Go on, touch it! When buying leather products to wear, you want them to feel good. Depending on the process used and the type of animal skin leather is made from leather can be heavy or light, soft and supple or textured and rough to the touch.
Give It a Grade
The following types of leather will help you decide which leather products are the best to buy. The more you know about leather grades, the easier your buying decision becomes.
Full Grain: Life leaves "nature's signatures" on an animal during its lifetime. With full grain leather there is no attempt to hide or conceal those natural markings. This type of leather is as close to the natural hide as you can get and is generally more expensive.
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Plated, Embossed, Buffed or Corrected: When life leaves too many natural markings on an animal, it is buffed or sanded in much the same way that wood is sanded. This process levels high spots of healed scratches, etc. and in the process removes some of the natural grain. A grain pattern is embossed into the surface to replace what was lost in the sanding process, leaving the leather less soft.
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Top Grain: The thickness of hides before tanning can vary quite a bit. To obtain a uniform thickness, the hides are fed through a splitting machine with the grain side up. After it is split, the top portion is called top grain leather. The underneath or flesh layer is then cut or split off, resulting in a grain called split leather.
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Split Leather: The bottom or cut off portion of the splitting process is called split leather. It is not as strong as top grain and is generally used in upholstering areas of furniture that have less direct contact, like the arms of a chair.
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Full or Pure Aniline: Only five percent of the hide supply is high enough quality to be pure aniline leather. Aniline dyeing is the process of soaking the skins in transparent aniline dyes, which color the skins without obscuring the natural markings or grain of the leather.
Hide and Seek:
A comparison of leathers
Leather products are made from the skins of many animals. The following comparison will tell you the unique benefits and features of each:
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Cowhide: Cowhide is the most common hide leather is made out of and is used for a variety of purposes. It can be somewhat stiff to the touch, but is available in many weights and cuts.
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Deer, Elk, Large Game: Large game hide is often sold as buckskin. It feels much softer than other kinds of animal leather. The main difference between large game animals and other animals is the weight and size of the hide. These often have bullet holes and may have more blemishes than domestic animals.
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Buckskin: True buckskin is an incredibly soft, water friendly, strong and stretchy deer hide that has been treated in a basic solution of wood ash and lime and is generally sold through a supplier. Buckskin typically sold in stores is treated by a more modern tanning method. It is still soft and supple, but it will lack many of the other qualities of true buckskin.
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Pig Skin: Pig skin hide is tougher than cowhide, so not quite as soft, and has about the same weight and strength of cowhide.
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Buffalo: The buffalo hide is heavy and soft. It is generally used to make shoes, rugs and heavily used items.
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Sheepskin: The tanned skin of a sheep with the fleece left on makes soft and durable products. Genuine sheepskin is a very popular style of leather used to make clothing, footwear, rugs, coats and more.
As you're looking at leather products, remember the process used to make an item and the type of animal the leather comes from can make a big difference in quality and price.
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