Is this Horsehide ?

[fabian89]

Hello folks

Wondering if you could help me out identifying this leather, Im been told its a supple 1.2 mm horsehide.

What do you think ?

http://i.imgur.com/WWHsZIE.jpg


Thank you

PS Loving the forum, didnt know there were so many leather jacket enthusiasts

 

[Peacoat]

There is really no way to tell. Most of the horsehide I have owned, and seen, has been more grainy than that, especially after breaking in. That leather is new, so it hasn't had time for the grain to pop. Although I do have some HH jackets with smooth grain such as that. My Eastman is very smooth, and my Aero Thunderbay is a smooth leather on the front and rear panels. Seems as though I have another with smooth grain HH.

Welcome to the Forum. PC

 

[Monitor]

Hello, Fabian. Welcome.

I've compared the photo you've posted to all the Aero horsehide samples I have and while, of course, there's no way to be sure, it does look extremely close to their russet and jerky horse... But yeah, hard to tell this way.

 

[fabian89]

Thanks a lot guys!

It is new PC, and quite grainy

Monitor, I googled jerky horse and found this http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?66535-Two-tone-Goodwear-Arcadia-Idea/page6 it compares a few versions of HH, it does look a bit like the russet on the bottom

Here's a zoom in of the texture just in case... http://i.imgur.com/GsOgBGA.png could it be another type of hide, could it be cowhide maybe ?

 

[andyfalzon]

If the vendor of that is reliable and they say it's horsehide you should not doubt. It looks like horsehide from here but not of the best quality.

 

[Big J]

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be horse.
I've got a couple of horse jackets that still aren't showing much grain after a couple of years of wear, but on the other hand, I've got horse jackets that became as grainy as ever after one winter.

 

[nick123]

From what I gather, steer looks almost veiny in places with a more pronounced grain. Who knows, perhaps cow can be processed to intentionally resemble horse. Wartime A-2s which everyone thought were horse turned out to be cow so maybe it's impossible to really know. If it looks and feels like it's been tanned to a standard of quality, I wouldn't worry. But I WOULD worry if the maker is lying, as that's an indicator that the maker doesn't take pride in their work and the jacket is most likely built with sub par quality.

 

[fabian89]

Thanks for the comments

As far as the maker goes, he has been up front with the types of leather, never lied. But who knows,or maybe its just not very good quality like andy says. I'll just buy it and see what happens, I'll post pictures in 10 days or so.

Thanks a lot fellas !

 

[Monitor]

fabian, even with the sample, it is extremely hard to tell the difference even for someone in the business! Steer tends to be more grainy but then again, Schott and LL cow/steer is as smooth as any vintaged horse I've seen. There was already some talk about it here and I remember someone jokingly saying that the only way to be sure would be to do a DNA test on the sample so, what other members said, best advice is to be sure with whom you're dealing with.