A primer in selecting leather < BEST LEATHER THREAD ON THE FORUM < READ

What is the Perfect Leather?

Everyone is looking for the same thing and this is a question I am asked twenty times a week. You will hear a lot of answers from a number of different dealers (many of whom have no idea what they are talking about) and the correct answer is:

There isn't one.

These are the selection goals of most customers when choosing a hide in order of importance to them:

1) Price
2) Color
3) Durability / Longevity
4) Pet Resistance
5) Maintenance

So let's break down these by group and take a look at them:

Price: Tanning leather is labor-intensive, it requires a lot of handling. So the least costly leathers will be tanned in countries where labor is cheap and plentiful. Hides will be lower quality due to scars and imperfections and as such, sanded and painted. Better leathers are done in countries where labor costs are high, and the hides are cleaner so they have to pay more for them as well. Typically these will be aniline hides that are dyed and more natural, rather than painted.

Color: There is every color of leather under the rainbow. It's always a primary criteria for selection and the majority of customers will skip right by things like the drape of the leather, the hand (or texture) of the hide, glossiness and even the type of leather in the quest for the perfect color. While important in a decorating scheme, it's better to have some flex in color choices so you are not limiting yourself. Don't over-focus on a shade of color.

Durability / Longevity Cowhide is cowhide. As long as its Top Grain (which is the upper part of the split) and not some trash like bi-casts, bonded, or re-worked splits, then it's all going to have the same durability. It's the skin of a species of animal, and some people think one kind of cow skin may outlast another. Not the case - any more than a person from England has more durability in their skin than a person from Argentina. How thick the hide is after the split can affect wear-through, but get the top portion too thick and it affects the drape of the hide and bulk in tailoring. Few ever wear through a piece of leather in upholstery in normal use. The number 1 cause of failure of leather is sun exposure, the number 2 reason is failure to clean and condition.

Pet Resistance: If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this... Pets are like people, they have different personalities and different lifestyles based on their owner's permissions. There is no pet-proof leather. Dogs, once past the chewing puppy stage, generally won't bother the leather. Cats are different - you know your cat. They can tend to launch themselves off a piece of furniture with their claws which can leave small pinhole marks in the hide. And please, when you go into a store don't take your fingernails and attempt to scratch the leather on the floor models to simulate a cat....thats doing nothing but possibly damaging the dealer's floor model.

Here's my Cairn Terrier "Gracie" on the back of one of my Hancock and Moore chairs in my library, on the watch for squirrels. This is her favorite spot to look out into the woods. Now, look closely and you will see no damage from the dog, but you WILL see some sun fade in the seats. Imperial Whiskey Burnished is the leather.

Attachment 11461

Maintenance: So many dealers will tell you that "You don't have to do anything, just enjoy it - the leather is PROTECTED". Nothing could be further from the truth. The leather is not protected, it painted. It's not armored, it's coated. What happens to paint? It wears off over time, doesn't matter what its on, a piece of leather, a car, your house. Paint wears. Aniline hides have are dyed so they don't have a topcoat to lose, but they can suffer a faster sun fade rate and get stains that might not come out if they are oily or acidic. So to get the most out of your purchase - doesn't matter the maker - clean and condition the hide on a regular basis. Do that and you will extend the useful lifespan of the piece.


So there is no perfect leather. You simply have a different in choices of hides. In my own home, I have eleven pieces of leather upholstery and all are aniline hides. I don't like finished or painted leathers for my own use, because I like to see the natural markings and enjoy the superior hand of a un-sanded, and un-painted leather. I deal with the sun fade issue by having solar film put on my windows (not too dark) which controls most of the UV damage. I stay on top of my cleaning and conditioning and every fifteen years or so will put new seat cores in our most used sofas and also get a re-dye kit from Leather Solutions International and revive the color form the sun damage. With proper care and a bit of attention, I can easily get more than 30 years out of my leather pieces.


Bottom Line : Get the leather that appeals to you the most! It's a much fashion and taste as it is any other characteristic.

"leatherette" should be thought of as buying plastic (or a low grade vinyl, which is also a form of plastic). It has no longevity and will deteriorate rather quickly. This is also known as Bonded Leather or BiCast, and here's what it is....I was at the Hancock and Moore factory in Hickory NC and here's the bins of the leather scraps they sell to a recovery company by the pound. These bins are then shipped in bulk to China:

Attachment 12075

Larger pieces will be used to make belts and things like wallets or even key fobs, smaller pieces or those that are full of imperfections are ground up into shredded particles, then are made into a paste-type slurry and applied onto sheets of polypropylene. That's your leatherette product. If you think of real top grain leather as being a prime cut of New York Strip steak, this this is the cheap hotdog version full of the pieces of meat not usable for anything else. In short order the material usually begins stripping, where you will literally see the topcoat peeling off. It will be in the landfill in short order.

Why not buy real leather? You will get 8x the lifespan of leatherette and 4x the lifespan of cloth. It's good for your budget, because you get more lifespan for your dollars spent, and it's good for the environment because we're not putting crappy sofas in our landfills every five to seven years, whose foam and chemicals in the plywood leech into the ground for years to come. A good leather sofa will last 30 years or more, if you take care of it and the like.

When buying leather, know the difference between a pure aniline hide (vegetable dyed) and finished leather (painted).

90% of all leathers are finished - that means they are sanded down to remove all imperfections, the grain pattern is embossed back into the hide, and the color coat is a layer of paint. This is called Top Grain as well

Aniline hides have no sanding, no corrections to the hide and are dyed. They start out as finer, or cleaner hides and only done on the best crusts. So, you will see ALL the natural markings on the leather. This is also called Full Top Grain.

Here's a chair we have in the store that shows a healed scar next to the Apple Tag. This is not a fault in this category of leather - and is to be expected. Whatever happened in this Steer's life is shown in the leather. Now you know!

Attachment 14875Attachment 14876