Leather Types?

[Cole]

what kinda leather is soft and smooth on the underside and smooth and soft on the flesh side?

[DoubleC]

Raven do you mean both sides look like the grain side, that kinda smooth? Or do you mean something like deer or elk that's soft on both sides? Because I don't know other than those type of skins that are really soft on both sides and I don 't know of any kind of leather that's got a grain look on both sides. ACK I think my answer was more confusing than your question, LOL. Cheryl

[TwinOaks]

Any of them 'could' be, it just depends on the hide, the way it was tanned, and the way it was split. The two sides of a piece of leather are typically called the grain side and the flesh side. The grain side is the 'outside' of the hide. It should be smooth. The flesh side can have multiple textures - If it's a lesser grade, it can be stringy. It can also be slightly rough because it's been pasted down (called plating), slicked at the tannery, or sueded. Sueding is a brushing of the flesh side that raises a very light nap....well, like you'd find on suede.

Suede is typically made from 'splits', which are left over from splitting full thickness hides into lighter weights.

One of the types of leather that is particularly soft is Deer Tanned leather. If you go by Hobby Lobby, that is what they sell in the leather dept. as 'garment' leather.

Deer tanned leather is typically cow hide that's been tanned to give it properties similar to deer hide. It's not suitable for carving/tooling.

Can you post a pic of it or tell us where it came from ?

Wanna discuss it in Chat instead of here?

[Cole]

maybe these will help.

[DoubleC]

Thank looks like regular veg tanned to me Raven with a lot of 'nap' on the back. Cheryl

[Cole]

well this leather is very light in color and smooth as babys skin.

[TwinOaks]

I agree, it looks like vegtan. When it's soft like that, I consider it a good find.

[NVLeatherWorx]

Sounds like it is milled veg-tan from the feel description. Tends be a recent trend towards using this type of leather. Guess that is due to class instructors not covering how to condition traditional veg-tan so that you get that soft feel and texture. I have heard from students that the focus in on coloring and traditional finishing but when I was taught years ago, traditional finishing consisted primarily of the oil tanned/conditioning methods, not the water-based acrylic approach of today.

Guess us older guys just don't keep up with modern technology.

Richard