The Tanning and Finishing Process of Optima Leathers 

please email us at info@optimaleathers.com

This is a difficult question that i dont expect you will get a good response on. all leathers up to about 1980s were made using a vegetable tanning process. natural barks and tannins were used to preserve the leather. the by product could safely be poured on your lawn if you wanted, and the tanning solution was far less damaging on the leather itself. the leather would come out with a nice, natural colour, and the fibers were far less damaged in the tanning process. however, it would take much longer (weeks, rather than hours), and the leather felt more stiff right from the tannery and needed time to be broken in. as a result, the chromium tanning process took over. almost all leather today is manufactured with this process, however, the byproducts are extremely dangerous and need to be carefully managed. also, the leather is also far more damaged and discoloured after the tanning process. in order to hide the blue colours, tanneries will have to heavily dye their leathers. you can find many vegetable tanned hides that sill show their beautiful grains through a fairly translucent finish (check out horween or wickett and craig). however, the opaque dyes of the chrome tanning process leaves the hides looking a little flat and even. as a result, they will be stamped with this cell like grain to give some surface variation. after nearly 40 years of this stamped effect dominating the market, consumers now expect this artificial grain pattern on "premium" leathers and believe this is what leather naturally looks like. there are a few chrome tanned leathers where they use dyes to make the effect of surface variations, but this is still not the true grain, which is well hidden. anyway, chrome tanned leather isnt "bad", it has its place in garment and furniture since it is softer and cheaper, but look for veg tan wherever possible. its better for the environment, more rugged, and will show patina with use (whereas chrome tan will just wear out).

Lower quality hides, with more surface markings such as insect bites, scratches from thorny bushes, stone walls, fences etc are usually embossed. This hides the worst of the defects and allows more of the hide to be used. Auto manufacturers design their own particular grains (such as BMW's Dakota & Montana, Range Rover Taurus) and apply it to their leather trimmed cars, but these are usually the lower priced trim lebels. The higher priced trim levels (such as Range Rover Vogue/Autobiography) will use a natural Nappa type of leather with no artificial embossed grain, but a higher quality hide is required as every marking will be visible. These hides as a result are more expensive, but look better and feel softer because they are not subject to the immense pressure that is applied by the plate or roller that imparts the grain. So in short, embossed/grained leathers are more economical for the trimmer to use compared to the natural Nappa or semi aniline types, but they do not look as good, or feel as soft as the leathers that do not have the artificial grain embossed onto them, Yes you are correct, many people are not aware that it is a fake grain and that a natural grain by contrast, is smooth.

Hi, this Isabirye from Uganda (Africa), please can you help me with your feeding process of retanning thanks