How Do You Get That "leather" Texture On Tooling Leather?

[Blakebcg]

Here are two examples of what I'm talking about. I'm assuming both of these items are made with just tooling leather. Notice how both of them have that leathery texture to them? How do they get that effect? All the tooling leather I have is perfectly smooth..

http://usa.hermes.com/leather/accessories/charms/configurable-product-064935ca-34500.html?color_slg=BROWN&matter_leather=VEAU%20BARENIA

[shtoink]

The act of flexing and bending the leather brings about a bit of change to the texture of the surface. There are a few types of leather, such as patent, that have a surface coating designed to be flat and smooth on purpose. Some will have a pebbling effect or be very soft, but it depends on the type of leather, too. It may start out very smooth looking, but as you work with it, the texture can/will change. It probably isn't something you need to stress over.

[Beaverslayer]

Another thing regarding the look of the leather in the picture and the link...they are most likely "Proprietary" leather supplied "Only" to Hermes, just like Louis Vuitton and other Haute Couture lines.

[footrat]

I work my belts from end to end, front and back, after dye, but before finish. It wrinkles the leather on the grain side, and makes a much more interesting and rugged looking piece.

The size and character of the wrinkles depends entirely upon the leather. I use saddle skirting for a lot of my work, and I've found that the thickness of the leather has little to do with the wrinkles. Because it's the grain that's wrinkling, it'll do it no matter how much flesh is behind it. I've also found that in the same piece of leather, you'll have different wrinkling properties along a strap. Just a property of leather- a hide is different at different points on the animal's body.

[Blakebcg]

Really? I've been working on regular tooling leather and I've never had it wrinkle or take on a different texture from when I started. Are you saying it's because you tool it after you dye it?

[JLSleather]

No, NOT really. The 'texture' in that photo is the grain of the leather itself. Simply, this is not something the crafter has done, but something the animal and the tanner have done.

[Cyberthrasher]

The black straps you pictured here have a wrinkled and worn texture to them from working the leather. If you fold it and bend it, the grain will separate from the flesh and let it look like this. The link you provided is a completely different look. That, as stated, is a pebble grain effect that you cannot produce with any sort of normal means. That would be provided that way from the tannery. It looks like "fawn calfskin" might be a type of leather you could buy. It shows up on a lot of luxury goods pages.

[knazim]

The leather used on the Hermes products is similar to a leather made by a German Tannery (http://weinheimer-leder.com/productrange/index.html). The product line is called Waprolux. This is used by a lot of European fashion houses for their leather products.

Regards

KN

[walletfun]

Here are two examples of what I'm talking about. I'm assuming both of these items are made with just tooling leather. Notice how both of them have that leathery texture to them? How do they get that effect? All the tooling leather I have is perfectly smooth..

http://usa.hermes.co...er=VEAU BARENIA

This leather on Hermes's product is embossed and ironed finished ...