doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Leather type for leather covered pad

I am going to try covering a Silvers pad with leather and will be following the instructions from the Midway Utube video. The questions I have concern the type of leather I should use. I spoke to someone at the Tandy leather shop and she said pigskin is a thinner leather that may rip easier than cowhide. What do you guys typically use? Do you purchase it dyed and finished or just dyed?

Thanks.

I believe pigskin is the preferred leather, as it is flexible.

I have a leather messenger bag with a pigskin liner cemented and stitched on and it's held up really well.

Edit: woodcock hill uses pigskin, as shown here.

The thinnest pigskin is commonly used. Goatskin can also make a nice pad and is a bit easier to work. Most anything can be dyed.

Real Peccary would be the best, very tough, and very flexible, followed by goatskin, also tough and flexible. Regular pigskin is most common, a good compromise when cost and availability are factors.

I'm glad this subject came up. Has anyone here used deerskin for a leather covered pad?

leather worker friend gave me some thin Black Bear skin. It stretches really nicely but I have had mixed results dying it. Once a brown dye came out very nice, the next time using the same hide and dye it turned out orange and I had to dye it black to get a good result. I have been using thin calf skin lately and is is nice to work as well. The calf skin came black so no dye needed.
Steve

I use goat, I find that the hide works best if I soak it for 2 hours. It is easy to work after 2 hours but hard to move on less time.

bill

Then there is the question of buying it dyed or dying it myself. If I dye it, I need to use something to set the dye so it does not bleed and then I need to put a cover finish over that to give it a little gloss.

If it was me, I'd buy it dyed. Much less to worry about.

In my experience, dying leather can give mixed results, and a streaky pad is a bad look.

Hi Keith,

I have. I dyed it medium brown and it seemed to stretch and work OK. And it looked good initially. But it does not seem to stand up very well to use. I can apply a bit of snow seal and restore it to near it's original appearance, but that does not last for long.

I suspect that it may be that my deerskin was as it was tanned, and had no protective coating or finish, but I am not really sure.

I will not use it again.