Leather furniture Auckland – What is leather?

Leather furniture Auckland – To get technical, the standard definition of leather is as follows: “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 that has been split into layers or segmented either before or after tanning.”

The amount of surface coating applied to the leather influences whether or not the item can be described as ‘genuine’ leather.  If the leather has a surface coating, the mean thickness of this surface layer, however applied, has to be 0.15mm or less.

Too complicated?

In a nutshell, there are three basic types of genuine leather:

Full grain:

The full hide of the animal has been used with minimal interference. It’s the most durable kind of leather.  It is also the rarest and usually the most expensive.

Top grain:

Top grain leather is the uppermost layer of the animal hide which has been buffed and polished.

Split:

Split leather is taken from the bottom of the hide.  It’s fairly fragile.  It is also the cheapest type of leather available.

Corrected-grain is another common description.  This refers to any of the above leather that has had an artificial grain applied to its surface. Any imperfections are corrected or sanded off, and an artificial grain embossed into the surface and dressed in stain or dyes.

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