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Hayward

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Kudu is an African antelope, and it's leather lends itself to casual or hard use and is usually oil finished. Workwear leather.
 

sinnedk

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so is it on the reverse side? or is it on the regular side and oiled? for example:
700

i assume thats on the regular side and oiled?
 

DWFII

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In my opinion kudu isn't significantly tougher than any other leather. It's an antelope and not like hippo or elephant. What I have seen had an almost Scotch grain surface--probably embossed. So the boots shown above might be kudu, might not be kudu, or might be fleshside out.

But turning a leather fleshside out and stuffing it with oil does not make it any tougher than it inherently is. Perhaps less susceptible to visual / cosmetic damage but not tougher.
 

DWFII

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Also of note, Horween evidently produces a heavily oiled leather that is manufactured using their Chromexcel recipe, which is also called Kudu.  Alden makes some of their Indy boots from this.  I just mention it to prevent confusion.


That's a good point. Lots of leather gets "named" and the name may not have any relationship at all to the reality.

For instance, Bullhide is seldom bull hide; Mule is almost never mule. Many examples of that in the Industry.
 
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RogerP

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Agreed. I'm sure many who are less informed think they are buying actual Kudu. I have to give props to the SA who sold me the pair though - he knew the story and was entirely candid about the process.
 

TimH

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Names are far too often misused in this trade unfortunately and although I have used some ethically sourced exotics over the years, I now stick predominately to Bridle leather and Saddle hide.

Here again I find the terms and names used incorrectly in a regular and misleading way. There are many companies selling 'Bridle Hide' and 'Bridle leather' goods made of leather that would no more resemble true bridle leather than I do. My opinion (for what it is worth ) is that the name should be clearly derived from either the original purpose of the leather or be named after it's former owner.

Keep this great Leather discussion going folks.
 

DWFII

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Names are far too often misused in this trade unfortunately and although I have used some ethically sourced exotics over the years, I now stick predominately to Bridle leather and Saddle hide.

Here again I find the terms and names used incorrectly in a regular and misleading way. There are many companies selling 'Bridle Hide' and 'Bridle leather' goods made of leather that would no more resemble true bridle leather than I do. My opinion (for what it is worth ) is that the name should be clearly derived from either the original purpose of the leather or be named after it's former owner.

Keep this great Leather discussion going folks.


Cuts all the way across the board. Not enough youngsters getting into the Trade but those that do have a hard time understanding how important it is to respect and preserve the lexicon. For the longest time I called the toe stiffener a "toe box" and the heel stiffener a "counter. My only excuse is that that's the way I was taught. The correct term, of course, is toe stiffener and while that may not mean anything to folks who really don't care, it makes for way better communication between shoemakers, if nothing else, and avoids a lot of misunderstanding. It also preserves the Traditions of the Trade.

Part of this, I think, is that students seldom have any proper teachers. So they are caught between what little they can learn from legitimate sources and what passes for understanding in the general population. A lot of casual, incorrect, and even misleading terms enter the discussion. "Handwelted Goodyear" is a really good example; or thinking that GY describes a general approach and that all welted shoes can be described as GY...which is simply not true.

It is a watering down and and a leveling to the lowest common denominator.

And yes, it is terribly misleading...even dishonest in some cases. But it's all part of the 'two M's"--marketing and manufacturing.
 
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chogall

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I would love to get into shoemaking as a hobby with the permission and support of my boss.

This forum is fortunately enough to have had Shoefan making some incredible shoes for himself as an amateur.
 

DWFII

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Well, you CAN get footwear made from real Kudu:

http://www.chichesterinc.com/KuduLeather.htm

http://www.gordonfootwear.co.za/ind...age.tpl&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=11

So it would appear that Horween thought that Kudu would be a catchy name for a softer version of their oiled leather, despite it not coming from an antelope?


Yes,

I've made boots out of kudu...real once. I wasn't all that impressed. When a company give a name like that to a leather that isn't really kudu or mule or whatever, the main reason is to create the false impression that it shares some or a lot the characteristics of the real thing...even if it's just the visual image of the brawny ild African antelope.

Isn't that a form of deception? Kind of along the same lines as Faux leather.
 

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