I want to get enough good leather or goat skin for four grips. What weight should I get and is goat better than leather. Thanks, Don
Anything will work, but you probably don't want to go too thick or you'll have a tough time stretching it to conform nicely to a grip with any sort of dished or locator type profile. I'd stay on the thinner side just for ease of working with it.
FREE leather is my favorite! I will use whatever fits the particular bow Im working on. Thickness of leather can make a thin handled bow feel just right, and vice-versa.
I use only deer leather... unless I get fancy and use beavertail, snapper skin or something. Deer leather is very stretchy, strong, just the right thickness, and comes in a multitude of colors.
I use vegetable tanned leather in the 4-5oz range. This allows it to be thick enough for tooling but does not increase the size of the grip all that much.
Like Chris free or cheap works great. I did one bow with pigskin that was so thin it felt elastic. I wrapped the handle with cordage and stretched and stiched the skin over it. It made a cool pattern (from the braid of the cord) and feels real good in the hand. The Pig Skin and cord was recycled :)
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/coaster500/Floppyrestonmyselfbows001.jpg)
To answer your question; My vote would go with 1 to 2 oz leather. Stretchy, easy to work and lets you fold over the ends for a nice finished look
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bows%20for%20sale/gilsbowhandlebelly.jpg)
Tanned deer hide is the best.
Go to the thrift store an buy a coat or a leather skirt. Always works for me.
Geeze Cuban Missile, ya wearing skirts now? LOL
Pig skin makes me wonder if anyone has done a football leather grip. Textured already. I have an old ball in the garage that will be used for this at some point in the future. Now I just need to get a good bow finished.
Brian I think an old football would work great. It would probably form around a contoured handle very nice... post a picture when you do it :)