Leather 

Horses, cattle, and bison have been relied upon throughout American history as working animals, a means of travel, a supply of nourishment, and a resource for clothing, shelter, and tools.  This gave the American people an ability to survive and thrive in what could often be a harsh land.  M&W Traveler uses the leather from these animals today for the same traditional reasons they were used by Native Americans, early explorers and settlers, colonial America, pioneers of the migration west, ranchers and farmers of the Great Plains, the working class of industrial America, and the young men and women of our military:  These are the absolute best leathers for protection and durability.

What Makes Leather Tough?

1.  Abrasion and Puncture Resistance.

2.  Weight and Thickness.

3.  Tanning Process.

4.  Grade.

5.  Care.

Ready for the details? Here we go:

1.  Abrasion and Puncture Resistance.

This is the ability to withstand scrapes and scuffs and pokes from pointy objects (your boss’s head?) repeatedly over time.  Kangaroo is the number one leather for abrasion resistance.  Horsehide holds the number two spot.  After that the ranking is not clear, especially since the tanning process has an impact.  With a little research you can also find strong arguments for placing goatskin or pigskin at the upper end of the spectrum.  I’ll be the first to tell you that our ranking is not supported by data (there’s precious little out there), just by what experts tell us.  The most credible information we’ve found about puncture resistance is from the work glove industry where safety is an issue.  They claim horsehide is the best.

2.  Weight and Thickness.

This one is pretty intuitive.  Thicker is better – to a point.  If the leather is too thick then you lose pliability and increase the overall weight of the item unnecessarily.   If it’s too thin, then you lose rigidity and strength.  You’ve seen this before when you notice someone wearing a leather jacket that looks loose and crumpled, and has unnatural creases.  In general, business travel gear made with leather that is 3 to 6 ounces in weight will have the right mix of strength and pliability.  This also allows product designs to have flexibility in construction by utilizing single layers for accessory features (like pen loops), and two or three layers for weight bearing (like straps). Steerhide and bison leather will be the thickest and horsehide will run a little lighter.  Here is a leather weight and thickness conversion chart to help you get a better feel:

 

Weight in Ounces Per Square Foot	Thickness     in   Millimeters	Thickness  in  Inches
1	0.4	1/64
2	0.8	1/32
3	1.2	3/64
4	1.6	1/16
5	2	5/64
6	2.4	3/32
7	2.8	7/64
8	3.2	1/8

3.  Tanning Process.

OK, this part can go waaaaay technical if you really want to wade into the deep, murky end of this pool.  But I’m not a techie and my eyes start to glaze over when folks whip out their covalent bonds and pH levels, so you can relax and leave your chemistry set in the closet.

Vegetable tanning, chrome tanning, and vegetable retanning are the main tanning processes to focus on here. Vegetable tanning uses tannins from plant matter for the curing process.  Chrome tanning uses chromium salts. Vegetable tanning will produce a thicker, heavier, firmer leather with good moldability.  Chrome tanning will produce a thinner, softer, stronger leather that will take a great variety of colors.  In short, think of vegetable tanning for body, and chrome tanning for strength.  Some tanneries will marry the two processes into what is called vegetable retanning in order to get the best of both worlds.  First the leather is chrome tanned, and then it is vegetable tanned. This process will produce a very tough leather with great character.

4.  Grade.

I’ll make this one easy. Full grain has the best integrity and durability, period.  Every other grade has had the upper layers removed and is often referred to as a split or suede.  These are steps down in quality and are inferior leathers that won’t last as long in demanding applications.  Often these leathers are made to look like full grain by imprinting grain patterns directly on top.  Sometimes an additional coating like polyurethane will be applied beforehand for more uniformity (fakers!).  It is definitely cheating in our book if you try to pass this off as high quality leather.  Here’s a tip:  If the surface of the leather feels slick and rubbery and you suspect that it’s not all that it should be, then strike a match and bring the heat close to the surface.  If it starts to melt, then you’ve been had.

