Questions and Answers

Please find below the communication received from visitors of the site. These are mostly queries related to leather and its usage. (The email addresses have been removed to aoid spamming.

No	Date	From	Question	Answer
1	13 Oct 2003	Catherine	what is the international genuine leather symbol?	There is a symbol awarded by BLC Leather Technology Centre, UK in many countries. You can look at it here.http://www.blcleathertech.com/lmark/index.htm Some countries have symbols of their own. For example chinese leather association manages a certification for Chinese products.
2	21 Sep 2003	Samsuzana Aziz	I bought a lather coat by Cherokee®, and it is my interest to know what type of animal skin they used for this coat. Since Muslims cannot have any contact with pig, I'm worried if the leather is from pig skin. Do you have any guide for me to identify specificaly the leather made from pig skin? The link below is the information about the coat I bought. picture of the coat.
3	3 Aug 2003	Caroline Whitbeck	Hi! Hoping you could help me out here. I just purchased a purse from a vintage store and the lady assured me that it was real crocodile. How can I tell if it is real versus embossed? Do you have any tips to share? If so, please e-mail me at EMAIL REMOVED. Thanks for your help!
4	30 May 2003	anneke van steijn	Recently I bought a (very expensive) leather jacket. Putting it on at home, I found out that it makes a lot of noise; it creaks. Do you have a solution?
5	16 May 2003	Minh Huynh	I would like to ask what is the normal/minimum lightfastness performance for leather jacket you would recommend? Please state British standard if possible
6		PatriciaLynn12	First I would like to start by saying I found your site to be extremely well written and amazingly easy to follow and understand. So much so that I continued to read on well after I had found what I was looking for. All my life I have used or owned leather products from saddles and horse tack to boots , purses and even a little garment leather. And even dabbled into leather crafts and toolings. But I never considered my an expert and even less able to relate the differences in leathers but there was something about qualitly leather that stands out could never put my finger on it. but could recognize it when i seen it or handled it. What started a few years ago as a product in our store ( baseball pro shop) to carry mainly for onditioning and waterproofing use on baseballs gloves and cleates. A product I myself had used and found it to very good . However, now i have become a distributor for this line and in the process of building a web site for it. I became more aware of even thou I use some sort of leather product every day . I really don't know as much as I should. And this became even more apparent to myself when i started to write a page for the site on leather care and tips. So I started doing soem research.... (I'm on of those annoying people that refuse to make claims about a product that i know are untrue or if i can't back it up from reliable sources). I ran across you site and was impressed that your information was just that untainted by sales pitch ... straight information. Which in my view made your information so valuable. I would very much like to link your site to mine I think it would help educate my dealers on leathers and give them a source to turn to for information should they be asked about certain leathers that they have had not experience with. The product of my site is one if you , with your expert knowlege of leather have used or tried I would so very much be very appreiatative if you could express to me your honest evaluation of it and it effectiviness and or uneffectiviness which ever the case may be. If this is a product line of leather care items that you have positive experience with I would like to link you to my site so those coming to my site for the product could have access to your valuable information. I am seeking information to provide to folks visiting my site proper and healthy care tips for leather. The leather care product line is "Original Mink Oil" my web page althought still in the construction stages is www.originalminkoil.com. Thank you
7	1 Apr 2003	Christy Smith	We have a leather cover for a small devotional. It has praying hand on it and the holes have worn through so it can no longer by tied to the book. I am trying to find someone who can either repair or replace this cover. It belongs to my grandmother and she has had it for many years. We live in Virginia and could send this item or even picture and dimensions anywhere.
8	27 Jan 2003	Laurel Keeney	`I have the opportunity of upholstering some cushions using cow hides. Being the first time I've used real leather, I'm not sure if a person needs to worry about the direction of the grain or not. Could you please give me some insight in this matter, please. I'm not sure if I'm at the right site, but hoping you could help before I mess something up.`
9	Wed, 22 Jan 2003	Olive Martha Sanchez	I am Olive Martha Sanchez, an Industrial and Management Engineering student of the Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City, Philippines. I am currently conducting my research on the leather manufacturing as partial fulfillment in our coourse subject in IE 148(Plant design). In this connection may I seek your help to please send me informations on the following: 1. manufacturing procedure of leather 2. raw materials used 3. history of leather manufacturing 4. machines/equipments used in manufacturing leather
