What is bonded leather?
Bonded Cushion
Bonded leather is made like the production of paper, shredded leather scraps all made into a pulp glued together using bonding materials, this is then placed onto a paper or backing fabric and glued to it.
Bonded materials sometimes known as reconstituted leather. It is like a synthetic type leather, like vinyl. It’s made of synthetic materials of several types that is spread over ground up leather and other substances.
It’s mechanically processed to give it the appearance of leather.
Bonded leather is almost like a laminate stuck together, this type of woven material can break down and when it does its very unsightly and causes bubbles to break and burst where the bonding / glues have broken down.
When you examine bonded under a microscope you can see it’s true characteristics coming through and you can then tell it’s not real leather at all and is almost all plastic, the backing of this has this almost webbing type look to it under a microscope a very similar look to bi cast leather on the back.
This form of fake leather is made in layers all glued together as follows (this will differ from manufacturer to manufacturer) the exact recipes used are kept a trade secret but is something like the following.
57% polyurethane
35% poly cotton
1% – 4% glue / bondings
4%- 9% pulp leather shredded up with other materials.
Pigmented leather is very different to bonded leather
This type of fake material is by far one of the worst fakes leathers around today, it fools so many people and its a very popular material in the USA where people believe they have genuine leather couches only to find it isn’t.