TYPES OF LEATHER & SELECT YOUR LEATHER

While buying a leather product, the first thing at need to be understand is the quality of leather. There are different types of leather available from full grain to fiber leather depending on

• The type of animal
• Location and climate
• The part from whether the leather is cut
• The layers of the skin used (top grain, full grain, split)
• The procedure used for tanning

Classification on the bases of Animal used

1. Leather from Cow hide: It is the most common and popular used leather. It is soft, smooth at the same time quite slim skin. It has a very light weight and mostly used in expensive accessories

2. Leather from and Buffalo hide : It is most commonly known for its vintage texture and durable quality The Hide is quiet thick and heavy in weight which provides the original feel of leather. It is used to make Jackets and Leather bags.

3. Leather from Deer Skin: It is the toughest kind of leathers. It is very durable and light weighted. It can be used to make gloves and other expensive garments.

4. Leather from Goat: It is another very popular and expensive leather. They are very supple and used for making bags mostly.

5. Leather from Reptiles: It has a very distinguishing patterns of the scaled skin. These are the most exclusive leather and very expensive. The skin is taken from many endangered species as well like Crocodiles, snakes, turtles and lizards.

Classification on the bases of Surface looks

1. Full Grain leather: It is the top and best quality of leather. These are the most durable, valuable and strongest of all. These are made from the upper layer of the hide which is spilt into many layers of various thickness. It has natural scars and hair cell pattern in the outer surface.

2. Embossed Grain: These are made from by correcting the hide which has scars and scratches. After getting the require thickness, the natural grain is buffed and replace with corrected grains and finished. The final effect looks flawless with zero natural scares but also the natural feels of the skin and durability gets reduced.These are mainly used in handbags and footwear with unique prints and also called Corrected Grain.

3. Split Suede:They are also known as Genuine leather. These are the byproduct of hide tanning which comes with various thickness. These are less expensive and used in products where full grain is not needed. Tool pooches, moccasins, garments, Low cost furniture are few of the products made of it. These products usually have synthetic finished with artificial looks.

4. Nubuck Suede Grain: They are very sensitive leather. The full grain layer of the skin is given a suede effect by lightly sanding the natural grain to open the hair cell. The correcting imperfections makes it very soft and sensitive. It needs a lot of care in handling and keeping it clean. These are used in fabric that makes soft coverings for sofa, chair and other furniture.

5. Fiber Leather: The remains of the garment and shoe factories are collected and recycled for the fiber particles and then bonded with adhesive into synthetic grain. These materials look smooth full grain leather when finished. It has a 51% comprised leather fiber in it and often used for soft fabric.