Types of Leather Grades – For Raw Hides

When raw hides are produced by meatpackers, they immediately grade them. This grade is used to determine the quality of the raw hide, and enables accurate sales to tanneries. The tanneries will ultimately tan the hides, processing the raw material into a finished leather.

As such, it’s important to know exactly the qualities of leather they are receiving. This ensures they’ll have what’s needed to consistently produce quality finished leathers for the production of leather goods.

When grading raw hides, the inspectors will look for issues including holes, deep cuts, scars, large abrasions, discolorations, machine damage (from the skinning machines), remaining hair, and grain inconsistencies.

It is important to keep in mind, too, that many large ranch operations brand their cattle to denote ownership. Branding involves permanently burning a unique pattern (usually letters or initials) into the skin of the animal. A metal brand in the form of the pattern is heated, then pressed into the animal to leave the pattern permanently burned into the hide. While common, the brand impact to the hide quality is also accounted for in the grading process.

The hides will generally be graded as follows:

Leather Hide Grade – Number One

Number one hides are top grade hides. They generally have no major surface imperfections, holes, or cuts. If there are holes approximately 3-4 inches from the edge of the hides, and they can be trimmed away, they won’t affect the overall grade. About 80% of hides shipped to tanners should be a number one grade.

Leather Hide Grade – Number Two

A number two hide is allowed to have up to four holes or cuts, as long as they are located in a generally straight line on the hide. This would allow them to be cut around later, still yielding a sizable area of usable hide.

Holes should usually be less than 5” to be considered acceptable within a number two grade hide. Grain defects should also be no larger than approximately 1 ft. sq. in coverage area. Approximately 15%-20% of hides shipped to tanners have a number two hide grade.

Leather Hide Grade – Number Three

Number three hides generally have five or more holes or large cuts within the hide, ideally within a generally straight line. This would allow them to be cut around later, still yielding a sizable area of usable hide.

A single cut or hole over 6” can be allowed. There might also be grain defects, or a series of closely-located smaller holes that comprise a surface area larger than 1 ft. sq. In general, number three graded hides should at least yield a 50% usable surface area.

Generally, number three grade hides are only purchased by tanners when they have specifically agreed to purchase this grade of hide.

Leather Hide Grade – Untannable

Hides that do not meet the quality standards of grades number one, two, or three are deemed untannable. They are not shipped to tanners, and enter another viable channel for use of the raw animal hide materials, outside of the leather industry.

Types of Leather- Part 2-MTR Custom Leather

 

Leathers Dyed Different Colors

These are the most common ways leather is “graded”. The names, in reality, refer more to the way the leather has been split and the surface treated, than they do to actual “grades”. Though these variations do impact the performance and overall quality of a leather piece.

Thus, folks commonly refer to them as “grades of leather”. After, we’ll explore the actual grades that meatpackers use when evaluating hides for sale to tanneries. For an even deeper look into grain leather, click here for an article I wrote on that.

Full Grain Leather

This cut of leather contains the outer layout of the hide, referred to as the “grain”; it hasn’t been sanded or buffed to remove any imperfections. Generally, only the hair is removed on full grain leathers. The grain generally has densely packed fibers that are finer; this results in a surface that is very strong, durable, and can withstand tough use.

Because it undergoes no sanding, the surface can have minor imperfections. These might be from where a cow rubbed up against a fence, a small cut they might have received, or scrapes from everyday life. Full grain hides without many blemishes are the most prized, as they are least common and are the most visually appealing.

Those surface fibers are also what give it the most strength of any leather type. This makes it good for saddlery, footwear, and furniture. Since the outer layer isn’t removed, it develops a patina (a surface color change from use) over time that can be pleasing to the eye. The outer layer also provides some water-resistance qualities as well. Full Grain is looked upon as the highest quality leather available.

Top Grain Leather

This cut is very similar to full-grain, except that it has had the very top layer sanded and/or buffed to remove imperfections and irregularities in the finish. This makes the leather softer and more pliable, with various dyes and finished applied to it.

While this sanding makes it more visually appealing, it also removes a lot of the strength and some water-repellent qualities of full grain leather. This we begin to see a tradeoff between leather strength, and leather look and softness.

Given its softness and flexibility, top grain leather is often used in high end leather goods, including handbags, wallets, and shoes.

Genuine Leather (Corrected Leather)

Genuine leather can come from any layer of the hide, and undergoes treatment to the surface to provide a more uniform, “corrected”, appearance. It can be sanded or buffed to remove surface imperfections, then dyed (or spray painted) or stamped/embossed to give it a final surface appearance.

