How Is Shell Cordovan Made? Horween Leather Company Explains

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If you're looking for the absolute highest quality material you can make a shoe from, the answer is just about always the same: shell cordovan. With at least six months of production time to create a material that can only be made from the quarters of a horse, the combination of scarcity, labor, time, and expertise all comes together to make shell cordovan. It's a leather — or a membrane, as some insist it should more rightfully be called — that is self shining, wrinkleproof, and incredibly durable. I went to the world's best makers of the stuff, Chicago's Horween Leather Company, to learn all the steps.

00:00 How is Cordovan made?
00:30 Hide inspection and trimming
01:20 Hair removal
01:37 Lime / pickle process
02:40 Vegetable tanning
03:50 Stuffing
05:05 Hand currying/smearing
06:04 Shell shaving
06:22 Inspection & trim
06:39 Finishing
07:25 Rolling the cordovan
08:02 Glazing
09:00 Final plating
09:25 Final grade/Quality control

#cordovan #leather #leathercraft