Horsehide belt project.............my impressions.

rayban

rayban

Joined
Apr 14, 2007
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I made myself a horsehide belt...mainly to see what all the fuss was about.
There are some (many, actually) who say horsehide is the only way to go for leather gear. I'm not here to argue that, just wanted to see for myself what working with it was like.
I've made a few sheaths out of horsehide in the past, and it went OK.....but I wasn't ready to abandon cows over it.
I will say, as far as belts go, an equal thickness of horsehide, say 1/4", is noticeably stiffer than cow....I could almost stand this belt up on end against a corner of the room....it most definitely will never cave or fold over under normal gear carrying usage...but I can confidently say the same for my steer hide belts.

So just how stiff does a gun belt have to be??? ....not my worry I guess...I can now provide which ever flavor one wants...but I'm still a "COW-boy"

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Rick, horse hide and particularly horse butt leather comes "hard rolled" and "soft rolled". The soft rolled is more like good veg. tan with regard to stiffness. The hard rolled is about like shoe bend leather (shoe soles) with regard to stiffness. You may have gotten hold of some hard rolled. It also considerably more difficult to cut.

I gained all this valuable horse hide knowledge the hard way.:rolleyes:

Paul
 
Rick, as Paul stated, horsehide butts are either soft or hard rolled and it is almost impossible to carve the hard rolled material. The soft rolled leather cases nicely, carves beautifully and would be my first choice if it were available in sides or backs. Cowhide is plentiful because we eat beef in prodigious quantities and horse meat, although delicious, is not a staple of our culture. Horse hides are purchased by large industry for clothing, for artificial limbs, and various other purposes such as shell cordovon and have a virtual lock on the available supply. Horsehide has a much tighter grain than cowhide and the flesh side of the hide is almost as attractive as the hair side or face full grain. ----------Sandy
 
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