Half Veg Tan Same As Re-Tan? What Are They Good For?

[jmorton]

A few years ago I bought a piece of leather at a Tandy store that was called "Re-tan" it is almost as slick as plastic, the manager told me that it would not be good for tooling, but it would make good purses and similar things. A few days ago I was given a piece of "Half Veg tanned baby buffalo". This baby buffalo leather has a wonderful feel and looks like a soft veg tanned calf skin. The seller had no idea about its suitability for tooling. Can any one shed any light on this stuff?

Thanks!

John Morton

[Avion]

John, I don't know either, but I did see this on blade forums

Lightbulb Half or vegetable tanned. which, why

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Hi Guys

I noticed a lot of you guys use vegetable tanned leather instead of halftanned.

Why is that?

Halftanned = lighter, stronger and stiffer.

It takes and keeps it's shape better..

It's very hard to cut or puncture..

Do I miss something?

Thanks!!

martin

[camano ridge]

It is difficult to find a US supplier that has an available and consistent supply of half tanned. Half tanned is tanned partially leaving a raw core. It is predominantly found in Scandinavia. It is a bit more expensive and shipping costs are not cheap. It can be ordered from Brisa in Finland. IT works quite well for Scandi style sheaths.

[Bob Blea]

That's good to know, I hadn't heard of half tan before. So what is 'Re Tan' leather?

[DavidL]

Combination tan is a mix of two tanning methods, usually vegetable and chrome. re tan sounds like another way of saying combination tan.

Never heard of half tan before. They would tan in heavier tanning liquids to only penetrate the outside layers, leaving the middle raw?

What type of goods use half tan usually?

[Avion]

From what I saw doing a wiki search, they said tough shoes and work boots were the product of half veg, half Chrome tanning

[Erystawi]

Oh, I know about the half tan leather!

Commonly known in norwegian as "rårandslær" or "valklær". (loosly translated to raw core leather).

This is a veg tan (half veg tan) who is mostly used for knife sheats, and other sheats,boxes etc.

It will shrink more than normal veg tan, but will hold form and be VERY stiff/hard.

Very easily shaped when wet, holds form much better than normal tanned hides.

Hope this helps

[camano ridge]

Erystawi, thank you for confirmation. Can't get any closer to the source then that.

DavidL is correct re-tanned is leather that usually is veg tanned first then chromium salts are added.

[jmorton]

Thanks everyone! If the "half tan" is what you described, you can add Cairo, Egypt as a source. We went there this past week and I hunted down a tannery. Didn't get to go inside, but the owner was very friendly, and gave me several "samples". He said it was sheep and buffalo (water buffalo, not bison). Have not unpacked it yet, but plan to give it the "Tandy Tool Torture Test" in the near future. My first impression is that the buff. double shoulders are thick, red and gnarly, while the sheep and baby buff seems better than the English Meadow at Tandy. The color is sort of a creamy rather than the reddish of most of the Tandy Leather. he said he gets the veg material from Argentina and locally in Egypt.

Thanks for the Info.

John Morton

[Andrew Chee]

Re-tanned leather (or combination tanned) usually refers to leather that have been chrome tanned first and the steeped in a vegetable tanning solution. Generally this results in a leather that is softer than pure veg tan leather (the chrome tanning produces a softer skin usually) that is then finished in vegetable tannins that give it some of the qualities of vegetable tanned leather (a bit more ability to patina). Horween's Chromexcel is a good example of this type of leather. Because of the softer nature of this type of leather, I would not think that it would make a good tooling leather.

Andrew

Edited March 9, 2015 by Andrew Chee