Why we use natural Vegetable Tanned Leather
A question we often get from customers is what type of leather do we use for our DIY kits and why? We wanted to take you through our thought process in a bit more detail to explain our philosophy around material selection.
At J Tanner Deconstructed, we exclusively use natural vegetable tanned leather, and you will see that we reference this quite a lot throughout our website. But what is "vegetable tanned leather" and why do we exclusively use this material for our kits?
Vegetable tanned leather refers to the method which the leather is tanned/treated. It is a traditional method which involves tanning the leather using natural materials like tree leaves and bark. It is one of the oldest methods of tanning leather and has been used by people for thousands of years - well before the industrial revolution! For this reason, vegetable tanned leather is often referred to as Eco-Friendly leather, as it doesn't require harsh chemicals to produce.
There are a few reasons why we love this type of leather so much. To start with, the colours and finish you get from vegetable tanned leather are usually much richer and help to present a more eye-catching result once you have finished crafting your product.
Vegetable tanned leather is also more durable, and will hold up longer and better than most other leathers. This is important to us, because we want people to enjoy the products they make, and get good use out of them - we believe goods should have a good life span and not be treated as quick disposable items.
In a similar theme, the way vegetable tanned leather ages is the final reason we choose this as our go-to material. Because it is a very natural material, you will find that over time the colour will darken to form a patina (the natural darkening and marking by absorbing through every day use). Additionally, the leather will change shape slightly over time to better match how you use the product on a day by day basis.
As you can tell, we love vegetable tanned leather!