Whenever I buy a new leather and launch it on the store pages I always compose a brief description of the leather. In doing so I often mention the type of leather it is. I’m frequently asked about this, and so I thought it would be a good idea to write a short blog post explaining what the different types of leather are, and what makes them different from each other.
In general there are 4 main types of leather, depending on which part of the animal skin has been used to produce the leather, as follows:
Full Grain leather.
Full grain leather is leather that has not been treated in any way to disguise or correct the natural texture of the animal skin. Full grain leathers come from the very outermost layers of the animal skin where the grain is (hence “full grain”), and during the production process nothing is done to remove any imperfections (or natural marks) that may be present on the surface of the hide. The grain is left fully intact which results in a strong & durable leather that will develop a beautiful patina during it’s lifetime. Full grain leather is generally considered to be the highest quality leather there is, and the vast majority of the leathers I use are full grain.
Top Grain leather.
Top Grain leather is considered second best grade to full grain leather and is the most common type of leather for most high-end leather goods. It is treated in a similar way to full grain leather, but during the production process there will be some minimal sanding to remove some of the imperfections present in the leather. Top grain leathers remain as strong and durable as full grain leathers, but maybe loose a little of the character as a result.
Corrected Grain leather.
A corrected grain leather is a leather that has been heavily sanded and is normally produced from skins that have too many imperfections to be used to produce either full grain or top grain leathers. During the production process any imperfections are sanded off and often an artificial grain pattern is embossed into the surface.
Split leather.
Most animal skins are quite thick, and so have to be split into thinner layers to make them useful. Once the top layers have been removed (to produce one of the three leather types above) what remains can be made into a split leather. The split will usually have an artificial layer bonded to it, which will have an embossed grain pattern to make it look like the leathers we know. Split leathers are cheap, but because the grain has been removed they will never develop a rich patina in the same way a full or top grain leather will. As a result I don’t use them as they just don’t have the character I look for (with one exception – all suede leathers are made from splits).
It goes without saying that to a large extent the quality of a finished watch strap is determined by the quality of the leather used, so I always use the best quality leathers available. The vast majority of the leathers I use are full grain leathers. I believe that the natural marks and imperfections that can be present in them add to the character of my straps, and because the full grain is left intact they will develop a beautiful patina with some wear. That’s not to say that I will ignore top grain or corrected grain leathers though – if I find something that looks interesting and has a good structure it will be considered, but I prefer working with full grain leathers.