Posted: May 16, 2025 | Last updated: May 16, 2025 Explore the fascinating process of leather production, from raw animal hides to beautifully finished leather products.

Before the creation of synthetic plastics, patent leather was made by glazing animal hides with layers of resin-based varnish. The coating protected items like boots and carriage parts from wear and ...

“Genuine leather” is made from a hide, but the term doesn’t necessarily mean it is well made. Bonded leather that contains only hide parts can be marketed as genuine leather.

When we first get hides in, we process them and cut away parts we don’t think are useful and also cut off excess and use those for scraps,” he said, detailing the process.

These days, you can find leather products made from cows, bamboo, mushrooms, even apples. But there’s a new leather on the market made from the hides of a spectacular, but deeply destructive ...

Leathermaking is also, though, a nasty business. In 18th-century London the soaking of putrefying hides in urine and lime, to loosen any remaining flesh and hair, and the subsequent pounding of ...

Mend on the Move uses recycled auto parts to create jewelry and leather goods. It calls itself a non-profit social enterprise that hires women survivors of abuse in Metro Detroit. Pingree Detroit ...

Hides are even starting to go to landfills while the smaller leather processors are going out of business. Just five years ago, prices soared after a drought shrank the U.S. herd to a six-decade low.