Tiger Leather

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here at Tiger Leather we had a representative that walked use through the process of making leather, the different types of leather, and the different of projects they do. He also walked us through the studio, the work area where they produce the leather and how they produced the leather samples.

He explained how it is made using a process called tanning. Tanning is the process of   treating the raw animal hide with chemicals. Three phases make up the tanning process, which consist of preparing, tanning, and processing the tanned leather.

The representative also went over the dying process and the three ways in order to dry leather. One way is Toggle drying. This is when hides are hung on hooks so moisture can evaporate. This drying method is the most timely and causes shrinkage of the hide out of all the methods. The second process is vacuum drying. This is when they suck out all the water from the hide also causing it to shrink. The last one is air drying. This is consisting of hanging up or laying down the hide to dry.

A third area he covered was how to decide if a hide is real or if it’s vinyl, which is a cheaper way to substitute leather. One way of finding out if a hide is real is if you check the back of the hide. If it is a fabric material and not a soft backing from the hide then it is fake. Another way is dropping water on it, if it is real the water should sit on the top of the leather because it is slightly water repellent and doesn’t soak in as fast.