Did you know there are many types of leather? I’m not just talking about the color of the leather. I am referring to the method used to tan the leather into a usable product. The tanning process converts the skin of the animal into a preserved, usable product.
The two major tanning processes that you will find are Chrome Tanned and Vegetable Tanned. Often vegetable tanned will be shortened into veg-tan or veg-tanned leather. Some of the really soft and beautiful leather is chrome tanned. It produces a wonderful finish and feel. If you have felt a sofa that you loved or a fine automobile seat then you have experienced this type of leather. While it is beautiful it is not suitable for laser engraving and cutting. When this leather is exposed to the laser beam it can emit dangerous chemicals that can harm people and equipment.
This is why we use veg-tanned leather. Vegetable tanned leather is produced with a lot of time and plant based recipes. The naturally occurring tannins treat and preserve the leather. They also produce a leather that can be exposed to the laser beam without generating toxic fumes. While not as harmful as chrome-tanned leather, the smoke produced from cutting vegetable tanned leather awful smelling. Leather is a very smoky process. It typically smells like burning hair. After all, it is just the flesh of the animal that we are cutting.
The only leather that we will cut is veg-tanned. We use veg-tanned leather from Hermann Oak. Hermann Oak is one of the only tanneries left in the United States. This is a premium leather that is made in the USA with USA cows. It is also expensive, but that is not the point. It is amazing leather. Veg-tanned leather has a nice, natural finish that is a light tan color. We dye our leather to a proprietary brown color that you can see on our “natural” patch color. This rich brown color accentuates the blackened laser engraving to help your logo stand out.
If you would like to learn more about the tanning process you can visit http://hermannoakleather.com/about/tannery-tour-video and learn how Hermann Oak operates. It is quite an interesting process. It is pretty amazing how we are working with an organic material that has been a major building block of civilization.