application, cordovan was any fine soft expensive leather, not just horse.

Cordwainer seems a long way from Cordoba, until you realise that it the anglicised version of a french word for shoemaker - cordonnier, introduced after the norman conquest (1066 and all that).

'Cordwainer' goes back to the 12th century in england, but the cordovan process was introduced into Spain in the 11th or 10th century, and originally it was goat that was used. The process was not even the same, the leather being tawed instead of tanned. In tawing alum is used, and it is an imperfect process inasmuch as it can be reversed by aperiod of wetting, giving us back a soft slimey skin that stinks as it corrupts. Fortunately Moors had a natural immunity to stinks being brought up in hovels and tents with all manner of beasts and a seeming disregard for form of lavatory paper other than the hand, hopefully with a bit of not too gritty sand in it. Doesn't get that wet in the Moorish part of Spain and North Africa eitner.

Over time kid and pigskin were used and the dried leathers were gilded and painted and used as wall hangings.

So, originally it was a whitish tawed leather, then a maroon goat or sheep leather, then a gilded and painted goat, sheepskin or pigskin, then the burgundy colored shell leather.

Today - and for quite a considerable time - it comes in black, tan, chestnut and burgundy.

The cordovan process, or part of it, anyway, has been used for other leathers. Horse hide (thicker and considerably cheaper), and so-called steer cordovan, which is even cheaper cowhide given the cordovan treatment.

Scottish tanneries were qite famous for producing top notch shell leather. Interestingly, most shell frm that time is much thicker than we find today, around 4 to 4.5mm thick as opposed to 2mm thick now. One can only conjecture why. Then, the norse was a beast of burden. It pulled canal boats along, delivered kegs to pubs, ploughed fields, trucked supplies to rail yards, provided cabs and long distance transport, and was worked till its great heart burst and it dropped dead in the street.

Tho occurrence was so commom, especially in great cities like London and NY, that the knacker man would not come until putrefaction set in - easier to chop them up and move them tben when they are stiff, Sometimes their bellies ruptured from gases engendered of corruption, while they lay dead in the street cushioned by the vast amounts of excrement produced in life. Cities were not pleasant in tbe heat os summer.

So, they were very robust beasts, all their muscles at peak condition. Also, tbe finish of the old shell strops was not glassy and flat for the most part. Its a bit of a mystery, but must have its answer in what prevailed at the time, and like today, marketing probably had more tnan a little to do with it.

Regards,
Neil (often stroppy) Miller

Originally Posted by aa1192

I just recently purchased a vintage Illinois strop and based on feel I'm wondering if it might be Cordovan. It is a "Barber's Delight" and Scottish Tanned leather; I don't recall the model number just now. Did Illinois ever use shell leather back in the day?

Shell is very small piece of the horse, so it's always been special, commanding higher prices and labeled accordingly to justify the price. If it only says 'scottish tanned' bit not shell it's almost certainly not shell.

My two user strops, I think they are shell, cordovan? no clue

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

My two user strops, I think they are shell, cordovan? no clue

I'd bet they are what they say they are. As I posted earlier, I think before WWII there were a lot more horses in use, and a lot more slaughtered when they were no longer useful. Glue and leather goods were probably the main uses, along with dog food. So chances are the shell was more plentiful, and therefore more reasonably priced. Neil will correct me if I'm (shudder) wrong ......

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I'd bet they are what they say they are. As I posted earlier, I think before WWII there were a lot more horses in use, and a lot more slaughtered when they were no longer useful. Glue and leather goods were probably the main uses, along with dog food. So chances are the shell was more plentiful, and therefore more reasonably priced. Neil will correct me if I'm (shudder) wrong ......

Heaven forbid!

My dear sir, to my certain knowledge you said you were wrong once before, but upon further reflection it transpired that you were right...

Regards
Neil

That certainly makes sense Neil regarding the thickness of the older shell quite rightly back in the day traditional breeds such as the Suffolk Punch Clydesdale and Cleveland Bay were all beasts of burden with over developed muscle structure so the cordovan would be much thicker and no doubt these genetic Characteristics would be past on to their off spring, as these breeds basically died off with the greater industrialization of agriculture and use of tractors these horse were of no use and died off so obviously the only shell available to the tanneries would be fine skinned animals such local hunters and smaller native breeds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffolk_Punch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Bay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clydesdale_horse