5.  Care.

Good leather will take abuse, but it won’t take mistreatment.  Did you ever step in a slush puddle and later take a blow dryer to your shoes or put them on the heat vent to dry?  After your shoes dried out did you leave the salt caked up on them for weeks or months?  You know what I’m talking about.  Many of us have ruined a pair of shoes this way.  Then we learn to let them dry out on their own and to soon after put a little effort into cleaning and restoring them.  This is a great lesson to learn that applies to all leathers.  Even without a slush puddle encounter, most leathers will still need some care during their life.  To keep your leathers performing well, think about the following Don’t List:

Don’t use the blow dryer or heat vent on wet leather. Excessive heat is bad.
Don’t leave dirt and salt on your leather. It’s abrasive, drying, and bad.
Don’t store your leather in the basement or in plastic. Excessive humidity is bad.
Don’t store your leather in a very dry place. No humidity is bad.

All these will cause loss of strength and durability, and possibly worse things like funky smells, mold, cracks, and red rot.

But what about restoring the leather?  OK, here’s my Do List:

Do use a leather conditioner.  Oils and waxes for flexibility and waterproofing are good.

Which leather conditioner do we recommend?  Well, I conducted an experiment from August 2009 to December 2009 to get to the bottom of which conditioner works best with our particular leathers. And after 5 months of an accelerated life test with several swatches of our front quarter horsehide left outdoors in temperature extremes from the 90s to the 10s (degrees F) and unprotected from sun, wind, rain, frost, snow, dust, etc., I can finally unveil the results.

Setup - August 2009

Setup - August 2009

Setup - August 2009 - Pre-Application

The above picture shows the swatches cut in two. The top is the “control” that didn’t get any kind of leather conditioner applied. The bottom is the test swatch that received a very generous application of leather conditioner once a month. The picture below shows cotton rags with the different brands of leather conditioner used labeled as P, M, F, L, and C. C is for Clean, which I used for wiping my fingers if I got conditioner on them. I was pretty anal about avoiding cross contamination.

Cotton Rag Applicators - No Cross Contamination

August 2009 - Post Application - Inserted into Test Environment (My Backyard Fence)

So for 5 months I left the experiment outside 24/7 totally exposed. Once a month the test swatches received fresh applications of leather conditioner. I took Pre-Application and Post-Application pictures on each of these occasions. I won’t put them all up here because it’s fairly monotonous. I’ll just fast forward to December 2009 and the final pictures where you can see the results:

December 2009 - Pre-Application

December 2009 - Post-Application

Looking at these pictures it’s difficult to see what exactly is going on, so I’ll share my observations:

L was the worst performer. It faded the leather the most and removed a great deal of finish. It’s difficult to tell if there was any protection at all.

M was a little better. It did fine on the brown horsehide, but created blemishes on the black horsehide (brown raised bumps). It darkened the brown horsehide the most.

F was good. No fading or blemishes and the leather looks good from the front. However, there was an issue with oils seeping through to the backside too much. This has the potential to create issues with the bonds (seals, glues) of leather construction with multiple layers. It also would be a concern for staining the contents of whatever is stored inside the finished leather good. The darkening of the brown horsehide is very noticeable.

P was best. Good looks, no blemishes, no fading, good flexibility, no oil build up on the back. There was some darkening of the brown horsehide, but not as much as M or F. Don’t use the control swatch in the brown picture below for a darkening comparison – the control has been faded considerably by sun and water. Compare to the control swatch in the setup picture above.

P - Black - December 2009 - Post-Application

P - Brown - December 2009 - Post-Application

And now for the unveiling. I won’t hold you in suspense any longer. P is for…..

Pecard. Specifically Pecard Leather Dressing. It comes in a tub and is a paste that you wipe on, rub in, allow to set, and then wipe off the excess.

Pecard Leather Dressing

I won’t tell you what M, F, and L are because I don’t think they are deserving of a bad rap and I’m sure they are fine products for other applications – they just aren’t a good fit for our particular leather and tannage. If you are an extremely curious type, then I’m sure you can piece it together if you scout out the different kinds of popular conditioners out there.

Pecard has a good reputation in the vintage and reproduction leather jacket circles, and I’m glad to see it’s justified. I like the product so much, that we are offering it on our website as a convenience for our customers. A little bit goes a long way, so buy it once and you’ll be covered for years.  Our recommendation for the first application is at the end of the first  6 months to 1 year, depending on how much you use and abuse your leathers.  There are enough oils and waxes in the leather as it comes from us initially to keep your  leather in good shape until the first application.  After the first year you will want to increase the applications to 2-3 times a year.