Thread: What's your favorite strop material?

My favorite strop, the one I use every day, is an IRS #361. I think it is cow hide, but I didn't see cow as a choice. Unless one of those fancy shmancy "English bridal" whatcha-ma-call-it's is actually cow hide. I dunno.

Originally Posted by honedright

My favorite strop, the one I use every day, is an IRS #361. I think it is cow hide, but I didn't see cow as a choice. Unless one of those fancy shmancy "English bridal" whatcha-ma-call-it's is actually cow hide. I dunno.

English Bridle and Latigo are both forms of cowhide - the difference is in the tanning process. Dovo and Jemico and variants of the same are cow leather. The 'rindleder' designation simply means 'cow leather' in german.

'Russian' leather is cowhide. 'Juchten' leather is cowhide.

There is also a 'latigo cordovan' on the market, which is cowhide that has been tanned as latigo then re-tanned using the cordovan process - the trade name for it is chromexel, I think. It's a relatively cheap way to call a cow a horse!

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

which is cowhide that has been tanned as latigo then re-tanned using the cordovan process

Neil, really glad Scott brought this up. I have a HandAmerican 'Old Dog Classic 905' that came with a little brochure. In it Keith says,"Your strop was hand made using full grain horse hide tanned in the Cordovan style by the Horween Co. of Chicago Illinois." So what is the difference between a piece of horse hide tanned with the 'cordovan process' and cordovan shell ? Is the one equal with the other ?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Neil, really glad Scott brought this up. I have a HandAmerican 'Old Dog Classic 905' that came with a little brochure. In it Keith says,"Your strop was hand made using full grain horse hide tanned in the Cordovan style by the Horween Co. of Chicago Illinois." So what is the difference between a piece of horse hide tanned with the 'cordovan process' and cordovan shell ? Is the one equal with the other ?

The main thing is that 'cordovan' is a method of tanning, and 'shell' is a specific cut of leather - from a horses rump in this case, so 'shell cordovan" is horse shell leather that has been tanned using the cordovan process. The horses hide is removed and a measurement of 18 inches forward from the root of the tail is made, and the leather cut down each flank and along the butt cheeks. The round cheek areas are separated from the rest (though both are tanned), and the butts are split to reveal a small oval muscular membrane called the shell.

Of course more than just the shells come from a horse! The bits that flank the shells are often referred to as 'north of cordovan' or just plain 'horse-hide' - a haflway house between shell and ordinary leather (the shell is mainly muscular tissue rather than skin/subcutaneous leather), very fine in texture, usually thicker than shell, much cheaper than the more expensive shell, and usually stiff as a board. Other cuts have more in common with the leathers we are accustomed to, being much thicker. The japanese and italian use a thick cut from near the shoulder and tan it as cordovan for instance, but technically it cannot be called 'shell' cordovan.

The cordovan process is named for Cordova, Spain where the process was invented a very, very long time ago. The original process used goatskin and alum - very different to today's process! In the middle ages people who used the leather were called 'cordwainers' and because so many of them made shoes it become a generic term for a shoemaker, up until comparatively recently. The process later included pig and sheepskin leather. Once it had changed to produce the shiny leather we recognise as cordovan, it spread to Germany where highly mirrored leather articles (spiegelware) were produced, then to Holland, then to America.

Today's process takes six months to complete. In the US, Horween import salted horsehides from France - they are unprocessed and heavily salted to preserve them - then tan them in a solution of resins, tree bark (some from the chestnut tree) in a deep pit. They remain there for 30 days, then have the surface layer removed to expose the membraneous shell, then go into another pit of tanning solution for a further 30 days. Other processes including a 'resting' phase take an additional 4 months.

Horween, incidentally, were primarily strop-makers:



but as the market disappeared they had to use the product for other things.

Regards,
Neil