Alternatives to Veg Tanned Leather?

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Hi! I have always used Veg Tanned Leather for my leather sheaths... are there any other leather types that are nice to work with and won't promote rust?

Bridle leather? Harness Leather? latigo?

I know to stay away from Chrome Tanned.

 

[DevinT]

Horsewright

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Horsewright

Thanks, love your work!

 

[Horsewright]

Bridle leather and harness leather are veg tanned and then finished differently with waxes and tallows while being drum dyed. Latigo is first chrome tanned and then veg tanned. All three are designed for horses. Bridle leather is used in making bridles as it says and other finished tack items. Its a very premium leather with a finished surface. Harness leather is literally for work horses. In saddlery its used for reins and "work" type bridles and breast collars etc. Things that could be touching a hot sweaty horse. Latigo is used to hold the saddle onto the horse. A latigo must be heavy and stout and extremely flexible. It too is usually infused with a lot of waxes and tallows to help resist horse sweat.

If a guy wanted to make sheaths out of these ya certainly could. None of them will mold very well. Bridle leather tools a lil but harness or latigo does not. Latigo is not very color fast. There is a kind that is drier called California Belt Latigo but meh for sheaths. Really all they would bring would be color to a sheath and that can be achieved through dyeing which I dislike or veg tanned in drum dyed colors. Drum dyed veg tan, done by both major USA tanneries of veg tan (Herman Oak and Wicket and Craig) is dyed at the tannery and is much more color fast and the color is struck through the leather not just on the surface, like home dyed leathers. I believe too after many years of doing this, and selling thousands and thousands of sheaths, holsters and tack items, used and abused by cowboys in some of the harshest conditions on the planet that home dyeing leather about halves the useful life span of an item. I don't dye leather. In fact a friend, a retired judge once brought me a bottle of Single Malt to bribe me to dye a sheath for him black. Not a trade, he paid for the sheath too, pure bribe, it worked. He wanted a sheath to wear when he was dressing up.

Of the three mentioned I'd really only consider the bridle leather. Its pricey though and like I said really only brings color to the table and that finished surface. I have never tried it on sheaths though because I wet mold the vast majority of sheaths. I've made a lot of belts from it and it works well there. That finish can easily be scratched though.

Harness leather would be too greasy for lack of a better term and latigo is not colorfast and can also be greasy, kinda meant to be.

Three examples of drum dyed veg tan:

Russet Wicket and Craig:

Black Herman Oak:

Chestnut Wicket and Craig:

Chestnut on top and russet on the bottom:

Hope this helps.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Bridle leather and harness leather are veg tanned and then finished differently with waxes and tallows while being drum dyed. Latigo is first chrome tanned and then veg tanned. All three are designed for horses. Bridle leather is used in making bridles as it says and other finished tack items. Its a very premium leather with a finished surface. Harness leather is literally for work horses. In saddlery its used for reins and "work" type bridles and breast collars etc. Things that could be touching a hot sweaty horse. Latigo is used to hold the saddle onto the horse. A latigo must be heavy and stout and extremely flexible. It too is usually infused with a lot of waxes and tallows to help resist horse sweat.

If a guy wanted to make sheaths out of these ya certainly could. None of them will mold very well. Bridle leather tools a lil but harness or latigo does not. Latigo is not very color fast. There is a kind that is drier called California Belt Latigo but meh for sheaths. Really all they would bring would be color to a sheath and that can be achieved through dyeing which I dislike or veg tanned in drum dyed colors. Drum dyed veg tan, done by both major USA tanneries of veg tan (Herman Oak and Wicket and Craig) is dyed at the tannery and is much more color fast and the color is struck through the leather not just on the surface, like home dyed leathers. I believe too after many years of doing this, and selling thousands and thousands of sheaths, holsters and tack items, used and abused by cowboys in some of the harshest conditions on the planet that home dyeing leather about halves the useful life span of an item. I don't dye leather. In fact a friend, a retired judge once brought me a bottle of Single Malt to bribe me to dye a sheath for him black. Not a trade, he paid for the sheath too, pure bribe, it worked. He wanted a sheath to wear when he was dressing up.

