Chap, Chink & Vest Leathers

Amongst the garment, and “oil tanned” leathers, we’re most interested in “Chap Leather”, which is cowhide (also could be deer, elk, or sheep), veg-tanned for a variety of uses.

For chaps, or vests, we want our leather to be firm, but not stiff, so it “drapes” well over the leg, but still must hold its shape. It can be of many colors, and very light wt. (2.5 to 3.5 oz) for “shot-gun” show-style chaps, or medium to heavy (4 to 7 oz) for bat-wing, chinks, or rodeo styles. 

Do we want a soft natural feel and look, or bright and shiny?  They’re all available.

“FULL GRAIN” is what the above leathers are generally called .  This means they’re smooth on the hair side, and suede-like on the flesh side; chaps can be made either side out. We don’t want “embossed” leather, this is an artificial finish, quite beautiful, but not very durable. 

"SPLIT or SUEDED COWHIDE" is another good chap leather. The hair side has been split off, and tanned for another purpose, so we are left with the “split” part.  These make very good chaps and vests, being durable, soft, and flexible.  Also quite a bit lower priced than “Full Grain” Colors run from sand to chocolate, rust, gold, forest green, and even turquoise.

“OIL TANNED” - There’s no such thing as tanning leather with oil.  Oil Tan is just either chrome or veg tan that has been “oiled-off”–oil worked into the leather to make it have that waxy, oily feel.  It’s great stuff for heavy brush chaps, saddle strings, saddle bags  and other uses where great flexibility and abrasion-resistance is required.

There’s not room enough to get into judging the quality and durability of used tack, but please remember this:  if leather is so old and dry that it cracks when bent, nothing is going to restore it . . . it’s too far gone!  If a rein, tie-latigo or your saddle rigging is like that . . . it’s not safe! 

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