any good makers of bullhide leather jackets?

[sshmuck]

im looking for a very heavy leather jacket. from my understanding bullhide would be the best for this, however all the few bullhide jackets i see are very cheap and dont look to be high quality. i would also be ok with a very heavy steer cow or horse but bull is preferred. my budget is $1.3k but i could probably do 1.5

 

[Psant25]

Id go custom with Johnson leather. Consider buffalo and moose hide as well as you can get quite thick and still be wearable.

 

[Canuck Panda]

Bullhide from my understanding is non-castrated male cows, used for breeding. Few of these around than steers.

Steerhide is from steers, castrated cows, used for beef/meat production. And these would be the cleanest and tightest hides around. I would suggest just get a thicker steerhide over the bull hide.

Cowhide is from female cows, used primarily for milk production and making new cows. These would have a lot of stretch marks and scars due to old age. Making the steerhide the top choice for both meat and leather.

PETA please don't murder me...

 

[handymike]

Steerhide is the best in my book.

 

[Fifty150]

im looking for a very heavy leather jacket. from my understanding bullhide would be the best for this,

What are you actually looking for? A long, caped duster to protect you as you're driving cattle? A motorcycle jacket? Are you planning to wear the jacket in extreme weather, or perform manual labor?

 

[photo2u]

I have one so-called bull hide. A master jacket maker made a d pocket for me some 30 years ago. The jacket is very stiff and has not worn much. Personally in heavy jackets, the cxl steerhide is hard to beat.

 

[Arnold]

Bullhide from my understanding is non-castrated male cows, used for breeding. Few of these around than steers.

Steerhide is from steers, castrated cows, used for beef/meat production. And these would be the cleanest and tightest hides around. I would suggest just get a thicker steerhide over the bull hide.

Cowhide is from female cows, used primarily for milk production and making new cows. These would have a lot of stretch marks and scars due to old age. Making the steerhide the top choice for both meat and leather.

PETA please don't murder me...

That's theory, but I seem to recall threads (here or on the Schott forum?) where people said that steerhide and cowhide were usually just terms for different finishes.

 

[Arnold]

im looking for a very heavy leather jacket. from my understanding bullhide would be the best for this, however all the few bullhide jackets i see are very cheap and dont look to be high quality. i would also be ok with a very heavy steer cow or horse but bull is preferred. my budget is $1.3k but i could probably do 1.5

For what purpose do you want it to be very heavy, and are you aware that the thicker the leather, the less precision in terms of measurements and symmetry you'll get (on average)?

 

[handymike]

We had a member that became obsessed with having a very heavy jacket made. Eventually he sourced his own hide and 5 Star made him the jacket. Other makers declined the project.

Here is the result:
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...xl-natural-leathertogs-project.101448/page-24

 

[Monitor]

Bullhide is steerhide which is all, in leather terms, cowhide. Exact same thing, same leather. Buffalo is different but it's not thicker. Or heavier. But supposedly there's buffalo and water buffalo. Dunno.

Leather thickness is determined during processing (tanning) and steerhide can be made thinner than lambskin so what you need is a jacket made out of thick cowhide. Or horsehide.

Go with Johnson Leathers and ask for thickest stuff they got.

 

[Edward]

That's theory, but I seem to recall threads (here or on the Schott forum?) where people said that steerhide and cowhide were usually just terms for different finishes.

This did come up here some years ago. @Canuck Panda is correct on the "proper" terminology. Schott, however, do indeed use it the way you indicate - a "steer" 618 and a "cowhide" 118 are both made out of the same hide ultimately. Difference is the 618 "steer" has a finish applied to it, while the 118 "cowhide" is 'naked'. It pays to keep a close eye on this sort of detail if it matters to you, as every company will have its own set of terminology. Like the difference between cordovan shell as a specific cut of leather, and Horween's CXL FQHH / FQSH which are available in a colour they dub 'cordovan'. (It's not an unusual colour reference - I had a pair of Shuron spectacles in a similar hue they called "cordovo").

@sshmuck , if you look back at thirties jackets, the bullhide jackets I've seen were primarily of German origin, typically intended as very durable jackets that could take hard wear, and often used as motorcycle jackets in that time and place. You'll find all sorts of leather - cow, goat and lamb all in my experience - at all sorts of pricebands. The devil is, as ever, in the details: imo / ime, how the leather has been tanned and treated is as important as the inherent properties of the hide itself for durability and quality. If you're looking for a leather for PPE use on a motorcycle, I would favour heavier hides (armour will be the best thing for an actual impact in an off, but for the slide, a good hide is the thing) - or goat (light. but with a high level of abrasion resistance (which is beaten only by kangaroo, very rare and expensive) in the Northern hemisphere). If it's just pure preference for a hide with a bit of heft, the Horween CXL Steer will be a great option.

If you're having something made, do take advice on the right hide for the pattern: a 40sor 50s Indian Ranger or D pocket style will look great in a heavy hide, but it's not for every pattern. A 30s halfbelt pattern, for example, would not have originally typically ben the heaviest of hides, and they can look a bit.... off, somehow. in them. I have been shown an Aero Dustbowl with the backpleats in heavy steer - by Aero themselves, at the factory - as an example of this. They advised against that hide in that pattern because it was too much for the backpleats to really work as intended.

