I want to provide some basic info on leather and handcrafted leathergoods to help you
make informed choices when buying products made with leather. First, by the term
leather, I generally mean the skin of either cows or pigs. Leather can also be made
from a wide range of other critters including lizards, deer and sheep as well as “exotic”
leathers from crocodile, alligator, ostrich, elephant, kangaroo, stingray. Leather made
from cow and pig skins is considered sustainable because it is a by-product of the food
industry. Cows and pigs are not grown for their skin; they are grown for meat and the
skins are a by-product. Most of the leather that I use is from cows.
You may be familiar with the term “genuine leather.” It’s a safe assumption that any
product marked “genuine leather” is indeed made from the skin of some animal, likely
cow, as opposed to products made with other materials, e.g. “vegan leather” “faux
leather” etc. These materials often refer to vinyl or sometimes other materials such as
cork. “Genuine leather” however covers a lot of territory. It may be what you and I think
of as leather, or it may be closer to the leather equivalent of particleboard or plywood.
When leather is cut, there are shavings of leather, similar to the sawdust that results
when wood is cut. Those shavings can be glued back together and applied to a backing
material. This is then called “bonded leather” as the glue bonds the leather. “Bonded
leather” is often used for furniture. Have you ever had a “genuine leather” sofa or chair
that began to flake after minimal use? That would likely be “bonded leather.” Other
terms are “top grain” and “full grain” leather. To understand this, it’s helpful to realize
how thick a cow’s skin is. Larger animals tend to have tougher and thicker skin. Many
leather products do not need to be as thick as a cow’s skin is, so the leather is cut or
sliced. The top part is called “top grain” and is what is used for tooling, stamping and for
a wide variety of finished products ranging from jewelry to furniture. What happens to
the bottom part of the leather, you might ask? That’s referred to as a “split” or “flesh
side” and often becomes suede.
Another concept helpful to understand when choosing leather products is that leather
must be “tanned.” Leather has been used by humans for things like clothing, wineskins,
shelter (native American teepees) and doubtless other purposes for centuries. Leather
was traditionally tanned with what we now call “vegetable-tanning.” It was a simple but
time intensive process. In 1858, the newer chrome-tanning process began to replace
the old vegetable tanning process.
Today, both chrome-tanned leather and vegetable-tanned leather have their place and
purpose in leatherwork. Vegetable-tanned leather allows for more customization as it
can be stamped, tooled, laser engraved and dyed or painted. Chrome-tanned leather
generally does not have those options although some chrome-tanned leather can be
stamped. Chrome-tanned leather, however, comes in a wide variety of colors, textures
and can be embossed. Embossing puts a texture on the leather, so chrome-tanned cow
skin can be embossed and dyed to resemble crocodile or alligator skin, for example.
One caution about chrome-tanned leather is that once I’ve found and used a particular
chrome-tanned leather, there is no guarantee that I’ll ever find it again. If you found an
item that you really like in a chrome-tanned leather, order it now!