TOP GRAIN LEATHER:

Most used leather. This grain leather is known to be second best and is the most used leather. The very top layer is sanded, buffed, or shaved off which removes imperfections and blemishes. This makes the leather thinner and more workable. After sanding away the natural grain, top grain leather is imprinted with an imitation grain. The hide loses some of its strongest fibers as a result. Top grain leather is applied with a finishing coat that provides protection against stains. The refinishing process of top grain leather greatly reduces the leather’s breathability and prevents the leather from developing a natural patina over time.

Top grain leather can split into two sections:

Full Aniline leather and Semi Aniline leather.

 

SEMI ANILINE LEATHER:

This type of leather is stylish and more natural looking. The finish is a mixture of dye and pigment, which gives a uniform look, but does not disguise all natural markings and scars of the hide. The coating provides a barrier against liquid absorption. Semi Aniline leather is more durable than Full Aniline leather. It is a better alternative for heavy traffic and direct sunlight. This leather type can be wonderful compromise for those who want to achieve a uniform look while still retaining the many beautiful natural characteristics of leather. Scratching will be far less obvious, and colour will remain more consistent over time. The light pigment coating on Semi Aniline hides is like a light layer of foundation make up over your skin.

Semi Aniline leathers provide:

– Higher light fastness and durability

– Soft handle and retains appearance over time

– Requires less maintenance, perfect for high traffic areas.

CHARACTERISTICS:

Natural grain surface

Good look and feel

Improved light fastness

More practical than Full Aniline leather

Breathable

FULL ANILINE LEATHER:

Full Aniline leather is the most rewarding for leather connoisseurs.

It is generally the most expensive of all leather types as only the very best raw hides can qualify for this type, which attract a higher cost. It has a wonderful silky touch, and the look has great depth

Full aniline leather is a very high-quality leather end-product. It is made from topmost part of the hide that has been dyed using only soluble dyes. In order to make full aniline leather, the animal’s hide is placed in a large drum that contains the aniline dyes.

Aniline dye is a very specific type of dye that does not contain any pigment, or coloring. This means that the dye preserves the natural grain, marking, scars, and wrinkles that are present in the hide without coloring it at all. In addition, during this process, the leather does not usually obtain a uniform color, because the hide absorbs the dye at different rates. Even though there is no pigment in the dye, the oils that the aniline is mixed with still change the color slightly. This process keeps the natural character of the leather and makes full aniline leather one of the most sought-after types of leather.

 

For all that to be possible, the leather craftsmen must use only the purest and cleanest hides of super high quality. Because any hide that was severely damaged during animal’s life or even during hide’s transportation and processing, could not be used for such finishing. Therefore, if you know that a product is made of full aniline leather, you can rest assured that steep price of a product is justifiable.

With age, your leather furniture will mould to your body shape and colours may mellow and change according to its use and environment, making the piece of furniture uniquely your own.

Full Aniline leather tends to absorb body oils and perspiration, which will cause leather to darken on contact areas because there Is no pigment or polyurethane barrier (as used on lesser quality leathers)

Aniline leather finish is sensitive to light – Please keep away from windows and areas with direct sunlight.

If you use a great aniline leather, you have a piece for life, something that will age gracefully and naturally.

Aniline leathers feature:

-Most natural, most beautiful leather with an ultra-soft handle.

-Most comfortable seating comfort due to breathability.

-Develops a patina and improves with age

– More sensitive to sunlight and requires more maintenance

 – Absorbs water immediately

– Completely uncovered hair follicles

 – No direct surface treatment

CORRECTED GRAIN LEATHER:

The natural grain of Corrected grain leather is completely removed by sanding. The surface is covered with a heavy large layer of pigment and protective lacquer and embossed with an artificial uniform grain. Corrected grain leather has a colder, firmer feel due to the correction process. It has regular texture that is printed onto the heavily pigmented surface.

CHARACTERISTICS:

-Consistent color

-Improved light fastness

-Good defect coverage

-Easy maintenance

PULL UP LEATHER

Aniline dyed leather. / Nu Buck.

Only selected bovine hide are used for Pull up leather.

“Pull up’’ refers to the change in color.

Pull up is a nu buck leather with a grease or wax finish.

When you flex the leather, it will change color to show where the oils are. This type of leather is sealed using natural oils instead of paints, pigments or topcoats.

Pull up leather is aniline dyed in the drum to create deep vibrant colours. It is finished with a combination of transparent waxes and oils, which gives the leather a very soft hand or feel.

The waxes and oils combine with the leather fibers to create a strong bond that makes pull up leather extremely durable.

Pull-up leather is aniline dyed in the drum to create deep, vibrant colors. It is finished with a combination of transparent waxes and oils, which gives the leather a very soft hand, or feel. When this leather is stretched or pulled, the color migrates and becomes lighter in the pulled areas. Drastic variations in light and dark areas increase as the leather is handled and stretched against the grain.

The “pull-up” becomes more evident as the leather is stretched tightly around furniture frames and other materials. As a pure aniline leather, marks, scratches, and signs of wear will show and a rich patina, or shine, will increase over time.

CHARACTERISTICS:

 Good touch & feel

Fashionable

Develops unique distressed look

The more pull up leather is handled, the more it resembles distressed leather. Both pull up and distressed leather are aniline dyed. However distressed hides have a matte surface, and it does not drastically lighten it’s appearance like pulling on a pull up leather.

