Home | Training | Leather Terms 1 | Leather Terms 2

Terms in General Use In the Leather Industry     Part 3

Pickled Sheepskins – Unsplit sheep and lambskins, from which the wool has been removed, treated with a solution of salt and acid to preserve them until tanning operation begins.

Pigment Finish – Denotes leather whose surface is coated with a material containing pigment or other opaque material.

Pigskin Leather – Leather made from the skins of pigs or hogs. Peccary and carpincho leather can be included in this term.

Pin Seal or Pin Grain – Name commonly applied to natural grain of high-grade sealskin, tanned for fancy leather. Also imitated on sheepskin, goatskin, calfskin, and cowhide, but these should be described as “pin-grain sheepskin,” “pin-grain goatskin,” etc.

Plastic Patent – A material made from vinyl resins or other materials to resemble patent leather. According to Federal Trade Commission rulings, use of the term “plastic patent leather” is incorrect.

Rawhide – This is the usual American name, which has spread largely to other English-speaking countries, for cattlehide that has been dehaired and limed, often stuffed with oil or grease, and has sometimes undergone other preparatory processes, but has not been tanned. Rawhide is used principally for mechanical purposes – for belt lacings and pins, loom pickers, gaskets, pinions, gears, and also trunk binding, luggage, etc. Some rawhide has the hair left on.

Retanned Leather – Leather which has been given an additional tannage with similar or other tanning materials.

Reverse Retan – Leather tanned first with vegetable tannin and then with chromium compounds.

Reversed Calf – Term applied to calf leather of heavier weights, finished on flesh side, containing oils to make it more water-resistant than suede, used for shoes where a nappy leather is required. Originally called “Trench Calf” in England, the term “Hunting Calf” is also used in that country. The term “Service Leathers” is used but is generally applied to splits and side leather.

Rigging Leather – A strong flexible, vegetable tanned leather.

Roller Leather – Special vegetable tanned leather for covers of the upper rolls of cotton-spinning machinery. Tanned from certain classes of sheep, lamb, and calfskins.

Rough Tanned – See “In the Rough.”

Russet – A term of varied meaning in the leather trade, since it connotes both color and tannage. Russet Calf is the natural color of unfinished calf leather resulting from tannage by vegetable extracts. Russet Harness is a completely finished leather of uniform color and finish. Russet Sheepskin, used for shoe linings, is leather tanned in cold-leached hemlock bark, with color resulting from the hemlock. Russet Upholstery is leather tanned but not finished.

Saddle Leather – As used in the manufacture of harness and saddlery, term refers to a vegetable tanned cattlehide. The leather is usually a tan shade, is produced in various thicknesses and is also used outside the saddlery trade for leather goods of various types. In connection with other tannages, the term should be used to specify the leather as “saddle color,” “saddle shade” or “saddle finish.” “California Saddle Leather” is a registered trade name restricted to a leather tanned by a tanner located in the state of California.

Saladero Hides – South American hides corresponding to all hides produced in the United States by the larger “small packers.”

Satin Finish – A dull or mat finish on leather as distinguished from a “glazed” finish.

Scotch Grain – A pebbled pattern embossed usually on cattlehide or calf leather made to resemble the heavy leather with a coarse grain which originated in Scotland.

Sealskin – See “Walrus.”

Shank – That portion of the hide which formed the leg of an animal.

Sharkskin – Genuine sharkskin leather is made from the top grain of hides of certain species of sharks and is used principally in shoes, belts, wrist-watch straps, luggage, fine leather goods and for industrial purposes. It has varying, natural grain markings, or fine, smooth mesh-like grain similar to pin seal. The term “sharkskin leather” should not be applied to other leathers, such as horse butts, embossed with a shark grain.

Shearlings – Leather made from short wooled sheep or lambskins, sheared before slaughter, the wool being left on the skin when tanned, used for such items as garments and slippers.

Shell – A portion from the butt end of a horsehide, from which leather of tight, firm fiber structure and fine grain is made. See also “Cordovan.”

Shoe Leather – This term is self explanatory and embraces a variety of leathers including; (1) Sole Leather, made chiefly from cattlehides comprising both the heavier grades used for the outer soles of shoes and the lighter grades and offal used to a greater or lesser extent for heels, insoles, toecaps, counters, etc. (2) Upper Leather, made principally from calfskins, goatskins, pigskins and cattlehides for shoe leather that covers the upper part of the foot. (3) Miscellaneous shoe leathers including welting, lining stock, tongue stock, facing stock, etc.

Shoulder – That part of the hide between the neck and the main body of the hide.

Side – Half a whole hide, cut longitudinally.

Side or Side-Upper Leather – Term for describing shoe upper leather consisting of the hair-side of cattlehides finished in a variety of grains or colors. The name originated from the practice of dividing a hide along the backbone into two halves or “sides.”

Skin – Pelt from a young or small animal (sheep, calf, goat, etc.).

Skirting Leather – A specialized vegetable tanned cattlehide leather used for skirts or hanging portions of saddles that come between the legs of a rider and the horse.

Skiver – The grain-split of a sheepskin, used for a great variety of purposes which include sweat bands for hats, bag linings, bookbinding, pocketbooks, and fancy leather goods.