10	Wed, 11 Dec 2002	darcy dawe	`The leather chemical supplies would be great. You understand I am in Indonesia, so sending a technician would be a bit much at this time. Peoples here are using wood dyes and waxing the top. This would not be good for seating, but for desks and boxes etc. Also, people here are using NC and shellac on leathers. Any comments are appricated. ========================================I would like to learn how to do these processes in house, as we are rather small users. I would like to take the time to learn this, as it is very subjective to get correct.` ======================================== I am a furniture manufacturer in indonesia. We make medium High quality antique reproduction 18th & 19th century French and english furniture. I am interested in knowlege about applying an antiqued finish on to cow hide. we can but cow hide tanned but not colored (about 1.2mm) 20 to 40 sqft hides. we want to make desk tops and table tops, drawer panels etc. I am interested in a multilayered look that we can glaze and emboss on gold boarders). We have available many water based and oil based wood dyes and staines. are these useable??? there are people who have developed some very nice product. I want to learn how??? I have heard it not too different than wood??? we will glue this to mdf or plywood in panels for our product.	I assume that you get tanned/not coloured leathers on which you want to apply the finish. There are special type of finishes available for leather. To get an antique effect, the general procedure is as follows: 1. Apply an oil based coating (by brush, or by m/c) on the surface first. 2. Spray a protein based finish on top of this. 3. Glaze or polish to get antique look. Again, as I mentioned earlier it would be better if you get help from leather specialists. What I can do is to send your contact to Leather Chemical suppliers, who will send a technician to your place to demonstrate how to finish the leather to your satisfaction. ===========================================================`you can get the finish you are looking for. They are best done in a leather finishing unit, if you use leathers in large quantities (say 5000 sqft and above). You can order leather of your liking directly from the factory, with the effect you desire. If you want to do it yourself in smaller quantities, it is lot more complicated. Pleaes let me know how you want to proceed. I am posting your request at http://www.leatherlink.net/ where someone else may help you.`
11	27 Nov 2002	Greg Sullivan	`Hello, I have a black leather Harley davidson jacket. It, is a little stiff so I bought some leather dressing by Langlitz Leathers to soften it up (mfd. by snowshoe labs). It says not to be used on suede or split leathers. someone told me this jacket is a split leather jacket. My question is, if it is split leather, why can't I use this product? will it harm the jacket? how can I tell for sure if it is split?`
12	23 Nov 2002	kerry zeiler	`If you needed to have leather split to a uniform thickness such as 2 oz. maximum, who would you send it to? Can you give me an idea what it will cost. I am a custom cue maker on the west coast and I want to use the leather for wraps on cues so it must be thin (approx. .025 to .030) or 2 oz. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.`
13	11 Nov 2002	SMT Leather Company	It is pleasure for us to introduce our selves with you as below: We have been in the field of Buying, Inspecting and Exporting Company of Finished & Crust Leather, Lining and Wet Blue Split Leather for the long sixteen years. Our Company has been giving professional service to our buyers since the beginning. According to the requirements of our valued buyers we choose the right manufacturers In order to ensure the required quantity, competitive price, delivery in time etc. We have a strong and capable quality control team also. Please, inform us your to-day's requirements now. Because, we wish to be a member of your leather business to give you best service from Bangladesh. All leather origin from Bangladesh. Kindly don't hesitate to inform your requirements. We will give your our competitive price and offer. We will accept your any command and reply you respectively. To know more information about our company please visit our web site: www.smtleather.com
14	29 Oct 2002	HOWARD, CORDELIA R	I recently purchased a Bellisimo all leather sofa. The sofa is a very smooth, very soft leather. 5 months later I purchased the matching love seat but when it arrived not only was it a shade lighter than the sofa but the leather was hard and coarse. You could tell that the quality of leather was not the same. I had a house warming party later that same evening and every guest made the comment that the love seat leather was not at the quality of the sofa leather. I was told that the quality is the same it was just taken from a different cow. I pointed out that the pieces in their show room match my sofa and even went to another sofa in the show room that matched the texture of the love seat I was sent and was told that there is no difference, again it's the cow!
15	15 Oct 2002	ali vardar	Our Product List is; SHAVING KNIVES, FLESHING KNIVES, SPLITTING KNIVES, POLISHING MACHINES (600mm - 800mm/1000mm - 1300mm) SHAVING MACHINE (1300mm) FLESHING MACHINE (1600mm) PRESSING MACHINE (1600mm) If you want to know about our other products and get more information about us, contact us please. VARDAR LEATHER MACHINES&KNIVES COMPANY VARDAR DERÝ MAKÝNELERÝ&BIÇAK SANAYÝ 8780/7 Sok. No:11 Atasanayi Sitesi Çiðli - Izmir/TURKEY Tel: +90 232 376 83 58 Fax: +90 232 376 83 82
16	14 Oct 2002	khurram saleem buttt	I am a final year student studying Business Information technology. I am doing a long-term project on leather industry. i would be extremely grateful if you could send me the relevant information. i require info on leather processing types and all the other basic info. i would appreciate the any published material along with the titles of the useful research books. please reply me on the following address
17	3 Oct 2002	Sree	My name sree, working in leathers related factory in canada , i just want to learn about leathers pls! how i get in tamil can i get any tamil books about leathers

Date

From

Question

Answer

13 Oct 2003

Catherine

what is the international genuine leather symbol?