 As the name implies, distressed leather is leather that is too damaged or marred in a way that causes it to look older, worn or even damaged. In most cases, this means scrapes and scratches from wear and tear over time, but you can also distress leather by cutting or burning it, or even by soaking it in water. The process of distressing leather doesn’t just make it look worn, but it also makes it more durable and less likely to crack or scratch along the lines of the damage.

NU BUCK

Nu buck is buffed and treated from the outermost layer (top grain) of the hide or animal. The Top grain layer is tougher and more resilient than the inner layer, which is used to make suede.

After the brushing or sanding process to give it the velvety feel and look, the nubuck leather can be dyed or stained to any color. It is soft to the touch and scratches easily. Rubbing the surface of the nubuck can make the color change as the direction of the short fibers changes. Sometimes nubuck can develop a patina with extended use.

Nu buck receives no protective finishing coat. Nu buck have a velvet-like feel

More vulnerable to soiling & staining due to Its rough surface. Scratches will leave marks. Immediately absorb water surface.

SEMI NU BUCK

A semi-Nu Buck is a nu buck leather which is partly finished

(Top Grain leather that has been buffed.) It looks like vintage leather due to the patina.

On some parts of the surface, you can see the rough of the nubuck while on other areas, the nubuck is covered with a thin irregular colour coating therefore the leather has a multi coloured surface and a patchy design.

This leather is very lightly sanded, pigmented leather. It is not sanded enough that it looks like a nu buck leather. Semi nu buck is buffed aniline leather with all the natural markings dyed through, giving a velvety suede touch, yet with an authentic rugged appearance. Shade variations are normal and add to the character of the aged look. This leather type will take on natural skin oils from body contact and will tend to go darker, shinier, and smoother in these areas – this is a natural occurrence and will enhance the characteristic of the leather with time.

GENUINE GEMSBOK:

This unique full aniline leather derived from this magnificent migratory antelope is strong, supple and silky to the touch. In order to survive in the very dry semi desert and desert conditions of the Kalahari and the Namib, gemsbok store water in their hide.

This result in a soft spongy like texture.

 Shade variations are normal and natural defects are very evident, mainly as a result of the struggle for dominance in the herd where sharp horns are used as instruments to battle damaging the hides.

BONDED LEATHER:

Bonded leather is not a durable product. Generally, furniture made from bonded leather is likely to peel and crack within two to five years.

Bonded leather can always, legally be called genuine leather. This is, because, scientifically speaking, it is real leather, however the quality of the material is not even close to the real thing as we understand it.

 Leather does not come in long industrial sheets like man made materials do. Factories that work with leather must work with the natural shapes and sizes of the animal hides. As you can imagine, this causes a lot of waste with cutoffs and small unusable pieces of hides.

These scraps are collected and send to a specializes factory to be made into bonded leather. The pieces are all ground together in a special machine in order to make a kind of mulch.

The different degrees of leather and chemicals in the mix hampers the look, feel and even smell, that are then resurfaced to look like the real deal, but are not even close.

These small pieces are then glued together with polyurethane and bonded leather is born.

LEATHER UPPER:

Certain sections are real leather.

Normally the contact areas. The rest is made of man-made material or a composite of synthetic leather

SPLIT LEATHER:

Split leather is the bottom part of the leather after being split. It’s sometimes called suede and has a nappy appearance. The first thing is to split the leather into layers. Split leather is often mistaken for being good quality leather because people attach the label “genuine leather” to the products. While the products may be made from real leather and not fake leather, it is not the highest quality of leather available, and thus people will find that their leather starts to split after a few years.

 LEATHER DICTIONARY:

OUTERMOST LAYER

One of the strongest layers of any skin/hide

Toughest, carry original grain marks of the animal.

This leather exposed to sunlight, wind, rain, and injuries from time to time.

 That’s why its more durable.

PLEASE NOTE:

Every hide is unique as it comes from a different animal with different markings and blemishes so when looking at or working with full grain leather, you’ll soon realize that no two hides are exactly the same.

 We always endeavor to provide a degree of uniformity, but to produce a sofa it may take at least three hides and as no two hides are identical there may be substantial variation in shade and texture even within the same hide.

Leather owes its inherent beauty to variations in the grain, texture and colour tones. These natural characteristics contribute to the uniqueness of each upholstered leather product. Leather is a natural product and therefore this guarantee does not cover natural characteristics of leather such as markings caused by insect bites, barbed wire, veining, abrasions, injuries to the animal, wrinkling or variations in grain or colour tones on different sections of the same leather product.

ANILINE DYE:

Aniline Dye is a very specific type of dye that does not contain any pigment or colouring. This means that the dye preserves the natural grain. Marking scars and wrinkles that are present in the hide without colouring it at all. In addition, during the process, the leather does not usually obtain a uniform colour, because the hide absorbs the dye at different rates. Even though there is no pigment in the dye, the oils that the aniline is mixed with still change the colour slightly. This process keeps the natural character of the leather and makes full aniline leather one of the most sough after types of leather.

PIGMENTED LEATHER:

Pigmented leather is the most highly treated – and therefore highly durable leather variety that we offer. During processing the hides are buffed, helping reduce scars and veining or branding. The leather is then coated with a colour pigment before the grain pattern is embossed into it.

THE 5 GRADES OF LEATHER:

FULL GRAIN

TOP GRAIN

CORRECTED GRAIN

SPLIT BONDED

WHY IS FULL GRAIN LEATHER STRONGER THAN TOP GRAIN LEATHER?

Full grain leather will always be stronger and more durable than top grain leather because by sanding down the top layer, you also sand off the strong fibers in the hide