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Columbia Encyclopedia entry: leather

Leather, skin or hide of animals, cured by tanning to prevent decay and to impart flexibility and toughness. Prehistoric and primitive peoples preserved pelts with grease and smoke and used them chiefly for shoes, garments, coverings, tents, and containers. Today pelts are prepared for tanning by dehairing, usually with lime, followed by fleshing and cleaning. After tanning, leather is generally treated with fats to assure pliability. The practice of shaving leather to the required thickness was abandoned early in the 18th cent. after the invention of a machine that split the tanned leather into a flesh layer and a grain (hair-side) layer; skivers are thin, soft grains used for linings and for covering firm surfaces. Characteristic grains may be brought out by rubbing, as in morocco leather (goatskin), or may be imitated by embossing. Finishes include glazing, a high glaze being achieved by rolling with glass cylinders; coloring with stains or dyes; enameling or lacquering as for patent leather; and sueding, buffing with emery or carborundum wheels to raise a nap, usually on the flesh side. Russia leather, originally vegetable-tanned calfskin dressed with birch oil that imparted a characteristic odor and often dyed red with brazilwood, is a term now covering a number of variants. Rawhide is similar to parchment and is untanned. Cordovan, or Spanish, leather, a soft, colored leather made at Córdoba during the Middle Ages and often richly modeled and gilded, is imitated for wall coverings, panels, and screens. Leather is much used in bookbinding. Artificial leather, made since about 1850, was originally a strong fabric coated with a rubber composition or with a synthetic substance such as pyroxylin. Since World War II, materials made from vinyl polymers have far outstripped the earlier artificial leathers in commercial importance.

Wikipedia search results for: Leather

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. The leather and the fur industries are differentiated by the manufacturing importance of the raw materials used to make the wares. In the leather industry, the skin and rawhide are by-products of the meat industry, because the meat has greater commercial value than the rawhide and skin. In the fur industry, the meat is a by-product, because the skins and hides have greater commercial value. Moreover, in taxidermy, the raw materials usually are only the animal’s head and back; hide and skin also are the raw materials for...more »

Columbia Encyclopedia search results: leather

Results 1 - 10 of 387

morocco, type of leather
Morocco, goatskin leather, dyed on the grain side and boarded by hand or machine to bring up the grain in a bird's-eye effect. It probably originated with the Arabs in North Africa as an alum-...
Haverhill
Haverhill, city (1990 pop. 51,418), Essex co., NE Mass., on the Merrimack River; inc. as a town 1641, as a city 1870. Formerly one of the nation's leading shoe producers, Haverhill processes l...
Soka
Soka, city (1990 pop. 206,132), Saitama prefecture, E central Honshu, Japan. It is a suburb of Tokyo that produces pulp, leather, and metal.
upholstery
Upholstery, general term for household fittings, hangings, curtains, cushions, and covers. It refers to stuffed, padded, and spring-cushioned furniture, such as chairs and sofas, or to the usu...
Badalona
, city (1990 pop. 225,207), Barcelona prov., NE Spain, in Catalonia. It is a Mediterranean port and an important industrial suburb of Barcelona, with textile, chemical, leather, and glass manu...
Endicott
Endicott, village (1990 pop. 13,531), Broome co., S central N.Y., on the Susquehanna River; settled c.1795, inc. 1906. Shoes and leather are manufactured in Endicott.
Ercolano
Ercolano, formerly Resina, city (1991 pop. 61,233), Campania, S Italy, on the Bay of Naples. Situated on the site of ancient Herculaneum, it has fine villas and gardens and produces leather go...
Freital
Freital, city (1994 pop. 38,230), Saxony, E Germany; founded 1921. Manufactures of this industrial city include high-quality steel, machinery, leather and glass products. Coal was mined there ...
Kawanishi
Kawanishi, city (1990 pop. 141,253), Hyogo prefecture, central Honshu, Japan, on the Ina River. It is an agricultural and commercial center that produces leather, dyed cloth, hats, and garden ...
Kesennuma
Kesennuma, city (1990 pop. 65,578), Miyagi prefecture, NE Honshu, Japan, on Kesennuma Bay. A fishing port, its industries include textiles and rubber and leather goods.

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