Leather Dictionary | Leather Glossary

Combing leather

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The name applied to the leather used on the combing rolls of cotton machinery and manufactured of calfskin or side leather

Chamois leather

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A soft leather originally made from the skins of the Alpine antelope known as the chamois but at the present time from the fleshers of sheepskins. Certain grades used to be used in gloves and fancy articles but the staple employment is for cleaning and polishing, primarily automobile.

Chamois is characterised by an ability to absorb at least three times its own weight of water. Shoemakers, but unlike cordwainers they work with old leather.Cobblers are essentially repairers.

Carding Leather

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A special type of side leather used on the cards of cotton machinery. The leather lies flat against the beds of the cards, the teeth being forced through.

California Banknotes

2011-09-12T06:26:00.000-07:00

In Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana describes how he sailed from Boston to California in 1834 to collect hides. He explains how hides are dried and loaded onto the ships before returning to the East Coast. Since California had nothing else of wealth at that time the dried hides were known as California Banknotes. The hides are brought down dry, or they will not be received. When taken from the animal they have holes cut in the ends, and are staked out, and thus dried in the sun without shrinking. They are then doubled once, lengthwise, with the hair side usually in, and sent down upon mules or in carts, and piled above high-water mark: and then we take them upon our heads, one at a time, or two, if they are small, and wade out with them and through them into the boat.

On page 140 of the book detailed at the end is a fine description of the full cure process used to prepare the hides for a wait of over a year before they would get back to Boston around the Cape for tanning. Hides were valued in Boston at 12 and a half cents a pound dry salted and the captain got 1% commission. Ships would spend nearly a year collecting and accumulating hides up and down the California cost to make the journey worthwhile. On Dana's ship they brought back 40,000 hides.

Cabretta Leather

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A wrongly named hair sheep. When the Portuguese first went to Brazil they mistook the indigenous hairsheep for goats and called them cabrettas (kids). The skins were exported to the USA by the Blue Funnel Line (later the Booth Group) and the name cabretta stayed with them.

Now all hairsheep skins have taken the generic name cabretta. Much used in footwear leather and sport glove leather.

Buffing

2011-09-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sandpapering the leather with sandpaper or emery paper for various reasons such as the creation of a suede like nap on suede, a nubuck finish on grain, or for the preparation of corrected grain leather. Sometimes done on the flesh side to tidy up its appearance.

Box Calf or box sides

2011-09-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Calf or side leather which has been boarded in two directions.

Bougie Leather

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Leather from the town of Bougie in North east Algeria. Famous in the fifteenth century.

Boarding

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A process of finishing a side or skin by folding it with the grain side in and rubbing the surface together under pressure. Gives a distinct look, and creates "box" look when done two ways and "willow" when done only in one direction.

Belting Leather

2011-09-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Leather employed for the transmission of power for machinery. The great bulk of this leather is made from the butts of high-grade cattle hides. In Europe a certain amount of buffalo hide is also used.

Belt leather

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Leather used for the leather going into men's clothing belts.

Beamhouse

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The area of the tannery where the unhairing and liming processes are carried out. Before modern machinery the processes of fleshing, scudding and others were carried out over specially designed wooden beams using curved two handled knives with sharp or blunted edge according to the operation. Hence the name.

Bating

2011-05-26T04:10:00.000-07:00

The process prior to tanning proper where the fibres of a hide or skin which have been plumped or swollen by liming are reduced and softened, thus assuring pliability in the product. The word is a form of "abate" in the sense of reduce.

Basil

2011-05-26T04:09:00.001-07:00

Bark tanned pickled sheepskins.

Bag Leather

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A form of vegetable tannage in which the skins are sewn together in pairs to form bags and floated in tan liquor. This method avoids drawn grain and gives good spread of leather.

Bag and case leather

2011-05-26T04:08:00.001-07:00

A general term for the leathers used in travelling bags and suitcases. It does not include the light leathers employed for women's fancy handbags. The staple material for bag and case leather is cowhide.

Aniline Leather

2011-05-26T04:07:00.001-07:00

Leather which retains its colour only from dyestuffs rather than from pigment, and as a consequence looks more natural.

Aluta

2011-05-26T04:06:00.002-07:00

Roman name for tawed (alum tanned) leather. Aluta was used for sails in Venice, and for shoe uppers in ancient Greece.

Alum Tanning

2011-05-26T04:06:00.000-07:00

A process of tanning with alum, used in combination with salt, egg yolk and other substances. Used for the original feathery golf balls. "In 1845 we more than doubled that. Hard work it was. I can still smell the leather, feel the heat. We used to use a chest clamp to literally compress and push those goose down feathers into the ball. Of course you cut six strips of bull hide and you soaked it in alum and of course you took three of 'em and stitched them inside out there, and the feathers went back in, and you compressed and compressed, and the idea being that as the leather shrinks as it dries out and the feathers expand. Then that gives you the compression." Quoted by Wally Uihlein, Sept 1998, at St.Andrews Golf Congress.

Ageing

2011-05-26T04:05:00.001-07:00

The process by which certain types of leather are at some stage of manufacture allowed to lie in piles to "age".

Bag Leather

2010-12-02T06:36:00.000-08:00

A form of vegetable tannage in which the skins are sewn together in pairs to form bags and floated in tan liquor. This method avoids drawn grain and gives good spread of leather.

Corrected Grain Leather

2010-12-02T06:34:00.001-08:00

Leather which has been sanded or buffed to remove imperfections. The outermost layer is sanded down or scraped away revealing a uniform surface below which may then be pigmented or have a synthetic polymer applied.

Calf Leather

2010-12-02T06:33:00.000-08:00

The skin of very young cattle which offers fine grain, suppleness and exceptional durability. A versatile leather that can be used for virtually every type of shoe.

Aniline leather

2010-12-02T06:30:00.001-08:00

Leather finished with an aniline dye, which gives a natural look.