Cordovan is not a protected name as it got its name after Cordoba, Spain and it is an old name. We usually refer to Cordovan as to show that we talk about the shells, a small part with the special structure that comes out of the back part of a horsehide. Horween Cordovan is pure vegetable tanned and produced – like early last century – in the pit.
Some companies use the word cordovan for the whole horsehide, which is not correct. The other parts of the horse hide are very different in structure from the shell and simply cannot be compared. For Archery you need shell Cordovan.
Why this matters on a tab is the structure. Shell cordovan has no hair follicles and no layers sliding over each other, and its fibres stand almost vertically. Bend it and it rolls into a wave instead of creasing, so the face the string runs over stays smooth instead of wearing a groove.
It also repairs itself to a point. A scuff rubs out: the friction warms the oils deeper in the leather and brings them back up. A few firm passes with something smooth and hard, and it is gone.
The Horween shell cordovan described here goes into the split finger tab, the three under tab and the two under tab. The same shell comes in Ogawa and Tuscany tannage too, listed next to the Horween ones under split finger, three under and two under.