Of the three mentioned I'd really only consider the bridle leather. Its pricey though and like I said really only brings color to the table and that finished surface. I have never tried it on sheaths though because I wet mold the vast majority of sheaths. I've made a lot of belts from it and it works well there. That finish can easily be scratched though.

Harness leather would be too greasy for lack of a better term and latigo is not colorfast and can also be greasy, kinda meant to be.

Three examples of drum dyed veg tan:

Russet Wicket and Craig:

Black Herman Oak:

Chestnut Wicket and Craig:

Chestnut on top and russet on the bottom:

Hope this helps.

Thanks, you really explained that well and it helps me a ton! Awesome looking work.

 

[Horsewright]

Ya bet! Anytime! Thanks for the kind words!

 

[J. Hoffman]

I use W&C English Bridle. I don't stamp or tool my sheath, so that doesn't matter to me. The leather is very nicely finished, and pre-Dyed. W&C usually has a great price on their low grade English Bridle. The low grade has marks or brands, but those are things we can easily work around when making sheaths.

 

[Horsewright]

I use W&C English Bridle. I don't stamp or tool my sheath, so that doesn't matter to me. The leather is very nicely finished, and pre-Dyed. W&C usually has a great price on their low grade English Bridle. The low grade has marks or brands, but those are things we can easily work around when making sheaths.

Are you on their sale list (email). They do indeed have great sales sometimes.

 

[C_Claycomb]

It sounds like the driver behind Daniel’s question is trouble with rusting on carbon steel in leather sheaths. Horsewright , have you found any treatments applied to veg tanned leather that help with this?
Chris

 

[Horsewright]

No. That being said I'm kinda a believer in leather being leather. There are shoe greases and boot treatments that can help make leather water resistant but many of these tend to make the leather into soulless plastic. Not a fan.

Chrome tan gets a lot of blame here but much of that is internet hype. I've found veg tans that can help lead to corrosion in a short time and I've found chrome tans that don't. I think the secret here is buy quality leather. My personal theory is that some cheaper leathers don't get rinsed completely of their tanning soloutions and thats what can cause the problems. I mean leather is gonna get wet:

Dry it slowly and condition it and its ok. Moisture doesn't hurt leather, drying with out reconditioning it hurts leather. Big fan of cream type conditioners BTW. Oakwood and Skidmore's are two good ones. Ya know the old saying "Go west young man, go west." There's a certain limitation to that concept:

Anyhoo. This cheap veg tan sure brought up the verdigris in this brass:

This quality chrome tan lining in this holster didn't affect this Ruger Vaquero at all.

This Vaquero, my own, lived in this holster for ten years. It was my emergency gun for the ranch. Strap it on and we're ready for whatever the deal might be. If it wasn't on my belt, it was loaded in the holster in the safe ready to go. It has miles and miles and miles of horseback riding on it in all weathers.

Both mine and my wife's EDCs are 26C3 high carbon. They live in their leather sheaths. I wear mine constantly the wife not as much but often. Anytime she's horseback and thats most days. Me if I got my pants on I have my knife on. Its just not been an issue for us or my customer's. If it were, I'd of heard about it. Not saying this to brag but so ya understand the depth of experience when I say my customers, but I'm north of 25,000 sheaths. Literally customer's all over the world in every climate imaginable.

Still, I don't recommend storage in leather just to be safe. But wearing and using the knife rock and roll. My own personal EDC the other evening. This one is pushing three years old I guess and the only time its not in its sheath is when I'm using it.

Now something I do do is when I bring a batch of knives in from the colder shop to the warmer house, I let them equalize temperatures. I might be over thinking it but its what I do. Put em next to their sheath on a towel for a couple of hours.

Hope this helps.