buying leather

[juli]

is it safe (from anthrax) to buy leather imported from india and/or Asia?  Should I try to stay with USA?

[Alaisiagae]

I would think the tanning process would kill most pathogens. 

[Samalan]

Wouldn't bet on the tanning process killing pathogens hide glue can keep anthrax in intact forever ! 

[jcuk]

I have had the misfortune to do some repairs to horse tack made from Indian leather and leather from countries nearby awful stuff the smell is horrible i will leave it to  your imagination as to what the hides may have been tanned in not nice at all, this was when i was working in the Middle East so a lot of my repairs were made from that leather so had no choice, but the work was repaired with good English tanned leather which i had imported kind of a waste i use to think, even if they gave me Indian tanned hides for free i would have refused them and if that's all i had to work with today i would stop tomorrow. So if it was me i would source good leather closer to home.

Hope this helps

JCUK  

[Retswerb]

Have you made enemies who are after you? Can’t think of any reason someone would be randomly including anthrax in your leather shipments, regardless of origin. You may have other things to worry about with your purchases but I think you can rest easy with regards to anthrax.

[mike02130]

Such an odd question.  I'd be more worried of an STD.

[Frodo]

41 minutes ago, mike02130 said:

Such an odd question.  I'd be more worried of an STD.

I want to hear all about what you are doing with your leather that makes you afraid of catching an std 

[Matt S]

20 hours ago, Samalan said:

Wouldn't bet on the tanning process killing pathogens hide glue can keep anthrax in intact forever ! 

Isn't hide glue cooked out of raw (untanned) hides and hooves?

5 hours ago, Retswerb said:

Have you made enemies who are after you? Can’t think of any reason someone would be randomly including anthrax in your leather shipments, regardless of origin. You may have other things to worry about with your purchases but I think you can rest easy with regards to anthrax.

Anthrax is endemic in domestic and wild herds around the world. It can be transmitted from even centuries old remains, or from handling dry bones and horns.


@juli
From the CDC:

Quote

Some imported hides may contain anthrax spores, and although this is rare, there is no way to test for the presence of spores on hides.

To protect against anthrax spores, be sure to use hides that came from:

• Animals from the United States
• Animals that were imported with an international veterinary certificate showing that they have undergone the appropriate government inspection

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/anthrax/specificgroups/animal-workers/exposure-protection.html

My limited experience of Indian tanned leather echoes that of JCUK: some okay, generally very nasty stuff. Much of it is, I believe, from rather unwell beasts due to cultural practices so the quality of the raw hide isn't generally great to begin with. To use a rather crude phrase (that is accurate in more ways than one -- see JCUK's comments about tanning methods) you can't polish a turd. Just about all of the finished leathergoods I have seen coming from India are very low quality leather too.

I've used a few sides of American steer that were chrome tanned in China, which was okay but I found it quite crunchy under the knife, possibly due to excessive remaining chrome salts. It wasn't dyed consistently and the colour ran. Not much of a representative sample I know but that is my experience.

May I ask why you are considering leather from India and Asia more generally?

[fredk]

3 hours ago, mike02130 said:

 I'd be more worried of an STD.

?? Subscriber Trunk Dialling  ?? I thought that was done away with years ago  

[jcuk]

Another very good reason to source  leather closer to home  may stop this from happening to other tanneries.

   

https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/90986-tasman-tannery-closing/?tab=comments#comment-623818

 

Hope this helps 

JCUK