The leather that makes up your favorite chair, your boots or a favorite jacket of yours may actually require more work than you may have anticipated. The process of making leather requires ongoing care and precision and to maintain a consistency in the finish each time a manufacturer needs to be exact in the stages they process raw materials. Here is the process of how leather is made:
Raw Materials
The raw materials included in leather can be made of the height of almost any type of animal. There’s leather produced using sheep, crocodiles goats and more. Most common leather is produced using cows hide.
Processing
The skin of the animal needs to be removed first and then processed using a salt brine. This can work to stop the leather from decomposing and it needs to be done just a few hours after the hide is removed. Hide can be placed in a line bath to remove hair and more as well as soften it.
Grading: when the leather has had time to dry after bathing and soaking it is properly graded and this is based off of the fiber structure and durability of the leather.
Tanning
The hides are then loaded into a tanning from with a special solution that will work at properly collaring the leather. The tanning process can result in a stretchable layer of skin that is evenly colored for use in a variety of products. The hide is inspected for proper imperfections and then washed to processed to remove the rest of the colors that were not removed during the tanning process. Sometimes tanning takes place several times to produce the right even look.
Dyeing
The dyeing process can often produce the finished design of leather. Dyeing the leather can produce a much more vibrant colors such as red that can lead to a permanent look on leather. The residual dyeing chemicals are removed over time before the leather is processed into a finished product.
These are just a few of the most important steps in producing leather that can eventually go on to make up complete products in the future.
