There are many types of leather used in fashion today. Each type of leather has its own unique look and feel to it. There is a vast difference in price, too. To understand leather, let’s look at the different characteristics of leather and the different animals used to make leather.
Synthetic-Tanned Leather
In this tanning process, aromatic polymers like neradol or novolac are used. The leather produced with this type of tanning process is always white in colour. It was introduced during the World War II when there was shortage in the supply of vegetable tanned leather. There are different kinds of substances that can be used in this tanning process. For example, melanin and other functional amino resins can be used in the fabrication of this leather.
Alum-Tanned Leather
In this type of tanning process, aluminium salts are used in combination of different protein sources like egg yolk and flour and binders. For the purists, this process of tanning leather has some flaws. This is because of the fact that the alum-tanned leathers are terribly affected by water. Leather tanned via this process can easily rot when it is exposed to water. Though alum-tanned leather is not as supple as vegetable leather its strength lies in the fact that it is very light to the touch. Therefore, items produced with it are not bulky to be used.
Rawhide Leather
In this process of making leather, the hide is first scraped before it is soaked with lime. After the soaking with lime, the material is allowed to dry. Leather produced using this process has the imperfection of alum-tanned leather.
There are other types of tanning process that can be used in the production of leather. They include
• Aldehyde-tanned leather
• Brain tanned leather
• Formaldehyde tanned leather
Now that we have seen the tanning process in the production of leather, let us see the different kinds of animal skin that can be used in the fabrication of leather. Animals whose skin can be used in the fabrication of leather are as follows:
Cow/Cattle Leather
Cow/cattle leather is popularly used today in the production of leather because they are more durable and stronger than other types of animal skin. Leather materials fabricated with this type of leather are somewhat expensive. There are today special types of leather like Nuback leather that can be produced with cow skin. This type of leather is highly expensive and the items produced with it are also costly.
Pig/Lamb/Goat Skin
These are other types of domestic animals whose skins could be used in the fabrication of leather. Among all of them, lamb skin is the best. Apparel fabricated with lamb hide is normally expensive. The leather is very soft to the touch.
Wild Animals
Besides, the domestic animals, there are quite a number of wide animals whose skin can be used in the fabrication of leather. Some of the wide animals that can be used are deer, kangaroo, buffalo, snakes, antelopes and the likes.
Birds/Reptiles
Hides from birds like ostrich can also be used in the fabrication of leather. There are also leathers made from reptiles like snakes and alligators.
Each of these types of leather has its own imperfection and strength. Some are used for the fabrication of special type of materials.