What Is Leather Grain?
Pigmented Leather Grain Skin
Depending on the leather you have, most leathers are not genuine grain.
Most leathers have the grain pattern stamped into the leather with traces of the actual grain left. So, you have an artificial leather grain on most items.
The main three categories that leather is made from the skin is.
Aniline Leathers are the most natural leather skins, with natural characters, the disadvantage of these are they are less resistant to soiling and staining due to them being dyed through and porous.
Semi Aniline is slightly different as it has had a light surface coating applied making is slightly better for staining and soiling. The light coating that’s applied is a mixture of clear and pigment paint giving a more even colour distribution to the skin, allowing it to be more durable than aniline still retaining good natural characteristics.
Grain Semi Aniline Skin.
Pigmented is by far the most durable leather hide, but it’s got a false grain pattern to it that’s heat pressed in, this will have been given a polymer painted surface coating. Pigmented is the most used leather skin on upholstery and almost all cars have this type of leather skin, it’s very durable and extremely stain resistant, with great wear properties.
Thicknesses vary of skins, but predominantly the grain is heat embossed, if a skin is more than 0.15mm thick then the item can’t be sold as skin in the UK due to consumer protection laws.
There is some confusion over corrected grain most think this has just had some minor correction work and it then left natural, the grain is abraded to remove the surface imperfection and once that process is completed a grain pattern is then heat stamped into the skin.
Corrected grain skin