Glossary of Terms

A piece of leather is sammed after it has passed through a samming machine.  This is a machine that reduces moisture in leather in a similar way to a high pressure mangle.

Shoe & Allied Trade Research Association, a testing house that started out solely with the shoe leather industry, but now covers all sectors of the leather industry and many other industry sectors.

A very soft aniline type leather that is dyed using a similar process to tie-dyeing, the effect means that the colour is always different.

Leg portion of hide pattern.

The fore part of the hide, cut off at right angles to the back bone, with the belly cut off and the head cut off behind the horns.

A side is half a hide cut along the back bone line.

The outer covering of small animals and other vertebrates, e.g. sheep and goats or of the immature animals of the larger species, e.g. calves and colts or of reptiles.

Society of Leather Technologists & Chemists, a society that is the technical and professional body of all leather scientists

A finish that is delivered to the substrate with a non aqueous solvent as the medium.

Specification 8, is the old name for FAR/JAR 25.853 with respect to flame resistance testing for aircraft interior materials.  It is adopted from FAR 25.853 and FAR 25.855, which is the specification set by the United States Federal Aviation Authority.

A device that measures the spectral absorption of an object, i.e. the colour.  It has many advantages over a colorimeter, mainly that it is more accurate and colorimeters cannot detect metamerism.

A single layer from a hide or skin that has been separated over its whole area into two or more layers. The layers thus obtained are termed: (a) grain split (outer split); (b)  flesh split (inner split).

The process of cutting leather into two or more layers.

Spueing is the term given when a component of the leather migrates to the surface.  The two most common types are fatty spues and salt spues.  Fatty spue looks like white fluffy clouds on the surface of the leather and disappears with localised heating because it is due to low melting point fatty acids.  Salt spue can be removed with a damp cloth.

A process where finished leather is subjected to a pummelling type of mechanical stressing by a machine, to soften it

A polymer that is used to fill small cuts and scars.  It comes in a putty type form that, when allowed to air dry, forms a dry but flexible filling.

The measure of the thickness of the leather.

A velvet-like nap finish, produced on leather by abrasive action, usually a buffing machine.