There is a symbol awarded by BLC Leather Technology Centre, UK in many countries. You can look at it here.http://www.blcleathertech.com/lmark/index.htm

Some countries have symbols of their own. For example chinese leather association manages a certification for Chinese products.

21 Sep 2003

Samsuzana Aziz

I bought a lather coat by Cherokee®, and it is my interest to know what type of animal skin they used for this coat. Since Muslims cannot have any contact with pig, I'm worried if the leather is from pig skin.

Do you have any guide for me to identify specificaly the leather made from pig skin?

The link below is the information about the coat I bought. picture of the coat.

3 Aug 2003

Caroline Whitbeck

Hi! Hoping you could help me out here. I just purchased a purse from a vintage store and the lady assured me that it was real crocodile. How can I tell if it is real versus embossed? Do you have any tips to share? If so, please e-mail me at EMAIL REMOVED. Thanks for your help!

30 May 2003

anneke van steijn

Recently I bought a (very expensive) leather jacket. Putting it on at home, I found out that it makes a lot of noise; it creaks. Do you have a solution?

16 May 2003

Minh Huynh

I would like to ask what is the normal/minimum lightfastness performance for leather jacket you would recommend? Please state British standard if possible

PatriciaLynn12

First I would like to start by saying I found your site to be extremely well written and amazingly easy to follow and understand. So much so that I continued to read on well after I had found what I was looking for.
All my life I have used or owned leather products from saddles and horse tack to boots , purses and even a little garment leather. And even dabbled into leather crafts and toolings. But I never considered my an expert and even less able to relate the differences in leathers but there was something about qualitly leather that stands out could never put my finger on it. but could recognize it when i seen it or handled it.
What started a few years ago as a product in our store ( baseball pro shop) to carry mainly for onditioning and waterproofing use on baseballs gloves and cleates. A product I myself had used and found it to very good . However, now i have become a distributor for this line and in the process of building a web site for it. I became more aware of even thou I use some sort of leather product every day . I really don't know as much as I should. And this became even more apparent to myself when i started to write a page for the site on leather care and tips.   So I started doing soem research.... (I'm on of those annoying people that refuse to make claims about a product that i know are untrue or if i can't back it up from reliable sources).
   I ran across you site and was impressed that your information was just that untainted by sales pitch ... straight information. Which in my view made your information so valuable. I would very much like to link your site to mine I think it would help educate my dealers on leathers and give them a source to turn to for information should they be asked about certain leathers that they have had not experience with.
   The product of my site is one if you , with your expert knowlege of leather have used or tried I would so very much be very appreiatative if you could express to me your honest evaluation of it and it effectiviness and or uneffectiviness which ever the case may be. If this is a product line of leather care items that you have positive experience with I would like to link you to my site so those coming to my site for the product could have access to your valuable information. I am seeking information to provide to folks visiting my site proper and healthy care tips for leather.
   The leather care product line is "Original Mink Oil" my web page althought still in the construction stages is www.originalminkoil.com.
    Thank you

1 Apr 2003

Christy Smith

We have a leather cover for a small devotional. It has praying hand on it and the holes have worn through so it can no longer by tied to the book. I am trying to find someone who can either repair or replace this cover. It belongs to my grandmother and she has had it for many years. We live in Virginia and could send this item or even picture and dimensions anywhere.

27 Jan 2003

Laurel Keeney

I have the opportunity of upholstering some cushions using cow hides. Being the first time I've used real leather, I'm not sure if a person needs to worry about the direction of the grain or not. Could you please give me some insight in this matter, please. I'm not sure if I'm at the right site, but hoping you could help before I mess something up.

Wed, 22 Jan 2003

Olive Martha Sanchez

I am Olive Martha Sanchez, an Industrial and Management Engineering student of the Western Mindanao State University, Zamboanga City, Philippines. I am currently conducting my research on the leather manufacturing as partial fulfillment in our coourse subject in IE 148(Plant design). In this connection may I seek your help to please send me informations on the following:
     1. manufacturing procedure of leather
     2. raw materials used
     3. history of leather manufacturing
     4. machines/equipments used in manufacturing leather

Wed, 11 Dec 2002

darcy dawe

The leather chemical supplies would be great. You understand I am in Indonesia, so sending a technician would be a bit much at this time. Peoples here are using wood dyes and waxing the top. This would not be good for seating, but for desks and boxes etc. Also, people here are using NC and shellac on leathers. Any comments are appricated. ========================================I would like to learn how to do these processes in house, as we are rather small users. I would like to take the time to learn this, as it is very subjective to get correct.
======================================== I am a furniture manufacturer in indonesia. We make medium High quality antique reproduction 18th & 19th century French and english furniture. I am interested in knowlege about applying an antiqued finish on to cow hide. we can but cow hide tanned but not colored (about 1.2mm) 20 to 40 sqft hides. we want to make desk tops and table tops, drawer panels etc. I am interested in a multilayered look that we can glaze and emboss on gold boarders). We have available many water based and oil based wood dyes and staines. are these useable??? there are people who have developed some very nice product. I want to learn how??? I have heard it not too different than wood??? we will glue this to mdf or plywood in panels for our product.

