I wonder which part of the kangaroo's anatomy they source the thinnest leather from?
If Curt is smart, and I think he is, he'll work his supplier to ensure that all the leather in his roo pads is cut from the back section. If you imagine any leather as being a sandwich of all the layers of skin, the leather at the flank and neck is like a loosely made sandwich. The leather on the back is like a tightly pressed sandwich. Flank leather is weak and stretchy. Back leather is firm and that's what's used by those who work with roo. The flank is used as filler etc.
The only downside with the back of a roo is that it gets scarred from ducking under barbed wire fences. (You're all wondering why they don't just jump over the fences? If you grew up anywhere on or near a farm you'll know why. When I was young and had no sense, I got my balls caught on a barbed wire fence....etc)
Anyhow, the back leather is then put through a splitter and split down to the required thickness. The beauty of roo, is that Wombat leather aside, it is stronger than any other I've ever seen or heard of for a given thickness. This means you can split it down to far, far thinner than a roo sax pad and it still won't tear or stretch. Provided you take the appropriate steps, you can split roo down to thinner than a sheet of paper and it's still strong because of the fine grain. This is what they used to do on those old leather topped desks you see in some old homes.
The whole thing about roo being porous really gives me the ****s. It is an urban myth started by one repairer who knows sweet bugger all about leather and even less about roo. Reinforced by his followers, it has now become accepted as fact when it is utter BS.
Guys, when tanned and prepared properly, roo is less porus than your kid leather pads. Roo is a fur animal with very fine follicles. Goats have much coarser hair than roo fur and they are grouped differently as well.
They whole argument is stupid anyway because all leather is porous. that's why it breathes.