 

[jonbuilder]

In my experience, Bullhide is used as boot leather and has more texture than cowhide. I always assumed that boot makers and boot sellers use the term cowhide for tanned hides taken from steers. Bullhide stretches differently than cowhide. Buffalo hide has even more texture than Bullhide which is emphasized by dyeing. I had Paul Bond make me a pair of boots with Buffalo lowers

 

[AeroFan_07]

To the OP: Given what has been posed above, I sense you meant to say "Buffalo hide?"
I did own one such jacket and I can state that I did not care for the hide much. It was quite spongy, so while it was "thick" it honestly did not feel like armor. It was sold off shortly.

I do still have a US-Made Steerhide jacket this is along the lines of what you indicated. It cost about 10% of your stated budget pre-owned, but nearly new condition. The brand is actually US-Made from Middletown MA. My awareness is they are no longer in business, but if you watch ebay these do come up.

Here is a review of my jacket: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/us-made-cafe-racer-jacket-review.110115/

 

[Marc mndt]

Y'2 bullhide

 

[Marc mndt]

 

[AeroFan_07]

^^ Ok so that is what is meant! The OP was not descriptive not had photos.

That would not be my jacket. I'll leave it at that.

 

[Edward]

I love the look of that grain, but am I reading the measure right - nearly 9mm/ 6/16" thick? Wowsers. Can't imagine that would be an easy wearer....

 

[Marc mndt]

I love the look of that grain, but am I reading the measure right - nearly 9mm/ 6/16" thick? Wowsers. Can't imagine that would be an easy wearer....

I'm not sure what that measure reads, but one of Y'2's stockists says it's 3mm. They also elaborate on bull vs Cow.

(translated from Japanese)

"The material is "Bull Hide". Bullhide is the leather of male cows that are two years old and have not been castrated. To put it simply, it's that big bull running wild in the bullring. Most male cows, except for male cows, which are particularly excellent in the selection criteria for whether they can be used as sires, are turned into meat or leather by the age of three, but bulls (male cows that have not been castrated) are quite rare, so small that it is said that one in 10,000 cows on a ranch or one in 70,000 cows depends on the country, region, and ranch. It is the hardest and toughest of the cowhides, and because bulls have a rough temper, they have many scratches, and the grains are large and quite wild.

The leather is tanned and dyed with a tanner specializing in bullhide in Himeji. Normally, leather is hung to dry because it is like clothespins, but bullhide is too heavy to hang, so the old-fashioned method is to dry it with nails. This leather is usually 5 mm or more thick, so we added a process called "splitting" to make one piece of leather thinner as it is, and this time we finished it as 3 mm, which is just enough to be sewn as a leather jacket. However, in order to sew leather with such thickness and hardness, the sewing shop is carefully selected and manufactured by craftsmen who are good at eco-hoses.

The jacket design is a simple sports jacket. With lean and simple details that allow you to fully enjoy the expression of leather, it is designed so that you can stay with us for many years without going out of fashion. To be clear, it is a pretty tough leather jean. At the preview, there were many people who attracted the most attention and tried it on, but there was also a phenomenon that everyone laughed at the thickness and hardness. However, it seems that it is difficult to come across leather jeans with such hard specifications, so more orders were received than expected."

 

[Edward]

I'm not sure what that measure reads, but one of Y'2's stockists says it's 3mm. They also elaborate on bull vs Cow.

(translated from Japanese)

"The material is "Bull Hide". Bullhide is the leather of male cows that are two years old and have not been castrated. To put it simply, it's that big bull running wild in the bullring. Most male cows, except for male cows, which are particularly excellent in the selection criteria for whether they can be used as sires, are turned into meat or leather by the age of three, but bulls (male cows that have not been castrated) are quite rare, so small that it is said that one in 10,000 cows on a ranch or one in 70,000 cows depends on the country, region, and ranch. It is the hardest and toughest of the cowhides, and because bulls have a rough temper, they have many scratches, and the grains are large and quite wild.

The leather is tanned and dyed with a tanner specializing in bullhide in Himeji. Normally, leather is hung to dry because it is like clothespins, but bullhide is too heavy to hang, so the old-fashioned method is to dry it with nails. This leather is usually 5 mm or more thick, so we added a process called "splitting" to make one piece of leather thinner as it is, and this time we finished it as 3 mm, which is just enough to be sewn as a leather jacket. However, in order to sew leather with such thickness and hardness, the sewing shop is carefully selected and manufactured by craftsmen who are good at eco-hoses.

The jacket design is a simple sports jacket. With lean and simple details that allow you to fully enjoy the expression of leather, it is designed so that you can stay with us for many years without going out of fashion. To be clear, it is a pretty tough leather jean. At the preview, there were many people who attracted the most attention and tried it on, but there was also a phenomenon that everyone laughed at the thickness and hardness. However, it seems that it is difficult to come across leather jeans with such hard specifications, so more orders were received than expected."

3mm sounds a lot more manageable than nearly 9 - or even 5!

I wouldn't necessarily turn it down for a bike jacket in the right pattern - good for a slide - but I can't imagine it draping "right" for a prewar style halfbelt.

 

[Marc mndt]

bike jacket in the right pattern

Judging by those pics it's not a great pattern. Narrow chest and sleeves and the body is too long. And I highly doubt the wearer can reach the slash pockets.

Reminds me of those unwearable 2mm horsehide 5* jackets.