A beginner's lesson learned about leather

[Klara]

@Schick Use the leather for practice. I made the same mistake, bought some leather whose price was too good to be true. It was plastic-coated veg tan split leather, but not described as split on the web site. At first I was angry and disappointed (also with me, because I didn't realise what I had until I had started using it and the coating came off at an edge, so I couldn't send it back). But then I enjoyed the freedom that came with working with a cheap material where I don't need to be afraid of messing up. 

And since then I've realised that it is a perfect material for dog collars and all-weather utility bags, because it needs no taking care of. My dog has gone in the water with it almost daily for over a year, and the collar is still as good as new.

What I'm trying to say: You'll find a use for your purchase, even if it's not what you originally intended. 

[nstarleather]

22 hours ago, chiefjason said:

 

I talked to 2 of the CS folks with one tannery and one large distributor.  

The tannery lost most of their employees during Covid.  Or at least a serious percentage.  That's a lot of institutional memory and experience that is just gone.  That's when I also really started noticing the quality dropping.  And I've talked the the my rep about the change in temper in their leather.  I just got a side of a different leather from them but have not used it yet.  

The distributor flat out told me that one of the tanneries no longer sells them their top quality leather.  One of the biggest retailers in the country and one of the biggest tanneries won't sell them their top grade leather.  Crazy.  

That same tannery produced the leather I got from a different distributor that was so hard I could barely mold it.  And that was their tannery run grade which is all that company carries.  

It would probably be easier to just throw the names in there but there's a chance all 3 places are getting screwed in this process as well with employees losses and supply issues.  It's a mess.  

It's one of those "I know it sucks but we're doing the best we can!" situations. For a while during the pandemic our normal one week or less turn around time went to 3-5 weeks and we lost a "problem customer" because he insisted we get his order done one day earlier than I promised we could...and he got mad.  In the end it's been the biggest blessing ever...the peace of not having to deal with him was so much better than any money he spent (and he was a $70K a year customer).

 

[Handstitched]

16 hours ago, Klara said:

Use the leather for practice. I made the same mistake, bought some leather whose price was too good to be true.

I normally get my leather from a regular supplier 2-3 hrs away  in Perth , ( Western Australia) but I keep seeing  vt leather sides on ebay from a tannery in the east of Oz  a lot cheaper than what I was paying.But had a gut feeling , like a ' too good to be true' feeling.   So, my curiosity got the better of me. I bought some .

It was crap !!!!!!!! Uneven thickness, wasn't tanned properly ,  the colour wasn't like  the normal vt pinky, flesh colour, it was more like a light olive    wouldn't tool properly , like tooling rubber,  as for dying...well,  I've never seen leather 'drink' so much dye . It was like dying a sponge . 

I didn't waste it, I used for odd jobs occasionally ,  but with a lot of oil,  but  once its gone, its gone ..never again! 

Lesson learnt. Go with your gut feeling 

HS

[HENDREFORGAN]

Truth is the way that the leather industry, whatever country it's in, describes and markets it's products can cause real confusion?  Let's just take one very important industry phrase . . is it "Hide Split" or "Split Hide"?  Both different leather hides!  You might also think that an industry brought up on a natural resource couldn't handle modern needs or materials?  Not the case, leather merchants have been adept at turning their natural product into the "latest craze" for centuries.  When as a Napoleonic Re-enactor our small group were in 1989 the first to recreate the 1791 French Infantry Casque it was our research that gave us the conditions to seemingly include two leather hides no longer available to us, leopard skin and bear skin.  Technically the turban around the helmet was leopard hide and the chenille, or caterpillar, across the top bear hide with the hair left on.  However such was the cost of making this new design that the early French Republic permitted that to be used on Officer's headdress and for other ranks the turban to be bleached veg tanned cowhide the hair left on and imprinted with dye the unique spot pattern of the leopard, the chenille was to be goat skin, dyed if necessary, and stuffed with straw.  So we simply recreated that specification.

On a visit to the amazing Walsall Leather Museum (*) years ago we were studying a display of fake hides, some impounded upon import, and were amazed at how much effort was put into creating fakes compared to processing the real thing and the range shown yet the Curator joked "This is only some of our examples and I'm sure we have some "Faux Dinosaur Hide" around somewhere".  This effort is made profitable by the genuine item not being available or at a huge cost, not unlike the French Casque I mention above, and from these early entrepreneurs we today have a huge "faux leather" market.

In the case of the OP's hide surely the listing in the catalogue or sales information MUST have mentioned PU (Polyurethane)?  That the sticky label mentions this would seem to indicate they were not hiding this "faux leather" in any way.  By the way, an earlier respondent thought the rear face had to be real as it looked like "fuzzy suede"?  In fact if you look closer you will see another valuable indicator as to what form of leather the construction is?  Ignoring the loose "tufts" you can just determine a uniform grid and that is most likely caused by a pressure roller use during the bonding process.  That earlier respondent is definitely correct in one aspect, a completely uniform gridded surface is highly likely to be indicating a form of cloth.

Finding and collating your own reference library of information on leather is time consuming but, when you see say on YouTube a leather merchant uploading some thing useful, then "screen video-grab" that and store your copy in a safe place, you'll be surprised what is out there.

With regard to choosing a hide to purchase you should find that any merchant worth his business will cut off a sample and sent it to you?  If you think it's a faux hide, and some are so real as to be easily ignored, then do two tests.  First use a magnifying glass and look at the side (thickness) of the hide . . does it have two or three defined layers?  Some leather sold as "genuine hide" can be a composite of face/middle/inside with the outer two fine slivers of good hide but the inner carcass a bonded mish-mash of sweepings from the floor!  This leather should be marketed as "manufactured leather".  This form of "genuine faux" hide has no substance and cannot be sewn either, the stitching can "unzip".  The other test is to work the sample between your hands repeatedly bending it . . does the face layer now have corrugations lifted up?  That's very likely indicating the fake top surface becoming unstuck, again it can neither be tooled and too strong a setting with machine stitching can "unzip" stitches.

Risking being shouted down can I include in my response that, yet again, I see a "fictitious hide" being referenced?  That is . . . suede.  There is no such hide or leather known as "suede" only a process known as sueding which can be applied to a range of animal hides.  The term can also be applied to a napped surface on cloth, for instance moleskin garments that are actually 100% cotton.  Now you know, do yourself a favour and call the hide by its type as well?

(*) Sadly only a part of what we walked around is now on public display but, for genuine enquiries, I believe the Museum staff will permit access to the record section  Web-site here : https://go.walsall.gov.uk/museums-libraries-and-galleries/walsall-leather-museum

Edited February 7, 2023 by HENDREFORGAN
correcting typos