i've been searching the forum and found many references to steerhide but no single discussion of it's authenticity for Wartime issue A-2s.
I've seen this at Acme Depot Click
I find such statements that do not give specific researchable references difficult to accept at face value.
I'm not suggesting steerhide was never used, but also can't find any reference that it was.
Having seen steerhide jackets, and having seen and felt a steerhide Eastman A-2 Pearl Harbour (a very nice jacket), I find it difficult to believe that it is 'impossible' to tell steerhide from horse.
There would seem to be obvious differences from feel, grain, even smell.
Does anyone have any true evidence that steerhide was used for issued jackets, or acceptable by specification as an alternate to Horse as Goat was?
I've seen this at Acme Depot Click
While the official specification called for horsehide, and while most jackets probably were so made, there was a notable fraction of A-2's made of goatskin and perhaps other hides such as steer. Consultation with a number of independent leather scientists (not tanners or sales people) resulted in learning that once the hides have been processed it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between horse and steer; it can't be done visually, and a positive ID might well require expensive DNA testing. The differences in the grain of goatskin, by comparison, are relatively easy to discern from the other hides.
I find such statements that do not give specific researchable references difficult to accept at face value.
I'm not suggesting steerhide was never used, but also can't find any reference that it was.
Having seen steerhide jackets, and having seen and felt a steerhide Eastman A-2 Pearl Harbour (a very nice jacket), I find it difficult to believe that it is 'impossible' to tell steerhide from horse.
There would seem to be obvious differences from feel, grain, even smell.
Does anyone have any true evidence that steerhide was used for issued jackets, or acceptable by specification as an alternate to Horse as Goat was?