Basics About Leather
Leather is made from animal skins that are specially treated and preserved. Animals such as cows, deer, sheep, ostrich, pigs and snakes are most popularly used to make leather. Each leather has a formal name.
For example, leather from a young cow is called calfskin, leather from a young goat is kidskin and leather from a young sheep is lambskin. Shearling is leather from a sheep that still has the wool attached.
Before these skins can be used to make items such as shoes, gloves, handbags, belts, jackets and furniture, they go through a tanning process to make them leather. During this tanning process, the animal skins are cleaned and preserved so they are soft, waterproof and attractive.
Several different tanning processes are available and a combination of them may be used to make leather that is supple and strong. Vegetable tanning uses tannin. Tannin comes from the wood, leaves, vegetable matter and bark of plants such as chestnut, hemlock, oak and mangrove. Animal hides are treated with tannin and stretched over frames for several weeks to create a flexible material often used for furniture and luggage. Leather that has undergone the vegetable tanning process can be oiled to make it more resistant to water.
Mineral tanning uses mineral salts to process hides and produces the lightest leather. This type of tanning employs agents such as chromium salt and aluminum. Hides soak in a saline bath or acid bath for a couple of day to create a more pliable, soft material than vegetable tanning. Mineral tanning also allows a spectrum of colors to be introduced to the leather. Leather that has undergone the mineral tanning process is ideal for handbags, gloves, jackets and garments.
An old-fashioned method of preserving animal skin is oil tanning, which uses fatty oils to replace moisture in dried skins. This process, combined with synthetic tanning agents such as hydrocarbons, creates porous chamois leather.
After any tanning process, skins are dried, reconditioned, stretched and finished to create usable leather. For example, patent leather is glazed and baked to shiny finish and often used to make shoes. Suede is brushed leather, which is used for boots, jackets and other garments. Buckskin is a suede-like material made from a special tanning process to make luxurious wallets and accessories. Slink, a soft material made of skins from unborn calves, is desirable for making gloves.
People have enjoyed using leather for many centuries and the finest gloves, jackets, shoes and furniture are still made from leather today.
The Dutch do it again; they respect leather.
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