Where to buy Cordovan Leather

[Will P.C.]

Does anyone know where to buy this?

I spent some time searching and could not find any sources for it.

It seems that US companies don't sell it for legal reasons.

I would really love to make a strop from Cordovan hoping to save some money instead of buying a strop from EasternSmooth

 

[ambrose]

Im not sure but let me know when you find out

 

[southernmail]

Evidently there is only one tannery providing cordovan: it is Horween Leather in Chicago. Their website is www.horween.com, but they seem to be an industrial supplier to shoemakers and the like. Still, you might enquire there.

 

[Kees]

IIRC there's also a tannery in France, Pays Basque. Can't find the link ATM.

 

[Seraphim]

Evidently there is only one tannery providing cordovan: it is Horween Leather in Chicago. Their website is www.horween.com, but they seem to be an industrial supplier to shoemakers and the like. Still, you might enquire there.

Yeah, maybe they have some what they consider to be "scraps" laying about...long thin strips of supple cordovan too long and narrow (2.5" x 28") to be of any use to their usual customers.......





Ambrose, if you find some, and make some, shoot me a PM!

 

[treydampier]

You can find it at Seigal of California here. https://www.siegelofca.com/view_cat_product.asp?id=78

I do not know the actual length, but good cordovan is hard to find and is fairly expensive. Its probably cheaper just to buy a Katayama strop instead.

 

[Seraphim]

You can find it at Seigal of California here. https://www.siegelofca.com/view_cat_product.asp?id=78

I do not know the actual length, but good cordovan is hard to find and is fairly expensive. Its probably cheaper just to buy a Katayama strop instead.

Well, if that's what a guy has to do...

 

[wuff]

Interesting... I just spoke with one of their reps and she told me that you could get 4 strips 2x24 out of one hide. She based this from a #2 she had in her hand that was light redish burgandy colour $107.19 free shipping to US.

They also offer a money back guarantee and the shipping is free to return the product if it doesent meet your satasfaction or requirments.

 

[forum9]

You can buy a Cordovan strop from Classic Shaving. It’s called an OLD DOG 905 and it is expensive.

Cordovan leather is horse leather that is well oiled in some special way. So a cordovan horse leather strop will be a very fine surface but with a decent draw. Most modern horse leather strops are fine but with a very light draw.

So cordovan leather should make the perfect strop. It’s a shame the leather is so expensive.

 

[ambrose]

Interesting... I just spoke with one of their reps and she told me that you could get 4 strips 2x24 out of one hide. She based this from a #2 she had in her hand that was light redish burgandy colour $107.19 free shipping to US.

They also offer a money back guarantee and the shipping is free to return the product if it doesent meet your satasfaction or requirments.

You made me itch for one, Ive wanted one for the longest time. PM sent with possible proposal. TEASER HERE

 

[Clem]

Being that there are many retailers (I'm a leather worker by the way) selling a product called "cordovan" or products described as such, I wanted to drop some info for everyone. Many times retailers use that reddish color known as cordovan as a description. Take shoes for example. You can buy shoes described as "cordovan" that have a deep reddish hue, likely they are good shoes. However, the shoes are likely made of cowhide, not actual cordovan. For those who may not know, traditional cordovan is made from the horse's butt cheeks. That means two small sections per horse and no more. This is why it's so expensive. It is a fine bit of leather and is completely different from any other part of the horse. It also has an extremely supple nature and high tensile strength. So no matter the color, not all horsehide is cordovan and not all things described as cordovan are made from the horses backside. Just something to think about when looking for strops.

 

[ambrose]

Being that there are many retailers (I'm a leather worker by the way) selling a product called "cordovan" or products described as such, I wanted to drop some info for everyone. Many times retailers use that reddish color known as cordovan as a description. Take shoes for example. You can buy shoes described as "cordovan" that have a deep reddish hue, likely they are good shoes. However, the shoes are likely made of cowhide, not actual cordovan. For those who may not know, traditional cordovan is made from the horse's butt cheeks. That means two small sections per horse and no more. This is why it's so expensive. It is a fine bit of leather and is completely different from any other part of the horse. It also has an extremely supple nature and high tensile strength. So no matter the color, not all horsehide is cordovan and not all things described as cordovan are made from the horses backside. Just something to think about when looking for strops.

well said

 

[ouch]

I don't know about cordovan leather, but if you need any corinthian leather, I have a rusted out Chrysler Cordoba on my front lawn. Feel free to swing by and help yourself.

 

[ambrose]

 

[wuff]

You made me itch for one, Ive wanted one for the longest time. PM sent with possible proposal. TEASER HERE

They are fantastic!!!!

 

[Seraphim]

I don't know about cordovan leather, but if you need any corinthian leather, I have a rusted out Chrysler Cordoba on my front lawn. Feel free to swing by and help yourself.

Riccardo Montelban was a cleanshaven dude!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIL3fbGbU2o[/YOUTUBE]

 

[heirkb]

I don't think that the cheapest way to get a cordovan strop is through Kanayama. I was talking with Keith from HandAmerican and he told me that the place where he buys his leather for the Chicago Special told him that they ship leather to Japanese strop makers. I'm assuming they meant Kanayama, because there are no other Japanese strop makers that I know of. I could definitely be wrong, but the descriptions of the strops also sound similar

 

[Will P.C.]

This is an email I got today

Thanks for the e-mail. Cordovan is very hard to get these days, but we have a shipment heading our way sometime within the next few weeks. I have to say that we've never received a piece of cordovan that was big enough to yield a strip 24 inches long - true shell cordovan is usually only about 18-20 inches in its longest dimension. We sell our shells, when in stock, for $140 each -this is just about the most expensive leather on planet Earth, thanks to the 7 months required to tan it properly. Many of our customers choose not to invest quite so much loot in a piece of leather, so they use our horse hip strips, called North of Cordovan, which we sell on this page:

http://www.brettunsvillage.com/leather/sides.htm

Check our site again in a week or two, please, if you'd like true shell cordovan. Thanks-

Churchill Barton, Mgr
Brettuns Village, Inc.
PO Box 772
Auburn, ME 04212
(207)782-7863
(207)782-7448 fax
http://www.BrettunsVillage.Com

 

[Tony Miller]

True Cordovan tanned horse, the ovals, are small and expensive. Most are too small to make a strop. You can have other parts of the horse, the butts, cut from directly above the ovals tanned the same way and will yield longer pieces but it not exactly the same stuff.

Seigel's leather is not Cordovan, it is simply horse butts. Brettuns has it as well. Yield is the luck of the draw. On my last two shipments of horsehide I have returned 50% of it as unusable because of surface texture. Of the remaining leather 10% was only good for small pieces for paddles or handles and caps, the rest would yield anywhere from 2 to 4 strips per hide. I have had lucky shipments where it all is great, others were very little is usable. the 50% is the recent average.

Nice stuff though when it works out and it is satisfying to make your own stuff.

Tony

 

[treydampier]

This is not to be argumentative at all, but its really good information to know.
After calling Siegal, they actually claim to have horse butts and true cordovan according to one of their reps. Now, maybe the rep is not correct, but I have ordered their horse butts and gotten about a 40% yield. Most was unusable. Based on the price of what they are calling Cordovan and the fact that you can make about 6-7 good strops on a $75 order of horse butts, I would assume that she is correct.
I like the discussion and want to check into this further because if what I am considering buying is not true cordovan, I would be wasting a hundred dollars more or less.
Again, I am not wanting to argue, but rather make sure because that cordovan stuff is really expensive.