What Is Horse Leather Hide?
Horse
Today very little horse hide is used in tanneries, as times have progressed fewer horses are used for leather as the industrial revolution has meant cars and farm vehicles have replaced horses.
Horse leather or as another name it’s known by is Cordovan leather. It’s the rump part beneath the skin used for high end shoes making, it’s very common in the USA where manufacturers have protected the process very closely. Cordovan shoes are very costly and can run in to many hundreds of pound for a pair of these shoes.
Why is Shell Cordovan leather so expensive? What makes it so special? Shell Cordovan Leather is very durable and tough, and the pores are so dense you can’t see them to the naked eye as they use the hindquarters of the horse to make such fine quality shoes. Shell Cordovan is naturally very waterproof, but it’s not impervious. A typical characteristic of Shell Cordovan is it doesn’t crease, it ripples.
Shell Cordovan Horse Leather Hide Shoes
Shell Cordovan is a very expensive leather, due to the fact the hides can’t be split like cow hides can and the tanning process is a very complicated one, it can take up to 6 months to tan hides due to the vegetable tanning process involved. They wear very well and gain an amazing patina over the years. Supply is very unlikely to increase as only certain parts of the hide can be used in the leather industry and horse meat today is not what it used to be due to strict guidelines and regulations.
Cordovan Leather is a very smooth grained leather as you can imagine as horses have a silky smooth skin, cleaning them requires great care you cant clean them in the traditional methods as it can cause fibres to swell if they get wet, but restorers have developed a product to use on these to care for them called Leather Detailer Spray.
Traditional cleaning of these shoes Cordovan state should be done with a dry cloth and just dust them off. Most shell cordovan colours are black, burgundy and brown.
Shell Cordovan Leather is used to make bags, cases, wallets and others types of small luxury leather goods.
Shell Cordovan Horse Leather Hide Case