Posts in Leathers
Back to Bologna

Next week we'll be headed back to Bologna to attend Lineapelle.  We go over every October to show what we've been working on over the past year.  We'll be in Hall 22, at our agents booth (Brizzi Agenzie).

In the past we've been able to catch up with customers and friends alike.  This year, we will sadly miss seeing our friend, the artisan, Stefano Bemer, who passed away earlier this year.

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Boondockers

During the the first half of the 1940's our factory was busy doing what many factories in the U.S. were doing - supplying goods and materials for use by our troops.  For us, that quite obviously meant leather.  We supplied two main leather types during this time; Mechanical leather and Chromexcel. Mechanical leather is a specialized, dense, and extremely durable tannage utilized to make hydraulic and pneumatic seals and packings.  C.W. Marsh is one of our oldest customers, and we supplied them (and other manufacturers) with leather that was used for many applications, including vehicles.  While "leather is better," this industry has largely moved into the realm of synthetics.

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Essex and Dublin

One of the challenges for us as tanners is to keep coming up with "new" leathers.  When we're developing a leather it is usually because there is a customer that is asking for something specific.  Typically, the resulting leather ends up being a variation of an existing leather that has been designed and tanned to meet certain aesthetic and performance characteristics.  These demands change all the time and range widely - a leather needs to change to be waterproof, cementable, breathable, stronger, burnishable, softer, firmer, shinier, duller - the list goes on and the combinations are endless.

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By Request - What's the Difference?

In a post a while back I asked if there were any topics that anyone wanted some more information on.  Jason and Chris specifically commented that they wanted to hear more about Aero and/or their horsehide jackets.  I'm going to try to deliver info on what seems to be a major distinguishing factor for many people in terms of leather jackets - horsehide or cowhide?  This is also an appropriate time to explain the differences between the other types of hides that we process.

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