International Leather Maker

In the summer months, when everyone, including politicians, is on holiday, the press has what is called the “silly season”. Trivial stories make the headlines to counterbalance the generally depressing regular news. Perhaps something similar happens in the Southern Hemisphere, but even a somewhat false moment of levity is welcome these days. Such situations are […]

It looks as if Volvo Cars is ending the production of estates. A recent announcement that they will no longer be sold in the UK matches events in the US and elsewhere. The UK media immediately found industry “experts” to comment on the significance of the brand giving up models that have been central to […]

Sheep graze on the wide sandy coastal grasslands in a remote part of Wales amid a patchwork of ancient temperate rainforest. At the edge of the gnarled sessile oaks, quercus petraea, scrub and other small windblown trees, one oddly shaped specimen stands out as being different. It’s a black acacia, an Australian tree. It is here […]

Although The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is climate change fiction it was a recommendation by a top climate scientist that got me reading it. It is a gripping explanation of what we have ahead and puts so much focus on Wet Bulb temperature 35oC that I now have a wet and […]

News of the death of Franco Rosati of Italian tanner David Group, aged 97, has meant a weekend of contemplation in our family. Born in Santa Croce sull’Arno, he was one of the creators of the Renaissance in Italian leather after the Second World War. From simple backgrounds, they captured a heady mix of creativity and modernity […]

We have seen two excellent conventions over the last few weeks. Large audiences attended two-day events in Germany and the U.S. The agendas were emphatically relevant to the industry of today and well appreciated by attendees. This meant a heavy focus on bisphenols and ongoing issues with Chrome VI and PFAS. Allied to this were […]

An interesting announcement was made in the UK last week. After scientists analysed vegan equivalents of 61 chocolate truffles, pizzas, burgers, muffins and wraps, they announced that 39% of them were not vegan at all. This is serious. Mislabelled products have already killed people who are allergic to certain contents, such as dairy. The 1.5% […]

At the recent American Leather Chemists Association (ALCA) Annual Convention, I answered a question about why so many tanneries stopped making use of items like fleshing, hair and shavings in the 1960s and 1970s and instead threw them away. My answer was the ruthless pursuit of “efficiency”. As I sat in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, […]

The 117th ALCA Annual Convention took place last week and ended with their Awards Banquet, where I found myself sitting with Shep Hermann of Hermann Oak Leather, someone I had always wanted to meet. I have not been a regular attendee at such events over the last few years but that there was a pace […]

For thousands of years, all of society, including a few tanners, knew that leather lasts a very long time and articles made from it that were well designed, carefully constructed and used well-chosen components would be repaired and refreshed to last through generations. Our museums are full of such articles. They are everywhere. Transport museums, […]