Sun Tanning Leather?

[Matt Alsaker]

Winter is quickly approaching here in Wisconsin, meaning my ability to sun tan leather goods out in the sun is going to end soon. The opinions I've read about why sun tanning works range from the heat, the UV light, or a combination of both. I've been considering setting up a booth with UV lights in the basement to get me through the winter. Has anyone tried this or have suggestions?

[LNLeather]

I guess all of us that like to sun tan our leather have the same problem. I couldn't find enough

solid information/answers to your question about special lighting and found that the cost to

experiment was out of my $ range. What I have ended up doing is just leaving what I want to sun tan

on trays on a table that gets the most light and just leaving it there till the leather is the level of tan

that I'm looking for. From my experiments it seems that the leather can get tanned even through the clouds...

It just takes longer.

[cjdevito]

From my days with reef aquariums, I'd suggest metal halide lighting of at least 175 watts if you're really set on trying something. As far as bulbs, iwasakis 6500K bulbs are fairly cheap (for metal halides). You'll get more UV output with a higher K-rated bulb, especially if you get one of the double-ended 10KK or 20KK models that doesn't have an internal UV shield. The cost goes up significantly though.