Re: Help me choose between two BY leathers, grade 2 vs grade 5?
Remember there are really only two classes of leather when all is said and done:
1) Painted or Topcoated
2) Vegetable Dyed
I don't like the labels 'protected' and 'unprotected' because it makes you think (as a retail consumer) that one is armored, the other is fragile, and that's not the case. In fact, I'm on a mini-crusade to eliminate that terminology from the industry (and have spoke with the CEO's of the leather manufacturing companies) to get away from using those terms. All 'protected' really means is its painted or top-coated, nothing more.
So, let's look into these 'scratches' a bit more. When you run a pressure point across a painted surface what happens? Nothing. Unless you run it VERY hard in which case you scratch through the paint to the core below. While the painted surface is more resistant to these surface scratches, it will give way and get damaged if the pressure is severe enough, and only a re-paint will repair it. Now run that same pressure across an aniline (dyed) hide. If its a 'pull-up' leather, then its designed to lighten with pressure to show a color burst just as you will see high/low spots with use and during the build. Its a 'bomber jacket' look very popular on pieces from Restoration Hardware and Polo, etc. That 'scratch' is just pressure on a pull-up, and you can rub it out with heat and pressure from a balled-up fist as it simply re-flows the waxes - there is no damage to the leather.
Personally, in my own home, I will only ever buy aniline, which is 'real leather'. I save the painted leathers for my tennis shoes from Korea and China. I don't want to sit upon a painted surface, as it feels artificial and plastick-y. I don't worry about stains on the aniline, as experience as shown anything that does stain it will work itself out over a few days if you don't set the stain with water. My wife and I raised two kids on pure aniline hides in the family room, and those pieces now 25 years old are still in use today.
I have never had a customer say "I regret buying the nice aniline and which I had bought a finished leather", but I have had dozens tell me that if they had it to do over they wish they had gone with the pure aniline hides.
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
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