Leather 101

I've learned a lot about leather as I've been getting deeper into this family leather care business over the past few years. It is more complex and confusing than I would have guessed!

Here are the basics but you can go much deeper and bestleather.org (where I sourced most of this information) is a great starting place if you want dive in.

Types of Leather Grades

• Top grain
• Full grain
• Split leather
• Bonded leather

When the leather is corrected in any way, it is called top grain. Leather with the entire grain intact is called full grain. Full grain leather, even though it may have blemishes, is more expensive and more sought-after than top grain leather because of its durability and longevity. Both full grain and top grain leathers are referred to as grain leather.

Split leather is often referred to the bottom part of the leather, the part that is split off from the grain at the grain/corium junction, goes by many different names, and it can get really, really confusing. Many people refer to this bottom layer of leather as “genuine leather”.

Bonded leather is the lowest grade of leather, because it is not really leather – just shredded leather scraps and bits reconstituted with a filler and backed with an embossed polyurethane coating. It’s very cheap, but falls apart quickly.