Images of steer hide A2

[blackrat2]

Seeing as the Eastman book has confirmed the use of steer hide,do any members have any repro A2's from any maker they could post.
How do they feel the steer has aged compared to horse,I will leave out goat as it appears a more unique leather.
Be interesting to here views on steer..I have owned mine for such a short period of time all I can say is it was softer out the box.

 

[Jeff M]

Currently in our Classifieds;

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=14456

 

[Andreart]

WAY softer and supple, has a completely different character, looser not as rigid, stretches a bit also, my horse jackets wont budge at all. The hide i have is thinner than bike jackets, a-2 thickness +- 3oz.

 

[Marv]

Some older photos of my ELC Pearl Harbor A2 in steerhide, not great but here you go..........

 

[blackrat2]

Thanks Paul...that looks pretty nice to my eye

 

[Roughwear]

Hi John, here are some images of a couple of steer hide A2s which show how this leather varies.

 

[blackrat2]

Thanks Andrew I am looking at bottom pic and assume that could be an Aero

 

[Robman]

With all due respect to Andrew, I'm not sure that we can be certain cowhide was used for an entire contract, and prior to Mr. Eastman's book I'm sure you thought it was horsehide.

I'm not being a smartass but what makes you sure the grain shots of your A2s are cowhide?

 

[Roughwear]

I agree, without DNA testing one can't be sure. However we know steer hide was used on both these contracts and these may well be steer or horsehide of course!

 

[blackrat2]

True indeed...the fact is possible also that jackets tested could have been horse but doesn't mean the whole contract was...certainly on my two repro's the difference appears to me that the steer has more wrinkles n scars as opposed to horse which is grainy..but they could be different to tanning methods used back in the day and the fact horse hide now is less oily than the hides that have been used on atleast some originals I have seen on this site and in books
Maybe food and conditions have improved for horses used now...hope that makes sense

 

[FlyingYankee]

It would be interesting to know what tanning methods and chemicals were used 70 years ago as opposed to what is used now. My Grandfather worked for Howe leather tannery in Frank West Virginia. Many of the workers died from cancer, accidents, chemical burns and disease. The entire valley smelled bad and the river was polluted. Question I have is are the hides better today or were they better during WWII?

 

[Roughwear]

I don't see how this can be objectively answered as the hides varied then as they do now. I have seen fantastic grainy WW2 hides and poor ones and the same goes for the leather produced today.

 

[FlyingYankee]

Not exactly an A2. Here is a photo of the tannery in 1972.

 

[blackrat2]

As I mentioned I wonder if the way animals were raised made any difference to the leather

 

[Anonymous]

Yes it did

 

[blackrat2]

Hi Platoon are you able to expand on the differences

 

[stevetfire]

Hi John, here's some pics of my early gw aero( cliffs old one) in cowhide or mesa steerhide as I believe it was called( or battle cattle ) ..its quite a bit softer than my horse jackets , but also has some great patina and scarring...IMO looks quite like an original..
[img]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz43/stevetfire/GW Aero/A2snstuff029.jpg[/img]
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[img]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz43/stevetfire/GW Aero/A2snstuff036.jpg[/img]

 

[Ian C]

With all due respect to Andrew, I'm not sure that we can be certain cowhide was used for an entire contract, and prior to Mr. Eastman's book I'm sure you thought it was horsehide.

I'm not being a smartass but what makes you sure the grain shots of your A2s are cowhide?

I think Tescos, amongst others, would be ecstatic if their range was found to only contain cattle rather than horse derived products at the moment?

 

[blackrat2]

Lol them a Findus to name but some
That certainly looks really nice Steve...mine is starting to loose the shine of the newly applied seal

 

[Rutger]

It would be interesting to know what tanning methods and chemicals were used 70 years ago as opposed to what is used now. My Grandfather worked for Howe leather tannery in Frank West Virginia. Many of the workers died from cancer, accidents, chemical burns and disease. The entire valley smelled bad and the river was polluted. Question I have is are the hides better today or were they better during WWII?

I think Dr H should be able to tell a few things about that, he's into chemicals. Come on, Dr H.

In Holland, we had tanneries in certain regions and as late as in the early twenties human urine was collected for tanning leather.
They too switched to industrial chemicals and polluted rivers for a couple of decades. I think whenever chrome was involved pollution wasn't far away, along with the acids.

From what I've seen so far cow looks very good and does make for equally good looks yet slightly easier-to-wear than horse A2.