leather, skin or hide of animals, cured by tanning tanning, process by which skins and hides are converted into leather . Vegetable tanning, a method requiring more than a month even with modern machinery and tanning liquors, employs tannin; its use is shown in Egyptian tomb paintings dating from 3000 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. to prevent decay and to impart flexibility and toughness. Prehistoric and primitive peoples preserved pelts with grease and smoke and used them chiefly for shoes, garments, coverings, tents, and containers. Today pelts are prepared for tanning by dehairing, usually with lime, followed by fleshing and cleaning. After tanning, leather is generally treated with fats to assure pliability. The practice of shaving leather to the required thickness was abandoned early in the 18th cent. after the invention of a machine that split the tanned leather into a flesh layer and a grain (hair-side) layer; skivers are thin, soft grains used for linings and for covering firm surfaces. Characteristic grains may be brought out by rubbing, as in morocco leather (goatskin), or may be imitated by embossing. Finishes include glazing, a high glaze being achieved by rolling with glass cylinders; coloring with stains or dyes; enameling or lacquering as for patent leather; and sueding, buffing with emery or carborundum wheels to raise a nap, usually on the flesh side. Russia leather, originally vegetable-tanned calfskin dressed with birch oil that imparted a characteristic odor and often dyed red with brazilwood, is a term now covering a number of variants. Rawhide is similar to parchment parchment, untanned skins of animals, especially of the sheep, calf, and goat, prepared for use as a writing material. The name is a corruption of Pergamum, the ancient city of Asia Minor where preparation of parchment suitable for use on both sides was achieved in
..... Click the link for more information. and is untanned. Cordovan, or Spanish, leather, a soft, colored leather made at Córdoba during the Middle Ages and often richly modeled and gilded, is imitated for wall coverings, panels, and screens. Leather is much used in bookbinding bookbinding. The art and business of bookbinding began with the protection of parchment manuscripts with boards. Papyrus had originally been produced in rolls, but sheets of parchment came to be folded and fastened together with sewing by the 2d cent. A.D.
..... Click the link for more information. . Artificial leather, made since about 1850, was originally a strong fabric coated with a rubber composition or with a synthetic substance such as pyroxylin. Since World War II, materials made from vinyl polymers have far outstripped the earlier artificial leathers in commercial importance.

leather

Animal skins and hides treated to preserve them and make them suitable for use. Tanning converts the otherwise perishable skin to a stable and nondecaying material. Though the skins of such diverse animals as ostrich, lizard, eel, and kangaroo have been used, the more common leathers come from cattle, including calf and ox; sheep and lamb; goat and kid; horse, mule, and zebra; buffalo; pig and hog; and seal, walrus, whale, and alligator. Leather making is an ancient art that has been practiced for more than 7,000 years. See also parchment.

leather

a. a material consisting of the skin of an animal made smooth and flexible by tanning, removing the hair, etc.

b. (as modifier): leather goods

2. the flap of a dog's ear
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leather [′leth·ər]

(materials)

Dressed hide or skin of an animal.

leather (redirected from Cordwain)

leather

leather
(redirected from Cordwain)