Genuine Leather Also known as suede is probably the least understood term by consumers. Most genuine leather is actually the remnants of a hide after it has had its Full Grain or Top Grain layer cut off to sell to higher-end makers. The remnant is a slightly stretchy piece of cheap leather called Genuine Leather. This is a fairly typical type of leather used in mass-produced goods.
In wallets, they will usually line the leather with a fabric to help it last longer and prevent the thing from basically disintegrating after the first month! Bonded leather is basically the scraps of the scraps of leather…ground up into a fine mess and pressed into thin sheets using bonding agents or glue. Obviously this is a poor choice for a leather wallet and this type of leather also needs to be sewn to a material backing to keep it from disintegrating…which it always does.
A lot of people associate thin leather with poor quality. Bonded leather is usually the reason for this misconception. Since bonded leather is thin and it usually falls apart…people associate thin with cheap. Full Grain leather can actually be cut thin and still maintain its durability, something most consumers are unaware of.
Plus vinyls tend to degrade with sun exposure and will dry up over time and crack. Most people have experienced this in one way or another with anything made from vinyl. From my own research the natural part is only partially true. Typically a natural base is used, ground up, then pressed into thin sheets with resins or glue.
Remember Bonded Leather? Yep — similar idea and not likely to be any more resistant to wear. The second attribute of leather is the tanning style used to preserve cowhide and make the hide into a usable product for companies. There are actually a large variety of types of tanning methods, but I will focus on a few of the most important and relevant: Vegetable Tanned, Chrome Tanned, Brain Tanned.
Vegetable tanning is a process of soaking the hides in different types of tree bark for weeks or even months at a time. Many retailers classify leather by grades. This can cause some confusion with customers who are encouraged to think that the more expensive, or higher-grade leathers, are of a better quality. This is not necessarily the case as different types of leather can have their own merits.
Tanneries only produce one quality of tanned upholstery leather. Leather is a great choice for both modern and traditional sofas, especially classic designs like the Chesterfield. Claridge 3 Seater Sofa displayed in Rustic Charcoal. A cattle hide arrives at the tannery having been salted to preserve it. Then, it is soaked in chemicals which dissolve the hair follicles and cause it to swell to approximately 8mm in thickness. The hide then undergoes a tanning process utilising chromium-based chemicals.
This technique is now the modern preferred method, replacing the traditional vegetable tanning process which uses plant extracts and urine. Once tanned and dried, the hide is graded by size and degree of scarring and blemish.
There are a few different types of leather that are used for sofas and chairs. Pigmented leather is the most durable with a consistent surface appearance, while aniline leather is more natural looking, but less resistant to soiling. The third type, semi-aniline leather, is somewhere between on both counts.
Below are more detailed descriptions of each type and their properties. Pigmented leather is the most durable type and is used in the majority of furniture upholstery. The durability is provided by a polymer surface coating, which contains pigments.
With modern technology, the coating can be finished to be embossed, printed, or plain. The surface coating allows a greater resistance to soiling, scuffing, and fading. Aniline leather is the most natural-looking leather, with the unique surface characteristics of the animal hide remaining visible. Pure aniline leather is coloured only with dye, and not with any surface coating of polymer and pigment. A light non-pigment surface coating may be applied to enhance its appearance and offer some protection against spillages and soiling.
Leather quality can also be affected by the meatpacking, tanning, and finishing processes utilized during production. The leather hide is the skin removed from an animal.
Since it is a natural substance, it has unique characteristics and qualities that help it serve a purpose for the animal it was a part of. It usually forms a protective barrier. This keeps the internal parts of the animal safe. It also, along with hair or fur, guards from external elements such as sun, water, abrasions, and other things in daily life. Here is a cross-section image showing the layers of a leather hide. The grain is the outermost surface of the leather hide. It is comprised of tight, dense fibers.
The grain is the layer that was exposed to the elements air, rain, sun, etc. The grain and corium junction is where the tight, outer layer of the leather blends into the looser fibers of the corium. This junction is a mix of the very desirable grain layer, and the more fibrous and looser fibers of the corium layer.
The corium is a layer within animal hides that is comprised mainly of collagen fibers. These are looser and more open than in the grain layer. Though, this layer is highly usable for producing leather.
The corium is usually the thickest layer within an animal hide. Thus, after splitting a hide, parts of the corium might be present in either top grain or genuine leather products. The flesh is the layer of the hide that consists mainly of muscle and fatty tissues. It is not very valuable for end leather uses. As such, leather is usually split to remove the layers above it, yielding useable material of different grades and qualities for the production of leather goods.
