H&M Mesquite or Prairie leather? Martini or District?

[Jake8]

So then are you saying that the Hyde Park does not have a pebbled feel in a finished piece? Because we rejected it early on because of that. Here are our samples. This is Mesquite on the left and Hyde Park on the right.


Are Hyde Park and Mesquite aniline leathers?

[drcollie]

Samples are made of scraps and as such cannot be relied on for texture. If this is a concern you would have, then when you order your pieces you can request a CFA (Cutting For Approval) for a $ 15 surcharge. Before the piece is built, H&M will pull all the hides for your project and set them aside, then mail a sample to me that will be around 7" square. I then mail that to you. Once the CFA arrives you can say 1) Looks great, let's build it 2) I don't care for it, let's select a different leather 3) I wish to cancel. With a CFA, you are seeing a fairly large swatch of the actual hides to be used in the build. It will add about three weeks time to your order process overall. Its' another tool you can use in your decision-making process.

[Jake8]

Duane,
I'm guessing that you have seen more than a few pieces done in Hyde Park leather. In your experience, is it a smooth leather or a pebbly leather? Are Hyde Park and Mesquite aniline leathers?

[drcollie]

Sure! I have handled hundreds of pieces in the Hyde Park leathers, you can see photos here on the forum of many of them. They are always pure anilines out of Italy (they cannot burnished a painted, or finished leather so they have to be aniline). No burnished leathers are heavily grained or pebbled, because due to the nature of burnishing the heavily grained areas of a hide don't make for an attractive piece. They have to be relatively smooth in the grain pattern for the burnish effect to flow across the surface and look good.

Mesquite is also a pure aniline, however it's a pull-up leather rather than burnished, and there is a big difference. Burnished hides are toned and tinted with dark glazing topcoats AFTER the piece is fully made up, then a sealer coat applied to hold that burnishing treatment on the leather. Pull-ups are waxy leathers that will respond to pressure and use by showing a color burst where the pressure was applied. This effect is often referred to as 'showing scratches' by people who do not understand leather and fine hides and cannot resist digging at the leather with their fingernails. Both are excellent hides types which I have several pieces of in my own home. Those of us in the business tend to buy these two types for ourselves, and they both look great - just two different looks.

[Jake8]

If you can stand one more question.... You say Mesquite is a pull-up rather than burnished. On the thread mentioned above with the pictures of all the burnished pieces, there are three done up in Mesquite Burnished. If Mesquite is a pull-up rather than burnished, than what's with the pictures of Mesquite Burnished??

[drcollie]

West Cane is the same way, and Weston Sunrise. Pull up leathers form the base for most burnished leathers, however once they ARE burnished and sealed, then the pull up effect is gone.

[Jake8]

OK, gotcha. Thank you for the explanation. You must get so tired of explaining this to people like me! Sorry for that.

I think a burnished look is not what we want. A pull-up is for us. Now, what grade 3 pull-ups have you had the best experience with?

[Jake8]

I am getting ready to order a few more samples before we make our final decision. What we want is a pull-up, nothing burnished. We need a light to medium brown. We will be limited since we can't go higher than a grade 3. :-( Of the samples that we have here, we like the feel of Mesquite and Fresno and the color of Prairie Caramel. We are no where near a furniture store that carries H&M so I looked on the H&M website and it's impossible to get any idea from their sample pictures. Just guessing from color, the possibilities are Native Butternut, Sonoma Chestnut & Fawn, Tiburon Toffee & Chestnut, Tuscany Saddle, Weston Sand & Sunrise. Which of these are pull-up leathers? Duane, could you please make a suggestion in the samples we should order? (Time's a wasting, only 28 days to go!)

[drcollie]

Native Butternut: too raw for most. Totally naked leather

Sonoma Chestnut & Fawn: Suedes. Pass

Tiburon Toffee & Chestnut, Tuscany Saddle, Weston Sand & Sunrise ; All good. Tiburon and Tuscany are the classic Italian pull ups.

Also look at Atticus and Yardley, GR 2

Duane

[Jake8]

Thanks Duane. I'll be ordering those samples today.