Leather Types
What Is Latigo Leather?
Latigo is cowhide tanned with chrome, then vegetable tannins, and loaded with oil and wax. How it is made, how it feels, and the saddle strap.
Latigo leather is cowhide that is combination tanned: first with chrome, then with vegetable tannins, and usually loaded with oils and waxes. The result is a strong leather that bends more easily than fully vegetable-tanned leather. Its name comes from the Western saddle strap it was made for.
This answer is part of our leather types guide.
Latigo meaning: a leather and a strap
"Latigo" comes from the Spanish word for a whip or cinch strap, and English has used it since the 1870s. On a Western saddle, the latigos are the straps that tie the cinches to the rigging. They took their name from the leather used to make them and are traditionally burgundy.
How latigo leather is made
Before modern combination tanning, latigo was tanned with alum and gambier. One maker still lists an alum-tanned latigo with a soft, waxy feel.
In this video, the International Leather Club explains that latigo began as an alum-tanned leather and is now chrome tanned and then vegetable tanned, and shows a close-up cut section of the hide. It says latigo does not take tooling or stamping well, while Horween says its latigo holds embossing, so this varies by tannery.
| Step | What happens | Fact |
|---|---|---|
| Base tan | Chrome tanning | – |
| Re-tan | Vegetable tanning, described as "heavy" by one tannery's distributor | – |
| Oil and wax | Hot-stuffing, wet-stuffing or fatliquoring | – |
| Color | Some makers drum-dye after tanning | – |
Is latigo vegetable-tanned?
Partly, and sources word it differently. Wikipedia and the tanneries' sellers describe a chrome tan followed by a vegetable re-tan. A boot maker calls latigo a vegetable-tanned, heavily oiled pull-up leather. If you need fully vegetable-tanned leather, for example for pyrography, ask the seller which process was used. See what vegetable-tanned leather is and is veg-tan real leather?.
What latigo feels like
The oil and wax plus the partial chrome tan make it moderately flexible: stiffer than fully chrome-tanned leather, softer than fully vegetable-tanned. Its weight and two-step process make it one of the pricier cattle hide leathers.
Horween's latigo comes in full-grain and corrected-grain versions, holds embossing and keeps molded shapes. It is sold in weights from 3-4 oz (1.2-1.6 mm) to 5-6 oz (2.0-2.4 mm). Because of the oils, some sellers class it as a pull-up leather.
Where to buy latigo
Latigo is not listed at Leather Collection, so this page has no store link. Leather suppliers sell it by weight, as in the Horween range above.
FAQ
What is a latigo on a Western saddle?
It is the leather strap that secures the cinch to the saddle's rigging; you pull it to tighten the cinch.
Is latigo leather full grain?
It can be. Horween makes it in both full-grain and corrected-grain versions. For what those grades mean, see what genuine leather means.
HitKB Editorial Team
HitKB articles are researched from published sources, cited in the text, and reviewed before publication.