What is Veg Tanned Leather?

Vegetable tanned Leather

Vegetable Tanned Leather

Veg tanned Leather is leather that’s been tanned with natural materials like bark and plant food.

Vegetable tanned leather has been processed for over 5000 years. For many centuries it was the main tanning process available to mankind.

Veg tanned leather is a very expensive leather due to the way it’s made from natural materials. Trees like Oak and Spruce are used for natural tannins but from a much younger plant as it contains more tanning.

Materials such as Rhubarb Roots, Olive Leaves and items like Tara Pods are used to make veg tanned leathers. The skins are placed in a pit along with these materials and left to naturally soak into the hides.

Vegetable tanned leathers include saddles, holsters, belts, wallets, bags, shoes and purses, a lot of these types of leather can be left natural or finished and dyed using the natural materials rather than a chemical based tanning process.

 

Mulberry Bayswater Veg Tanned Handbag

Mulberry Bayswater Veg tanned Handbag

A lot of vegetable tanned leather is light brown in colour, but the final colour depends on the colour of the skin, the dye mixture and organic materials used at the time in the pits.

In most cases the hides are left in pits for two weeks or more and these are tended to on a regular basis to ensure the dyes are soaking all the way through the hides in an even dye process.

The beauty of veg tanned leather is it’s natural. Natural organic materials are used in the tanning process to dye it so it’s very eco-friendly.

Today only around 10% of leather is vegetable tanned making it a very luxurious item and very expensive to buy.

Veg Tanned leather requires special care to keep its appearance. Veg tanned leather will naturally change colour and darken as it gains patina and ages beautifully gaining even more characters from when new.

Veg Tanned Leather Close Up

Veg Tanned Leather Close Up

 

Vegetable Tanned Leather Close Up

Vegetable Tanned Close Up

 

Vegetable Tanned Leather Showing Hair Follicles

Vegetable Tanned Showing Hair Follicles

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