Stingray Leather

I've bought them from this vendor via eBay before. It's a good transaction, fast turnaround.

BUT...

I've found them for as low as $15.00 on eBay. Keep your eyes peeled!
 
I have bought from this guy. DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME!

The quality of the hides suck! They are actually smaller than listed. They are not processed and cleaned properly. The texture is totally off. It is just a flat out bad buy. I would not waste even $10 on these hides.

I have attached a close up photo of one of the hides I got from him. You will see what I mean.
 
This is an image of a top grade hide that can be gotten for the same price. Notice how the texture is much deeper. The hide from the photo above is so clogged with junk that the pigment overflows the grain.
 
Now here is a photo of the two hides side by side. Notice the color. They are both blue hides but the Ebay hide is so muddy and washed out that it is just junk.
 
R.W., where do you buy your stingray?

As an aside, I got some raw untanned ones from a Japanese sword dealer, same, and wonder if anyone has any suggestions on working the stuff.

He said soak it in water to make it pliable, but how would one cut it, are there any parts of the hide not useful, other ideas?

Thanks for any info, I have an order to wrap a handle with this stuff but never have worked it.

By the way, what's a good source for the wrapping tape other than Lohman? I don't need silk, cotton or polyester will do.

Dave
 
R.W.Clark,
I thought I was doing everyone a favor, I'm glad we have someone like youself that has already bought some and is willing to share your bad experience, so others don't get taken. Thanks
 
Roy, Unfortunatly there is just no way to tell until you buy. I got about seven hides to see what he had. Even the bleached hides were pretty nasty. He had a photo of a nice sparkling white hide on the auction. What arrived was a sickly yellow and so thick that it could not even be formed while wet. Live and learn I guess.

I now buy from a guy a little up the coast from me. He makes custom clothing out of rare and bizarre hides. He has even made a tux completely out of gator:eek: for a rock stars wedding. He buys in huge amounts of hides. He has to in order to get the custom colors he needs. So to recoupe so of the cost he sales off his overstock. Burgundy and black hides are about $30ea and the harder to find colors can go up to about $50 (he even has some camo rayskin:barf: ).

I am heading up there in the morning to pick up a couple dozen ray skins and a gator hide.

To form bleached stingray raw hide you need to soak it for about an hour. If it is good stuff it will become really solf and plyable. You can even wet form a sheath out of the stuff. Once it drys it goes back to its rock hard state. You need to cut it on a bandsaw or scroll saw. It will destroy all but the tuffest shears. You can try a razor knife but you will go through alot of blades.

I always buy my tsuka-ito from Lohman. He does carry cotton ito. It only comes in black and is $1.50 per foot. It is still costly but not the $3 per foot that silk is.
 
R.W. thanks for the help that's just what I needed to know. Rene, thanks for starting a valuable thread!

Dave
 
I'm afraid I have to concur. I started off in Nihonto restoration, so I got to deal with a lot of Same-gawa. When this guy first came on the scene, I thought he was a god-send. Unfortunately, it really is too good to be true. The bleached skins are dank, dirty, poorly thinned, and poorly cleaned, with very small nodes. A sad fact for Nihonto, but they should work fine for your basic, work-a-day knife...
 
Made the trip yesterday and my bank account is a whole lot lighter:eek:. This is just a small sampling of what I can get from this guy. Going clockwise starting at the top left corner we have small tooth shark (black and burgundy), multi spine stingray, Nile Crocodile, three colors of stingray, and some African Bullfrog. Pretty cool stuff, but after the croc I will never again complain about the cost of talonite!
 
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