Horse Hide for clothing?

[OhCanada]

Have a local supplier for horse hide and knew one lady who bought one, it was very soft.

If I was to make a horse hide shirt how should I treat it? It's already tanned so I'm asking about oils, waterproofing, etc.

 

[Fire Ferret]

I am very new to working with pelts and skins and am unable to help you with your question, but i have a question....

I know that the uk is not able to import rabbit skins from america and canada... i would like to know if this coveres all skins?



Ferret

 

[ESpy]

Nope. Pearce-Tandy bring in a lot of hide from the US, for example; we also don't have many tanneries dealing with kangaroo skins... Bringing anything unusual in is a pain and then some - try getting hold of snakeskins, for example. Due to CITES, it is frequently more trouble than it is worth to prove that the stuff *isn't* on the list.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Harrods sell a line of pony skin jackets. I think the waterproof qualities would be the same as any other type of soft leather such as buckskin(ie very poor) As its already tanned there isnt really anything you could do too it. Flogging a dead horse if your hoping to make it waterproof.

 

[steve a]

A lot of high quality motorbike leathers are made with horsehide, pretty tough and offers a degree of waterproofing. Depends on selection of hides and treatment I suppose.

 

[running bare]

did i read somewhere that smoking buckskin waterproofs it??memory may be playing tricks on me

 

[running bare]

just had a quick check in "native american crafts and skills" by david montgomery and it states that smoking hides makes them waterproof and that it can be done over hours or days and that you smoke both sides of hide thats a natural method but dont know what modern chemical metod you could use you could always try contacting a tannery or tandy for info on waterproofing if you have no luck here mate

 

[Swampy Matt]

For waterproofing leather using modern methods, I've used a few different products.

Nikwax do a water based 'Aqueous Wax' for waterproofing walking boots. This works quite well but needs to be regularly reapplied. As its water-based it allows the leather to retain a degree of breathability.

There are also several wax or oil based products that are excellent - Zamberlan Hydrobloc is one of the best I've used. Again, although its supposed to be for proofing boots, I've used it on leather jackets/jeans/sheaths and it works great. It does reduce the breathability of the leather though (This will happen with all methods of waterproofing)

As for maintaining the leather (conditioning it and keeping it supple). Neatsfoot Oil is good, as is Nikwax's water-based conditioner for walking boots. I give my leather items a going over with one of these products once every 6 months for regularly used items or once a year for things that are used less often.
Give the item a clean with saddlesoap before conditioning and reproofing.

Using this cleaning/conditioning/proofing routine, I have a ten year old heavyweight leather jacket that aside from a few surface scars and scrapes looks as good (if not better) now than it did when it was bought for me. The leather is around 2.5mm thick and is more supple than one of my wool jackets