I assume that you get tanned/not coloured leathers on which you want to apply the finish. There are special type of finishes available for leather. To get an antique effect, the general procedure is as follows: 1. Apply an oil based coating (by brush, or by m/c) on the surface first. 2. Spray a protein based finish on top of this. 3. Glaze or polish to get antique look. Again, as I mentioned earlier it would be better if you get help from leather specialists. What I can do is to send your contact to Leather Chemical suppliers, who will send a technician to your place to demonstrate how to finish the leather to your satisfaction. ===========================================================you can get the finish you are looking for. They are best done in a leather finishing unit, if you use leathers in large quantities (say 5000 sqft and above). You can order leather of your liking directly from the factory, with the effect you desire. If you want to do it yourself in smaller quantities, it is lot more complicated. Pleaes let me know how you want to proceed. I am posting your request at http://www.leatherlink.net/ where someone else may help you.

27 Nov 2002

Greg Sullivan

Hello, I have a black leather Harley davidson jacket. It, is a little stiff so I bought some leather dressing by Langlitz Leathers to soften it up (mfd. by snowshoe labs). It says not to be used on suede or split leathers. someone told me this jacket is a split leather jacket. My question is, if it is split leather, why can't I use this product? will it harm the jacket? how can I tell for sure if it is split?

23 Nov 2002

kerry zeiler

If you needed to have leather split to a uniform thickness such as 2 oz. maximum, who would you send it to? Can you give me an idea what it will cost. I am a custom cue maker on the west coast and I want to use the leather for wraps on cues so it must be thin (approx. .025 to .030) or 2 oz. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

11 Nov 2002

SMT Leather Company

It is pleasure for us to introduce our selves with you as below:
We have been in the field of Buying, Inspecting and Exporting Company of Finished & Crust Leather, Lining and Wet Blue Split Leather for the long sixteen years. Our Company has been giving professional service to our buyers since the beginning. According to the requirements of our valued buyers we choose the right manufacturers In order to ensure the required quantity, competitive price, delivery in time etc. We have a strong and capable quality control team also.
Please, inform us your to-day's requirements now. Because, we wish to be a member of your leather business to give you best service from Bangladesh.

All leather origin from Bangladesh. Kindly don't hesitate to inform your requirements. We will give your our competitive price and offer. We will accept your any command and reply you respectively. To know more information about our company please visit our web site: www.smtleather.com

29 Oct 2002

HOWARD, CORDELIA R

I recently purchased a Bellisimo all leather sofa. The sofa is a very smooth, very soft leather. 5 months later I purchased the matching love seat but when it arrived not only was it a shade lighter than the sofa but the leather was hard and coarse. You could tell that the quality of leather was not the same.

I had a house warming party later that same evening and every guest made the comment that the love seat leather was not at the quality of the sofa leather. I was told that the quality is the same it was just taken from a different cow. I pointed out that the pieces in their show room match my sofa and even went to another sofa in the show room that matched the texture of the love seat I was sent and was told that there is no difference, again it's the cow!

15 Oct 2002

ali vardar

Our Product List is;
SHAVING KNIVES, FLESHING KNIVES,
SPLITTING KNIVES,
POLISHING MACHINES (600mm - 800mm/1000mm - 1300mm)
SHAVING MACHINE (1300mm)
FLESHING MACHINE (1600mm)
PRESSING MACHINE (1600mm)

If you want to know about our other products and get more information about us, contact us please.
VARDAR LEATHER MACHINES&KNIVES COMPANY
VARDAR DERÝ MAKÝNELERÝ&BIÇAK SANAYÝ
8780/7 Sok. No:11 Atasanayi Sitesi
Çiðli - Izmir/TURKEY
Tel: +90 232 376 83 58
Fax: +90 232 376 83 82

14 Oct 2002

khurram saleem buttt

I am a final year student studying Business Information technology. I am doing a long-term project on leather industry. i would be extremely grateful if you could send me the relevant information.

i require info on leather processing types and all the other basic info. i would appreciate the any published material along with the titles of the useful research books. please reply me on the following address

3 Oct 2002

Sree

My name sree, working in leathers related factory in canada , i just want to learn about leathers

pls! how i get in tamil can i get any tamil books about leathers