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

[Samalan]

2 hours ago, Matt S said:

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

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:

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?

the prosess dose not kill the pathogen if your say sanding old furniture made with hide glue and you aspirate the dust from the glue .

[Matt S]

18 minutes ago, Samalan said:

the prosess dose not kill the pathogen if your say sanding old furniture made with hide glue and you aspirate the dust from the glue .

That's interesting and useful to know, but as I say hide glue is IIRC cooked from untanned (raw) hides so doesn't directly bear on the efficacy of tanning processes killing anthrax.

[juli]

some of the leather suppliers here in the US indicate where a particular piece of leather is coming from, like imported from India or imported from Brazil.  Since I am so new to this I wanted to get advice.  I guess the imports do seem to be less expensive.  What are your advice about south america imports?  and thanks so much for your help

[$$hobby]

Welcome,

Ever consider ordering 1/2 hides of each country/type and go from there?  

Contact the sellers and see what they say.  If they are hungry to sell you something, they maybe willing to send you a "sample".  But i would make sure they send you a average/general representative sample of what you would get if you ordered more.

You may want to check on any import duties you may get charged too.  Even if something is less expensive outside of the USA, you may get that duty charge and then there goes any "savings" you may perceive.  Its something may want to check on.

Also, expect Customs to inspect any hides coming in for any invasive species or unwanted hitchhikers.

last comment.

You may want to consider just finding a local provider and buy some from them.  Think of building a RELATIONSHIP with the provider.  LEARN what to look for in any hide and so forth.  They maybe willing to teach you too!   If you dont know what to look for, you may get taken.   Also, i found that by building a RELATIONSHIP with my provider, i was a known person and they would work with me or take more time to help when i needed.

and to end this, i found that usually and bad piece of leather will have its use.  So, if you get taken on any leather hides you will find a use for it.   If you are learning, you can use it for that.  Such as cutting/tooling/skiving..ect.  

good luck

 

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by $$hobby

[Tugadude]

On 8/26/2020 at 7:53 AM, juli said:

some of the leather suppliers here in the US indicate where a particular piece of leather is coming from, like imported from India or imported from Brazil.  Since I am so new to this I wanted to get advice.  I guess the imports do seem to be less expensive.  What are your advice about south america imports?  and thanks so much for your help

A nice thing about Springfield Leather Co. is that they will sell many of their leathers by the square foot.  So if you need 4 square feet, you just order it that way.  That, to me, would be an economical way to try new leathers out.  Committing to a whole hide or a side sucks if you end up not liking it.

[Northmount]

Let's stay on topic here.  It was about anthrax, not COVID-19.  A few posts hidden that were straying well off topic.

Tom

 

[chuck123wapati]

OK i get it!  I'll rephrase my comment. If you want to know if you are in danger of ANTHRAX then do you own real research don't try and find the answer on social media or take someone's word on it until YOU read the data FOR YOURSELF then if you cant understand it go to YOUR doctor and ask him/ her to explain. I researched and found its one in three hundred million chance in the US to even get it then there is medicine available to fight it so its not even worth thinking about IMO. 

Edited August 27, 2020 by chuck123wapati

[Sheilajeanne]

On 8/21/2020 at 9:53 AM, Frodo said:

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

Yeah, that would be verrrry interesting!  

I have heard of weavers contracting  anthrax from yarn. And given the washing and dyeing process yarn goes through, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could catch it from hides, too!

As a matter of fact, I think they used to refer to anthrax as the 'weaver's disease'.