Swktu - Pure Leather
Hide Quality
When it comes to the strength and quality
of leather,
Full Grain
We always use full grain leather, which is the highest grade available. Full grain leather takes its name from the fact that the hides retain their entire grain - top layer. It’s the strongest part of the hide and it gives the leather a prized natural look, texture and durability. Marks accumulate on the grain over an animal's lifetime, so only the cleanest hides can be used full grain, making these hides the most expensive as they are the hardest to find. We only use full grain hides to ensure we get the finest leather.
Top Grain
These hides have too many defects to be used full grain, so the grain is sanded or buffed to remove the imperfections such as scratches, moles and even freckles. These hides are sometimes then imprinted with a pattern (a corrected-grain, such as saffiano or pebble grain). The leather is not as strong as full grain leather and doesn't look natural, so it is a step down in quality from full grain.
Split Leather
Split is low-grade, inexpensive leather as it’s actually the bottom layer - flesh side - obtained from splitting a hide into two or more layers. It doesn't contain any of the grain at all, so it has low tensile strength and doesn't look natural.
determines what the leather will look like.
the type of hide used
Tanning Methods
Tanning is the process that changes the animal hides into long - lasting chemically stable leather.
There are two main processes that tanners use: vegetable tanning & chrome tanning.
Chrome tanning uses synthetic chemicals - mainly chromium to tan the leather in only one day.
Most of the world’s leather is made using this method, which was invented
in the 19th Century to allow for the mass production of leather goods.
We use vegetable tanning, which is a traditional method that was refined
by the Italians, Spanish and French during the Renaissance.
Only 10% of leather is made using this natural process, as it is more time-consuming to produce
and relies on experienced craftsmen to create the vegetable-tanned leather.
Raw hides are placed in pits or barrels with natural tannins from tree barks
roots and flower pods and are left for around 40 days to tan.
Only a few tanneries have the capacity, skill and patience to produce vegetable tanned leather
but the end result is environmentally friendly and each piece of leather is unique.
Vegetable tanned leather changes continuously over time
as it develops a patina, much like a tree darkens in the sun.
All of the leather we use is ‘aniline’, which means it has been dyed all the way through.
Pigmented leather, in contrast, has a coat of paint sprayed on the top and doesn’t appear natural.