Defining Leather
You, a novice “I need some leather please.”
Brilliant and unfazed shop keep: “Great, what kind It frequently happens that the first time someone goes to buy leather, they are shocked at the multitude of options available. This is particularly problematic because a ton of people purchase leather online or through the mail. You can have a really good idea of what you want, but you might struggle to find a piece that meets your expectations.
There are several broad categories you can work through to define a piece of leather, and each will drastically affect the end product.
Animal:
Consider the animal the piece of leather comes from.
Different hides will feel drastically different from one another. For instance, pig leather is always very thin, sheep leather has an almost spongy feel, and stingray leather is covered in hard bead-like calcifications. Fish leather is thin, textured, with poor tensile strength. While other factors we will talk about can mean that there are a huge variety a hide can become, there are certain aspects of the hide that can’t fundamentally be changed. Different tools or techniques might be used, or you might have a piece that just won’t work! Researching the possibilities of a hide is important before you start on a project, especially if you.
**Tanning Process Used:**
Secondly, you have to consider the tanning process used on a hide. “Tanning” is a process where an animal hide is treated with chemicals and taken through a physical process. The end product is leather.
There are a variety of types of tanning that are used, and each results in a massively different resulting hide. For instance, chrome-tanned leather is tanned using chromium sulfate, resulting in supple leathers that often come in a variety of colors and are great for clothing. Vegetable-tanned leather is tanned using tree bark and is known for being able to accept tooling, embossing, and dyeing. It’s used for things like belts and horse tack. Brain tanning is a more labor-intensive method of tanning where the brain of the animal is used, resulting in very supple leather.
There are other types of tanning used as well for specialty leathers, leather created in small scales, and using varieties of oils and waxes.
The only product that is under the umbrella of “leather” which hasn’t gone through some form of tanning is rawhide. Rawhide is just animal hide cleaned and dried. (Think of the rock-hard dog chews that you find in a pet store, not a leather jacket!)
The same hide tanned in different ways could make a hard leather shoe sole or a soft drawstring bag. The tanning process is what decides the “hand” of the leather. Hand, in this case, means how drapey and supple the leather is. Research what you are looking for ahead of time.
**Weight:**
When you are buying leather, it will always have its weight listed. “Weight” in this instance refers to the thickness of the leather. It is expressed in ounces. Each ounce of thickness is equivalent to 1/64″ of an inch. The “heavier” the weight, the thicker the leather. So an 8 oz piece of leather is 1/8″ thick.
I know, confusing right? Almost all beginners get confused over this one, and it’s okay if you have to rethink terms in this new context. There’s no need to get out a scale for this one; it is strictly an expression of thickness in the world of leatherworking.
But when buying leather, you need to take the weight into account. A 2 oz hide would make a floppy weak belt, and a 12 oz hide would make a stiff and unwearable skirt.
To get to the desired weight, most leathers are split down from the original hide. This makes it more uniform in thickness, but there always will be some variety.
**Part of the Hide You Are Using:**
This is where things get a bit more nuanced. Not all skin on an animal is the same, but sometimes this is more drastic than other times.
For instance, when you have a cowhide, the belly area will have more stretch, the neck more wrinkles, and the butt will be more firm and dense. Once you learn this, you can use these differences to make sure that you work with the hide to get the best end product. But to an untrained eye, these variances are really subtle.
If you have an ostrich skin instead, the body is thin, firm, and covered in bumps. But ostrich leg leather looks like it’s from a fantasy dragon, overlapping scales and plates. You’d never think it was from the same animal!
Some leather is sold by the part of the leather used, like snake and crocodile who have vastly different backs and bellies (and the different price tags to match).
**Color, Finish, and All the Extras:**
This is the most fun part and probably what you think of first when working on a project! What color do you want your leather to be? If you are using vegetable-tanned leather, it will usually come in a flesh-colored undyed state. It’s up to you to add the colors of your choosing and for this, the sky is the limit! I’ve made several posts about how to color your leather, to spark your creativity.
Most other leathers will have the color, texture, and finish decided during the tanning process, long before you buy it. A type of hide may have only blacks and browns for choices or lengthy lists of different shades from bright to pastels. Most leather suppliers will be happy to provide you with swatch books of options or hand-cut swatches so that you can better pick your color.
Leather also comes in lots of fun choices. I love using metallic finishes, which have a subtle reflective sheen that can come in different colors. Embossed leathers are rolled over a die to create intricate patterned textures, like fake crocodile, flowers, or geometric patterns. Pebble grain leathers are treated so that they have a rustic sort of shrunken texture to them that is forgiving to flaws in the hide.
In the last few years, printed leathers have really taken the industry by storm. These specialty leathers have patterns directly printed onto the surface of the leather, with thousands of patterns available. I’ve loved the leathers I’ve gotten with floral motifs, bright geometric designs, and jaw-dropping repeating fun graphic patterns.
If you are working with something like suede, the grain was removed prior to tanning. This means both sides of the leather are velvety soft, flexible, and matte. Patent leather, on the other hand, has the grain heavily treated so it ends up so shiny it is reflective and quite stiff. Distressed leathers look like they have a broken-in, vintage look to them with lots of variations in color.
From here, there are thousands of other options and varieties you can choose from to create your dream project. Pay close attention to the terms used in listings online, and you’ll be sure to pick out the perfect hide.
- <3 Mellie