Slats – Sheepskin in the dried untanned condition, without wool, or with short wool of no commercial value.

Slunk – The skin of an unborn or prematurely born animal, especially calf.

Small Packer Hide – The hide of an animal slaughtered in one of the smaller meat packing establishments with fewer facilities for specialization than the “big” packers.

Snuffed Finish – Leather which has had the outer surface of the grain lightly removed by fine abrasive paper. Also known as “Corrected Grain.”

Snuffed Top Grain – Corrected Top Grain. See “Hand Buffs”

Sole Leather – See “Shoe Leather .”

Spanish Grain – Finish produced by embossing on fancy or upholstery leather a modified natural grain which formerly was produced by drawing or striking a hide or a skin in a strong tan liquor to shrink the grain, the result being to form a particular pattern on the surface, owing to unequal shrinking of different portions.

Spew – A portion of the oily constituents of leather that comes to the grain surface in the form of white crystallized or dark gummy deposits. Sometimes the spelling of “spue” is used.

Split – A term used to describe the under portion of a hide or skin, split into two or more thicknesses.

Steerhide – Leather made from the hides of steers, usually a heavy leather for soles, beltings, etc., although the term is sometimes used to cover any cattlehide leather, especially in the fancy leather goods trade.

Strap Leather – See “Traveling Bag, Suitcase and Strap Leather.”

Stuffed Leather – Leather which has had wax or grease worked into the substance of the leather. See “Wax Finish.”

Suede Finish – A finish produced by running the surface of leather on a carborundum or emery wheel to separate the fibers in order to give the leather a nap. The grain side of a leather may be suede-finished, but the process is most often applied to the flesh surface. The term “suede” when used alone refers to leather only. The term denotes a finish, not a type of leather.

Table Run or Tannery Run – Terms used to describe leather which has not been sorted or graded before being sold.

Tawing – An old English term applied to the process of making leather with alum to distinguish it from leather tanned with vegetable agents.

Tear-Offs – Small pieces of leather, less than half a skin, which are torn from a skin during the staking or other tanning operations.

Texas Steers – Usually side-branded steer hides of a narrow close compact pattern, and plump; not necessarily from Texas.

Top Grain – The grain split of a hide from which nothing has been removed except the hair and associated epidermis.

Top Grain Snuffed – A term used to describe upholstery leather of the same type as full top grain except that the surface of the hide is lightly snuffed or sandpapered all over. Such snuffing removes only the top of the hair follicles. Also known as “Hand Buffs,” “Corrected Top Grain,” and “Snuffed Top Grain.”

Traveling Bag, Suitcase and Strap Leather – A general term for leather used in traveling bags and suitcases. It does not include the light leathers employed for women’s handbags. The staple material for bag and case leather at present is leather made from the hides of animals of the bovine species, but other skins, including heavy sealskins and goatskins, are also used for this purpose.

Unborn Calf – See “Slunk.”

Upholstery Leather – A general term for leather used for furniture, airplanes, buses and automobiles. The staple raw material in this country consists of large or “spready” cattlehides, split at least once and in many cases two or three times. The top cuts go into the higher grades and the splits into the lower grades.

Upper Leather – See “Shoe Leather.”

Valve Leather – See “Hydraulic Leathers.”

Veals – Designates a large calfskin, almost as large as a kip.

Vegetable Tannage – A generic term to cover the process of making leather by the use of tannins obtained from barks, woods or other parts of plants and trees, as distinguished from “mineral tannages.”

Vellum – See “Parchment.”

Velvet Finish – See “Suede Finish.”

Vici Kid – Trade name for chrome tanned, glazed kid leather.

Wallaby Leather – Tanned from skins of the wallaby, which is a small or medium-sized species of the kangaroo.

Walrus – Leather made from the hide of walrus. Walrus hide is of such thickness that it is generally used for leather for buffing wheels. When split it is used for bag leather. It is difficult to distinguish between leather made of seal and walrus hides after tanning and splitting and the names are often used interchangeably. “Walrus Grain” is sometimes imitates on cattlehides, sheepskins and goatskins as well as on splits from hides of various animals. In such cases, the proper descriptions are “Walrus-grained Cowhide” or “Walrus Grain on Goatskin,” etc. The term “walrus leather” when used in the luggage industry is generally regarded in the trade as being genuine sealskin leather on which a simulation of walrus grain has been embossed.

Washable Leather – Leather which can be washed under normal washing conditions and will retain dimension, color and other physical characteristics.

Water Repellent Leather – A leather which has been treated with any of several chemical compounds which repel the absorption of external water.

Wax Finish – A method of finishing heavier weights of upper leather on the flesh side by working wax into the substance.

Welting Leather – A term used to describe a curried leather made tough and soft. Leather welting is used in making welt shoes as the uniting material between the shoe upper, sole and insole.

Willow Grain – See “Boarded Leathers.”

Woolskins – Sheepskins tanned with the wool on. See also “Shearlings.”

Home | Training | Leather Terms 1 | Leather Terms 2

phone 732.609.3380
email  jochs@refinishcoatings.com