Though these variations do impact the performance and overall quality of a leather piece. For an even deeper look into grain leather, click here for an article I wrote on that. Generally, only the hair is removed on full grain leathers. The grain generally has densely packed fibers that are finer; this results in a surface that is very strong, durable, and can withstand tough use.
Because it undergoes no sanding, the surface can have minor imperfections. These might be from where a cow rubbed up against a fence, a small cut they might have received, or scrapes from everyday life.
Full grain hides without many blemishes are the most prized, as they are least common and are the most visually appealing. Those surface fibers are also what give it the most strength of any leather type.
This makes it good for saddlery, footwear, and furniture. The outer layer also provides some water-resistance qualities as well. Full Grain is looked upon as the highest quality leather available. This makes the leather softer and more pliable, with various dyes and finished applied to it.
While this sanding makes it more visually appealing, it also removes a lot of the strength and some water-repellent qualities of full grain leather. This we begin to see a tradeoff between leather strength, and leather look and softness. Given its softness and flexibility, top grain leather is often used in high end leather goods, including handbags, wallets, and shoes.
The process alters some of the preferred qualities of leather, so while not a top quality, it is often used for belts and similar goods. Split grain leather is a layered cut of leather from within the lower levels of the top grain area of the hide. It is usually a lower layer of the hide, above the flesh. Also, below the full grain and the best top grain cuts. Though, it still provides a useful leather material.
The natural surface of split grain leather is not as dense, tight, and useful as full grain and top grain. Thus, it is often used in finishes of leathers that are colored, embossed, and the surface altered in some significant way. This allows it to offer some of the helpful qualities of a leather material, while having a visually pleasing and often-functional surface beneficial for leather products. Bonded leather is like the scrapple or hot dogs of leather; it is made up of leather scraps that are finely shredded and bonded together using polyurethane or latex onto a fiber mesh or sheet.
For a deeper look, click here for my article about bonded leather. When raw hides are produced by meatpackers, they immediately grade them. This grade is used to determine the quality of the raw hide, and enables accurate sales to tanneries.
The tanneries will ultimately tan the hides, processing the raw material into a finished leather. When grading raw hides, the inspectors will look for issues including holes, deep cuts, scars, large abrasions, discolorations, machine damage from the skinning machines , remaining hair, and grain inconsistencies. It is important to keep in mind, too, that many large ranch operations brand their cattle to denote ownership.
Branding involves permanently burning a unique pattern usually letters or initials into the skin of the animal.
A metal brand in the form of the pattern is heated, then pressed into the animal to leave the pattern permanently burned into the hide. While common, the brand impact to the hide quality is also accounted for in the grading process. Number one hides are top grade hides. They generally have no major surface imperfections, holes, or cuts. A number two hide is allowed to have up to four holes or cuts, as long as they are located in a generally straight line on the hide.
This would allow them to be cut around later, still yielding a sizable area of usable hide. Grain defects should also be no larger than approximately 1 ft. Number three hides generally have five or more holes or large cuts within the hide, ideally within a generally straight line. There might also be grain defects, or a series of closely-located smaller holes that comprise a surface area larger than 1 ft.
Generally, number three grade hides are only purchased by tanners when they have specifically agreed to purchase this grade of hide. Hides that do not meet the quality standards of grades number one, two, or three are deemed untannable. They are not shipped to tanners, and enter another viable channel for use of the raw animal hide materials, outside of the leather industry. A finished leather hide has a fairly large amount of leather to choose from when deciding where to cut from the use pieces on a project.
Finished leather can usually be purchased based on cut type. This can include the full hide, or specific areas within it. Based on the type of project you are working on and the performance characteristics you want in the finished piece, it can be helpful to know what the different available cuts are.
A whole leather hide encompasses the entire skinned and tanned hide from an animal. Since it includes the areas from all of the other related cuts, the leather available will range from softer areas with various stretch characteristics, to thicker, stiffer areas of the hide. The range of leather thickness and weight will vary across the entire hide. The side cut of a leather hide is a half of an entire hide, cut lengthwise along the middle.
The shoulder cut of a leather hide comes from the shoulder area of the animals. This area generally has a firm, yet malleable and flexible feel to it. Shoulder cuts work well for tooling. The double shoulder cut of a leather hide comes from the shoulder area of the animals.
It is essentially the entire shoulder area from the hide. The bend cut of a leather hide is from the area ranging from the spine towards the belly, towards the middle of the hide. This is some of the best leather available in a hide, the prime sections generally towards the hind side before the butt. It is best used for across a number of leather product applications.
The double bend cut of a leather hide is from the area ranging from the spine towards the belly, towards the middle of the hide. The butt cut of a leather hide is from the hind leg portion of the hide, running around the butt and up towards the spine. This is the thickest and firmest area of the hide.
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