LEATHER

The sheer luxury and amazing versatility of leather as a material makes it for me at least, a material that has no equal.

There are numerous ways of producing a finished hide, but the two main methods used by tanneries are chrome tanned and vegetable tanned.

Chrome tannage came about in the mid 19th century, no doubt due to the demands of heavy industry requiring more of it and quicker. It's main modern day characteristic's are that as well as being available in almost limitless colours, it will mostly also stay that colour throughout it's useable lifetime.

In contrast, the Vegetable tannage method has been around for thousands of years and uses combinations of natural plant and tree extracts to produce a very natural hide that will develop a beautiful patina over time the more it's used.

Vegetable tanned leather is more expensive due to the lengthier natural tanning process. Note also that veg tanned leather's main characteristic and attraction is that it will show the natural marks, grain and growth lines of the animal the hide is from. Again this adds to the appeal of vegetable tanned leather and makes each item you own completely unique to you through your own everyday wear.

My blog often has images of new and old products where you'll see how the leather ages and develops over time.

Thanks for reading