Latigo Leather Hides

Latigo leather comes from the combination of vegetable and chrome tanning. This kind of leather combines the properties of both processes making unique the final properties of the hides: it is softer than vegetable tanning but stiffer than chrome, it has water-repellent properties and lends itself perfectly to manufacture of belts, strips, bags, handles, boots, shoes and suitcases.

latigo leather

What is Latigo Leather?

Latigo Leather (also called mixed tanning leather) is a combination of vegetable tanning and chrome tanning (mineral tanning). Commonly we start from a pre-tanned leather (called wet-blue) and we proceed with a veg tannins or synthetic tannins (characterized by a strong white color) alone or recombined with mineral tanning agents. This type of "hybrid" tanning can harmonize (almost as in the preparation of cocktails) the best characteristics of the two processes; the result is a latigo leather (mixed tanning) that has the fullness and resistance of vegetable tanning and the plasticity and brightness of chrome tanning.

Historical Notes on Leather Tanning

When talking about latigo leather hides it is necessary to open a parenthesis on the leather tanning processes. As is known, in the period from antiquity to the early decades of the twentieth century, the only method of tanning universally known was the "vegetable" tanning, that consist in the fixation of products of vegetable origin to the fibers of the skin. In this process the bark of some plants such as chestnut, mimosa and quebracho was particularly suitable as it is rich in binding substances. In the following decades, with the introduction of mineral salts (known as chromium salts and aluminium salts) in the tanning processes, important progresses were achieved in the final characteristics of the tanned products, at the expense of a greater environmental impact that these tanning processes had on nature, resulting primarily from the increased use of water and chemicals.

Latigo Leather for Sale

On our website Buyleatheronline we have dedicated a specific section to the Latigo Leather for sale, this type of leather is mainly used in the Anglo-Saxon countries to produce saddlery and bridle, thanks to fast and cheap processes you can get a latigo cowhide very thick and robust. In Italy and in Europe, on the other hand, latigo leather it is used above all to produce shoes, boots and leather goods in general. It is therefore a type of leather that lends itself well to every use or to the most varied needs and compared to vegetable tanning has the advantage of being usually softer and above all less expensive.