Leather is created through the tanning of hides & skins, converting the putrescible skin into a durable & long lasting material. Leather is not leather until the skin or hide has been tanned.

Their are numerous different types, manufacturing processes, uses & ways to care for leather.

Tanning Leather
The Leather Making Process
British Standard BS 2780 Definition of Leather

A general term for hide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact, tanned to be imputrescible. The hair or wool may, or may not, have been removed. Leather is also made from a hide or skin which has been split into layers or segmented, either before or after tanning, but if the tanned hide or skin is disintegrated mechanically without combination of a binding agent, is made into sheets or other forms, such sheets or forms are not leather. If the leather has a surface coating, this surface layer, however applied, must not be thicker than 0.15mm.

The process of making a hide or skin into leather is not one process but a series of processes. These processes can be broken down into four parts.

  1. Beamhouse Operations
  2. Tanning
  3. Post Tanning
  4. Finishing

Beamhouse Operations
The beamhouse area of a tannery is used for the removal of unwanted parts of the hide, such as hair, non-structural proteins and fleshy tissue.

Soaking: This is done to remove dirt and blood from the leather. The hide is soaked in water kept at 20°c to avoid shrinkage and detergents are added with an alkaline chemical that helps the uptake of water. This process also moisturises the hide.