Tanning
This process, which takes about 48 hours, makes the hides stable and easy to handle. The hides turn a grey-blue colour.
Splitting
The 6 to 8 mm thick hide is split in two. The upper part is known as grained leather, while the lower part is called split leather. We use the split to apply parts to the furniture that are not seats and wear surfaces. The grained leather – the upper part of the hide, that is – is very hardwearing and is used in the furniture industry, for example, where high durability is required.
Sorting
Final inspection of the grained leather takes place manually. The leather is sorted according to damage to the grain: the finest hides with the least damage are turned into aniline or semi- aniline. Only 5% of hides are turned into exclusive aniline leather. Note that a sem ianiline leather may only be called semi aniline if the grain is untouched. The leather is called corrected leather if the grain is ground before dyeing. Hides with a lot of marks are ground and corrected and turned into a standard leather, which has an embossed pattern and no open pores at all – a corrected leather, but still a grained leather.
Dyeing through
All the hides are dyed through, which gives them their final base colour.
Drying
The hides are stretched and dried in different ways depending on what they are going to be made into.
Testing
Testing of the final product is very important in order to determine the durability, flame retardance, lightfastness, dry chafing, wet chafing, sweat chafing, finish adhesion, tear strength and thickness of the leather. All these aspects are tested on each batch of finished leather. It takes about 4 to 6 weeks to get from rawhide to finished leather.