What Is Crocodile Leather?
Crocodile
Crocodiles are reptiles, not amphibians, for several reasons. First, they lay their eggs on the land, not in the water. Their eggs hatch into fully formed crocodiles, whereas an amphibian goes through a larval stage, also amphibians breathe through their skin, crocodiles breathe through their noses.
Embossed Crocodile Patterns
Due to strict regulation controlling the crocodile industry, only those from dedicated farms around the world are used for skins and meat.
One of the largest crocodiles in the world sadly died in 2013 he was 20ft 3” from tail to snout and weighed a staggering 2,370 lbs you can imagine the power of such a beast.
Crocodiles have been bread in farms since the 20th century, this was done to avoid damage and declines to the wild population.
Crocodile populations are as follows, African or Nile crocodile is around 400,000, saltwater crocodile around 250,000, dwarf crocodile around 50,000, Cuban crocodile around 4,000 and the Siamese crocodile around 3,000, some species are so endangered there number are shockingly low at a point of almost extinction like the slender snout crocodile.
Alligators and crocodiles are similar reptiles and the largest population of alligators is the American Alligator with more than a million in existence.
The differences between a crocodile and an alligator is the snouts, the alligators snout is much wider and u shaped while the crocodiles is more pointed and v shaped.
Alligators also tend to live in fresh water areas, like marshes and lakes, while crocodiles live in saltwater areas mainly.
Also a crocodile shows a couple of teeth when its mouth is closed, compared to alligators who show no teeth at all when its mouth is closed as the upper jaw is wider than the lower one.
The backs of crocodiles are normally to hard to use as skins, so the parts that are used are the belly and the sides of crocodiles.
The back of crocodiles is very distinctive with horn type sections that stick up, these are used on luggage items like carry cases and handbags.
Crocodiles skins are mainly used for fashion items like phone cases, wallets, shoes, handbags, belts and watch straps.
Fashion houses like Hermes and Louis Vuitton use crocodile skins for fashion items and they come with a price tag as the skins are costly due to only a small part of the crocodile that can be used.
Countries like America, Africa, Australia are very popular places for people to wear crocodile boots.
Crocodile Boots
Cowboy boots have two distinctive features to them to be a cowboy boot, they either have a rounded toe or a pointed toe, they are made like this so it’s easy for a cowboy to get his or her foot into a stirrup.
Cleaning crocodile leather is not as a delicate process as cleaning snakeskin. Crocodile leather can become very dry and brittle if not cared for correctly from new, they require a great deal more softening cremes and protection creams applied to keep the skin soft, cleaning on a very regular basis is advised to stop dirt build up from getting embedded into the deep grain structure, once dirt starts to get deep in the grain this is when drying out starts to take place and they will crack on these deep grain areas, so keep crocodile leathers protected at all times.
Caring for crocodile skins is very similar to Ostrich skins, as a great deal of ostrich skins are also used in the fashion industry for items like boots in Australia and Africa. Ostrich skin is a great deal softer and more flexible when tanned compared to that of a crocodile.