Why Vegetable-Tanned Leather Is So Expensive | So Expensive 

At first I thought it was about a Vegetable made Leather 😀

Leatherworker here. There is a vast difference in the quality between veg tan and chrome tan. The problem is that because chrome tan is so damned cheap it's very difficult to explain to the masses why your leather wallet you made to sell costs so much. They want it as a rock bottom price which doesn't even cover the leather let alone the time investment. I totally feel for leatherworkers trying to make a living. I just do it as a hobby.

I have a over 100 years old doctors bag that my fiances Italian greatgrandma gave me and the leather on it looks incomparable to every other leather item I have ever seen

😳after watching this I finally decided that regardless of the price this will be the leather of my choice, I loved how the colours become warmer with age. Thank you for making this film it really did help with my personal debate I had been having with myself originally over the cost when I had been sourcing leather for a project. It might cost more up front but now I see that over it’s life once turned into something the natural way of tanning will help ensure my project will age gracefully 😊😊

Veg tan leather is all I use in my leather carving projects. Making wallets, and cases is expensive for just the material going into them. My time isn't even included in that. In the end, this material can be used to make incredible things that last.

Imagine the smells in that place

I genuinely thought it was made out of vegetables-

Love it when Italians try explaining their craftsmanship. So passionate about everything.❤

That s one of the best, most accurate, and truest to the craft documentaries I ve ever seen on leather making. Congratulations.

We just started selling Veg-Leather where I work & this was VERY insightful on the process and how it’s different - THANK YOU !

Let's all AGREE on this... everything is expensive these days.

"this large wood rotating vessel, known as a drum" no way, you're pulling my leg

Love that Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas “Thy Hand Belinda” features in this video 👌🏻

Excellent series of videos. Thank you for sharing.

I really enjoy this series. Very informative!

Very interesting. Chrome tanned leather is great for bags, jackets, and furniture, but when it comes to tooled pieces you really wouldn't want anything else other than veg tanned leather. Also chrome tanned leather will assist in steel rusting when it comes to knife sheaths and gun holsters you are going to want veg tan unless you are doing like a kydex one. I'm an armature leather worker. I just make things for fun, or gifts. I love using chrome tanned for things like dice bags, and sometimes costume pieces if I want to try and be ambitious. But when it comes to the occasional time I make a sheath, or holster I will use nothing but veg tanned. At least for any leather that will touch the blade, or metallic parts of a firearm.

Super informative! Thank you! I just bought a Bayswater bag by Mulberry😊 It’s a Legacy Natural Vegetable Tanned leather bag in the colour Oak and I love it so much.

New season is ON... Very excited 😁

This background music had my pinky in the air the entire time. Fancy yes

it just seams like the craftsmanship is italy and japan is unmatched

I enjoy working with all kinds of leather but veg tan its just a fine piece of craft that will out live you!

Her voice is so soothing,good presentation 🙂

Any tannic vegetable matter can be used to make vegetable-tanned leather. Oak leaves are good. Swamps work for curing as well.

I need the fastest Pershing Yacht and I want my entire interior outlined in vegetable leather. Lights and darks.

I work in Arzignano’s (Vicenza, Veneto) leather district. It’s quiet bigger than Santa Croce’s(Tuscany) district. In Arzignano I tan with Chrome and GDA (glutaraldehyde) every day, and I can say that this type of leathers are very different in features than vegetables tan. There is very good Chrome tanned leather and bad chrome tanned leather. With chrome and GDA the story is different than Vegetables tan, usually the industries make, from raw hides to wet blue or wet white, a standard product. The main features of the final product are made with re-tanning, neutralization, fat liquoring and drying methods. For example is used to add in re-tanning vegetables tannin or synthetic tannin to Chrome leather to emulate the Tuscany ones, this is made a lot for shoes leather. An important step is the finishing of the leather and this is another world. I hate when I hear “vegetables leather are the best in the world”, yes they have an unique look and they are amazing, but I wake up at 4 a.m every day to tan hides, and I work for 9 hours a day. I stay all the day near the drums to check pH every hour, to check that the all process is going fine, I give to the hides all my attentions. It’s a passion after all. Also in chrome and GDA leather there is hard work, passion and love for the product.

The Cow is the Perfect Machine providing Dairy, Meat, Leather and Fertilizer.

Saddler here, my hand stitching will outlast any machine stitch ! Old Ways Are Good Ways ! !

this has to be one of the few products on this channel where the price is justified

I've got a veg tan belt i've had for over half my life, the buckle wore out before the leather did

Very interesting!

My brain: It's 3 AM and we have school tomorrow Me: Hmm I wonder how vegetable-tanned leather is made

Those leather bags and chair looks so good. Like I don't know of it's the dye as well, but it definitely looks supple. This might be the first So expensive product that I genuinely want.

Veg tan ages well too. It will develop a beautiful patina with use and if properly cared for will last generations. Buy from quality manufacturers like Corter leather over LV or Hermès and you will have a beautiful one time purchase as opposed to a mediocre purchase you’ll need to make every 5-10 years.

Large wooden rotating vessel called DRUM. Thank you.

