Leather Overview

As a leather goods manufacturer, we know exactly, what parts of the leather we use and what type of leather is… But not everybody knows about the subdivisions and classifications of leather. Therefore, in this post we are going to make a Leather Overview.

Firstly, let’s start with the subdivisions of leather. Every hide has different parts with different quality and so, different value. Starting from the boundaries, we have the head and belly part. This part occupies the 25% of the hide and has a lower value. In the next level, the shoulder part takes over the 32% of the hide and has a fair value. Towards the centre, we have the bend, that makes around 30% of the hide and has a good value. The butt is the last part, around 13% of the hide, but it has the highest value.

Regarding the classification of the leather, we will start with the lowest grade. This part is normally reconstituted bonded leather scraps together with latex binders to make them look like genuine leather.

Then, we have a low grade leather, created with split parts from top grain that are layered together. The medium grade, ‘the corrected grain‘ has to be rectified because it normally has imperfections. The second best grade called ‘Top grain‘, that has less imperfections can be sanded to correct small imperfections too. Finally, the best grade, ‘The full grain‘ has not been sanded. Also, Full grain and Top grain leathers can be aniline, semi-aniline or pigmented.

We hope that this Leather Overview will be useful. This can be essential to choose the correct materials to make a purse, a belt, a bag or a wallet…