Bags are made out of leather, artificial leather and fabrics made out of natural od synthetic fibres. Even today real leather is still used for the production of handbags, whereas leather has been substituted as material for many other products. Following you will find a list of the advantages of leather.
Characteristics and advantages of leather.
The most important advantages of leather are
Leather is sustainable and friendly to the environment
Leather is made out of skins by tanning. Leather is a natural product made out of the hides of animals which are kept and raised for the meat production. The hides are a byproduct which would be waste if they were not tanned and used as leather. In all cultures leather was used to make clothes, belts, bags and other items necessary for daily life. The development of plastics resulted in a substitution of leather as basic material for many products which used to be made out of leather. Plastics or artificial leather have to be produced from raw oil in industrial processes which again consume many resources. Leather on the contrary is produced using natural products.
The use of leather instead of artificial materials such as nylon therefore meets the principle of sustainability, and leather is the best choice for the production of bags.
Durability and strength
For leathergoods mostly hides from cows or calves are used. The skins originally have a thickness of 3 to 4 mm and therefore are split into two or three layers. For leatherbags the upper part with a thickness of 1.2 to 2.5 mm will be used. This part of the skin has a very uniform fiber structure. So even if the surface of the leather is scratched or dammaged a certain strength will remain.
Leather is very durable which is easily proven by many old cases made decades ago.
There are different tanning methods according to which the physical characteristics of the leather may vary considerably.
For belts and saddles the leather may be stiff, but should have a strong tearing resistance. Such leathers therefore are vegetable tanned and have a thickness up to 2.5 mm.
For business cases the leather must be strong, but not too thick to keep a light weight. So for these bags the thickness of the leather will be 1.2 – 1.8 mm.
For clothes and bags the leather must be smooth and elastic. Therefore it will be tanned with chrome or synthetic agents. Chrome leather has enough strength and a great elasticity. Tanners often mix the tanning components according to the product it will be used for.
The nice "touch".
One of the important characteristics of leather is the warm feeling when you touch a jacket or a bag. This feeling however depends to a great extent on the finish of the leather. For top grade hides with an even look of the surface anilin colours are used which don’t change the natural characteristic of the skin.
But only a smaller percentage of 10 to 15 % of hides are available in this quality. Normally pigment colours have to be used to cover some irregularities or defects. Therefore the tanner always has to try to use as little pigment colours as possible in order not to spoil the natural feeling.
For small leathergoods the touch is a decisive criterium. You want to feel the soft nature of leather when you touch your wallet.
The good look of a business bag
You will easily distinguish if a bag is made out of leather or artificial leather. Leather has a look of its own, especially if finished with transparent anilin colour.
The laptop cases in the Hunting serie of the Corf collection are made out of a vegetable tanned leather with a very light finish. The brown colour penetrates more or less deep into the hide. As a result the colour varies between darker and lighter zones. Notebook cases or college bags made out of this leather will develop a beautiful patina and a vintage look in the course of time.
Corf leather bag care
Business cases and laptop bags are used daily. Therefore traces of use cannot be avoided in the course of time. Similarly as with shoes such traces can be treated with a bee wax or a creme restoring the beautiful look. So you can be sure that you can use a shoulder bag or a notebook case of the Corf collection for many years. If necessary our service will be happy to help.