I now have so much Respect for leather Something i was lacking

in morocco, we have high-quality leather 100 % natural after a lot of steps...

I would love some of that vegtan! Wow

Nice video.

I just saw Bangladesh - chrome base tanning process. Ha. What a relief and cozy.

Now I know why my vegetable tan leather roll is soooooooo expensive

I like that they aren't killing the animal for the leather, rather it's more so using every single part of the animal.

Didn't mention the most common source from my understanding is oak bark for tannings agent.

I bought bag of veg tanned leather for my wife. It's really soft and beautiful. It's expensive but worth it

As a biochemist, this look into tanning actually looks more like a primitive plastic construction then anything else. Since the tannins tend to be benzene rings with alcohol or OH groups on the ends which the collagen will bind to which is also what most early plastic monomers were. The big difference between plastics and leather is that plastics often polymerize an entirely new physical network while the tannins in the leather are binding to a pre-existing physical mesh. In that way, I guess fiber glass could be considered a type of leather as it essentially has plastic-forming monomers branch and bind together multiple layers of pre-existing paper sheets kind of similarly to the way those monomers would like sheets of, or I guess threads because collagen forms into strings/threads, collagen to form leather

This is art

Love my vegetable tanned boots :)

Chrome tan comes out supple out of the shop. Veg tan is not inherently better or worse than chrome tan. It's just suited for different products.

I have veg tan handbag it just feels better and smells very nice

Patina... What a wonderful word

As a leatherworker my self, the things wrong with this video is mind-boggling....

To clarify: vegetable-tanned leather is *not* the same as vegan leather. 😂 Still interesting to watch and learn! Thanks!

Now this is art!

I love my Louis Vuitton vachetta leather wallets. And yes they ARE worth the extra cost, and NO it is not for the brand or logo. The quality is incredible.

beautiful

Now, I've just realised the origin of the name Chromepet in Chennai (being once the centre of leather tanning industry in Tamilnadu).

I think the price of the shoes was more due to the cordwainers hard work... I can buy a full hide of veg tanned leather for about £120

L'ascia Chio Panga. Beaaaautiful piece of music

WOWZERS! 21 days, No wonder it's so EXPENSIVE!

I love making leather knife sheets from veg tan leather.

Is it veg dyed as well?

Nothing better than original leather.

1:34 Gorgeous image, anyone know where I can find it?

I love the sound of her 🌈💙❤️💙❤️

Aw yes making leather nice and sustainable

Leathercrafter here! Haven’t even gone through the intro without hearing inaccuracies so please consider these videos as for entertainment purposes only not educational.

Horween in the U.S. also does vegetable tanned leather. Their famous horseleather called "shell cordovan" is vegetable tanned.

i thought they made leather out of vegetables

Nice

Anyone know what the background music is?

I need all my leathers made out this

That's a mighty fine couch he's sitting on.

🤌 🇮🇹 this is why it’s so expensive.

Wanted to ask any leather expert here ! What's the best way to look after leather products- mainly furniture, bags and watch straps, please ! TIA !

most luxury brand leather goods are chrome tanned, much cheaper than veg tanned ones.

I only use vegetable tanned full grain leather

And I thought that this leather was made from plants 😀

Anyone know what tannery brand is this leather factory?

Just like most people. When I read the title, I also thought leather made from vegetables.

Wow Amazing 😮 👏 😍 👌 Welcome 🙏 🙏 🙏

I wish to see them make why leather boots are expensive

While vegetable tanned leather is very often good quality, chrome tanned and leathers tanned using a combination of the two can be just as good. Just look at Horween's famous chromexcel leather.

Nice. I am sure that they´ll easily survive compared to the swordmakers from a few days ago.

What is the music at the beginning of this video?

I bet it smells really bad but also really good in the factory.

Some say that Demiurge use the same method in making his leather items and scrolls.

Important note to emphasize is that any average person will absolutely choose means New chrome tanned leather over brand new vegetable tan leather unless that vegetable tan leather is extremely fitting to that specific persons personal preference. New vegetable tan doesn’t look better at all. Ours about longevity

This video explains nothing about cost of goods and manufacturing. Therefore, it fails to explain why vegetable tanned skin leather is so expensive.

The "problem" with vegetable tanned leather is people want their leather products to look the same forever.

It's not *that* expensive. Tuscan dyed vegitan is expensive cause it's the Ferrari of the leather world.

Good carving leather is hard to find.

Tannins are also why things taste bitter and dry

As a leather worker, I can confirm leather is very expensive lol. One shoulder (aka half a full hide) can be anywhere from 80-200 dollars

Leather is basically a skin suite

Theres a reason people brag about "itallian leather" its in a league of its own

Where can I buy vegetable tanned sheepskin?

If you think veg-tanned leather is expensive, look at brain tanning.

I am a leather worker and carver. Only veg-tan can be tooled.

I tell you something this leather this vegetable tan leather is so premium and so expensive even the manufacturers speak in fancy languages I don't understand.

name of piece of music that starts at 1:03 ? Must be baroque era or something

Waiting for video " why are Miyazaki mangoes so expensive. | So expensive.