Not all leather is created equal
Don't get caught out!
Know your full grain from your genuine leather, your vegetable tan from your chrome tan, and your butt from your shoulder or belly!
In this short three part series, we're going to (hopefully) shed some light on the often overlooked variances in leather available to you.
Know your leather: Part 1
Vegetable tanning vs Chrome tanning
It is confusing... leather is leather right?
No.
Here at Tanner Bates, we use full grain vegetable tanned leather. In our opinion, this is the crème de la crème.
Leather can be tanned in a couple of different ways, and how the leather is tanned will ultimately determine how it will wear and perform over its life, and what sort of experience you'll have with it.
Vegetable tanning is an age old tradition that uses water and tree bark to transform the skin from raw hide into leather. This is a slow and gentle tanning method. The fibres of the hide are kept intact. No nasty chemicals are used.
At our local Devon tannery, they specifically use oak bark, which is incredibly slow and gentle, taking 18 months in total until the leather is finally finished. The hides are moved from tan pit to tan pit by hand every single week for an entire year! Oak bark tanning produces leather of the highest tensile strength and leather from this incredibly special tannery is known the world over.
Vegetable tanned leather will smell like leather ought to, develop a patina throughout its life unique to the owner and how the product is used. It will take on marks, deepen and darken in colour, with each application of leather conditioner. A piece made from vegetable tanned leather will become a lifelong friend.
By comparison, chrome tanned leather is a modern process of tanning. It is much faster and cheaper. However it uses lots of nasty chemicals and chromium salts.
Chrome tanned leather will not develop a patina, it will simply become dirty. It will not smell like 'leather' as you think it would. It is however more resilient to taking on marks.
In short, if you're buying anything leather, and it isn't immediately obvious, ask.
Ask how was the leather tanned.
Ask who made the product.
In our opinion:
If the person selling it cannot answer, don't buy it.
When you buy a Tanner Bates piece, we can answer these questions…
So, if you've supported us before, or are considering your first piece, thank you. It genuinely makes a difference.
With love from Devon,
Rick, Matt & Matthew