The process alters some of the preferred qualities of leather, so while not a top quality, it is often used for belts and similar goods.

Split Grain Leather

Split grain leather is a layered cut of leather from within the lower levels of the top grain area of the hide. It is usually a lower layer of the hide, above the flesh. Also, below the full grain and the best top grain cuts. Though, it still provides a useful leather material.

The natural surface of split grain leather is not as dense, tight, and useful as full grain and top grain. Thus, it is often used in finishes of leathers that are colored, embossed, and the surface altered in some significant way. This allows it to offer some of the helpful qualities of a leather material, while having a visually pleasing and often-functional surface beneficial for leather products.

Bonded Leather (Reconstituted Leather)

Bonded leather is like the scrapple or hot dogs of leather; it is made up of leather scraps that are finely shredded and bonded together using polyurethane or latex onto a fiber mesh or sheet. The amount of leather in the actual mix can vary greatly (from 10%-90%), and thus affect the functional and aesthetic properties of the finished product.

Bonded leather is often painted to give it color and could also be pressed/embossed to give it the appearance of a particular grain or leather style. For a deeper look, click here for my article about bonded leather.

Source: Types of Leather: All Qualities, Grades, Finishes, & Cuts

There are so many incredible types of leather available. Each has it’s own unique qualities that will benefit different project types or working styles.

The types of leather available include full grain, top grain, genuine, bicast, and bonded. Leather finishes include aniline, semi-aniline, brush-colored, degrained, die-cut, embossed, embroidered, handworked, metallic, nappa, nubuck, oily, patent, pigmented, printed, split, suede, and waxy.

It’s important to choose the right leather for your project to help ensure a great result. Let’s get familiar with all the different types.

Types of Leather

 

Leather Pieces & Swatches

Types of leather can be broken down into several different categories. We can look at the types of cuts, leather qualities, leather grades, leather finishes, types of leather by animal, types of leather with fur, even types of faux and vegan leather. There are some major differences between them.

Some of the variations are due to the manufacturing process. Some are due to the finishing process. Others are based on the type of animal hide, and yet others are how the leather is cut. We’ll dive into each of them in more detail.

The “5 Types of Leather”

While there are many types of leather, often, folks will be curious about the “5 types of leather”. What they are generally referring to are the volume and layers of the original hide that are still present in the end product. These are full grain, top grain, genuine, split grain, and bonded leather, and much detail about each will be shared.

The material quality and characteristics vary based on from where in the hide the finished leather comes from. Leather quality can also be influenced by many, many factors. These can include the breed of animal, climate they lived in, food they are fed, and amount of exercise they had. Hides are a natural material, and thus, highly impacted by the life of the animals that they come from.

Leather quality can also be affected by the meatpacking, tanning, and finishing processes utilized during production. Along with the leather grades consumers are familiar with, we’ll look into leather grades the tanners use when evaluating hides coming from the meatpackers.

What is a Leather Hide?

Great! Let’s start here. The leather hide is the skin removed from an animal. Since it is a natural substance, it has unique characteristics and qualities that help it serve a purpose for the animal it was a part of.

It usually forms a protective barrier. This keeps the internal parts of the animal safe. It also, along with hair or fur, guards from external elements such as sun, water, abrasions, and other things in daily life. Here is a cross-section image showing the layers of a leather hide.

 

Leather Hide Cross-Section

It is made up of a few layers:

Leather Hide – The Grain

The grain is the outermost surface of the leather hide. It is comprised of tight, dense fibers. The grain is the layer that was exposed to the elements (air, rain, sun, etc.), and is usually very strong and smooth once the hair is removed.

Leather Hide – The Grain and Corium Junction

The grain and corium junction is where the tight, outer layer of the leather blends into the looser fibers of the corium. This junction is a mix of the very desirable grain layer, and the more fibrous and looser fibers of the corium layer.

Leather Hide – Corium

The corium is a layer within animal hides that is comprised mainly of collagen fibers. These are looser and more open than in the grain layer. Though, this layer is highly usable for producing leather. The corium is usually the thickest layer within an animal hide. Thus, after splitting a hide, parts of the corium might be present in either top grain or genuine leather products.

Leather Hide – Flesh

The flesh is the layer of the hide that consists mainly of muscle and fatty tissues. It is not very valuable for end leather uses. As such, leather is usually split to remove the layers above it, yielding useable material of different grades and qualities for the production of leather goods.

When considering grades and quality of leather, it’s key to understand how the leather is prepared, cut, and finished. Let’s look at the most common methods.

Source: Types of Leather: All Qualities, Grades, Finishes, & Cuts