How Is Leather Made? The Leather Manufacturing Process Explained

Leather is one of the oldest and most durable materials used by humans, but few people understand the process behind it. If you’ve ever wondered how leather is made or what goes into the leather manufacturing process, here’s a clear breakdown from start to finish.

Step 1: Sourcing the Hide

Leather begins with animal hides, most commonly cowhide. These hides are byproducts of the meat industry, ensuring nothing goes to waste. The quality of the hide is the foundation of quality leather, whether it becomes full-grain leather, top-grain leather, suede, or bonded leather.  We have another post explaining the difference.

Step 2: Curing and Preservation

Fresh hides quickly decay if untreated. To prevent this, hides are salted or dried. This step preserves the hide until it can move on to the tanning process.

Step 3: Soaking and Cleaning

Before tanning, hides are soaked in large vats of water. This washes out dirt, blood, and excess salt while rehydrating the material. Clean hides mean better quality finished leather.

Step 4: Liming and Dehairing

A lime solution loosens hair and natural fats, while rollers scrape the hides clean. This process prepares the fibers for tanning and ensures the leather surface is smooth and workable.

Step 5: Deliming and Bating

Deliming reduces the hide’s alkalinity, while bating enzymes soften the fibers. This gives the leather flexibility, a key difference between stiff, rawhide-like material and supple, high-quality leather.

Step 6: Pickling

The hides are then treated with salt and acid. This step is critical because it allows tanning agents to penetrate evenly during the next stage.

Step 7: Tanning – Turning Hide Into Leather

Tanning transforms raw hide into true leather that will not rot. There are two primary methods:

• Vegetable Tanning – Uses natural tannins from tree bark and plants. This traditional method produces strong, durable leather that develops a rich patina over time. Perfect for belts, saddles, and tooling leather.

• Chrome Tanning – Uses chromium salts. This modern process is faster, produces soft, flexible leather, and is more resistant to water. About 80% of all leather today is chrome tanned.

Both methods produce real leather, but the choice depends on the desired look, feel, and use.

Step 8: Splitting and Drying

After tanning, hides are dried and split. The top layer (grain) becomes full-grain or top-grain leather—the strongest and most valuable types. Lower layers are used for suede, split leather, or bonded leather.

Step 9: Retanning, Dyeing, and Conditioning

To achieve the right texture, color, and durability, leather undergoes retanning. Dyes add color, while oils and waxes (a process called fatliquoring) give flexibility and prevent cracking.

Step 10: Finishing

Finally, leather is stretched, buffed, polished, and sometimes embossed with patterns. Depending on the product, a protective coating may be added for durability—common in leather furniture, car interiors, and handbags.

The Journey From Hide to Leather

By the end of this process, a raw animal hide has been transformed into a material that can last for decades. From full-grain leather boots to suede jackets and top-grain leather sofas, the durability and natural beauty of leather come from this time-tested process.

What type of leather do we carry? 

We purchase leather remnants and hides from furniture companies that they have left over from their manufacturing process.  For full and half hides they might have ordered 100 hides but demand was less or they needed less for other reasons.  Most are top grain or full grain hides and remnants and we assume they were chrome tanned.