I understand that a renowned leather jacket maker uses a process involving controlled moisture and heat to counteract the stretching introduced during the tanning and finishing of his hides. The process also appears to enhance the natural grain of the leather. What is your view of this approach, and would you consider using a similar method?
No. We would not regard this as a sound practice for a jacket maker to perform, particularly when dealing with expensive finished hides.
A true master leather jacket maker’s expertise is in pattern making, cutting, construction, and garment assembly. The tanning, retanning, dyeing, finishing, and physical modification of the hides should be left to the qualified professionals i.e. the tannery’s leather chemists. These specialists understand the particular tannage and finish of a hide and can control moisture, temperature, mechanical action, and drying accordingly.
There are, of course, established leatherworking processes involving dampening, casing, stretching, heating, and controlled drying. These can alter the dimensions and appearance of leather and, under controlled conditions, can accentuate or reveal the natural grain.
But that does not mean that wetting and heating a finished jacket hide when done by amateurs is a harmless or universally appropriate way of “undoing” the tannery’s stretching.
The risks include:
- dimensional change
- uneven shrinkage or stretching
- unwanted changes in grain character
- staining or water marks
- changes to the finish
- loss of softness or altered hand
- permanent distortion
Most importantly, different tannages and finishes react very differently. Aniline, semi‑aniline, pigment‑finished, vegetable‑tanned, chrome‑tanned, oil‑tanned, and combination tannages cannot all be treated in the same way. It is far more likely to destroy the leathers than to achieve the desired result. Therefore, it is by no means a safe procedure, and its practice by unqualified individuals is strongly discouraged.
So, if the objective is to obtain a particular amount of grain, shrinkage, or natural character, the proper approach would be to specify that requirement to the tannery and have the leather produced or finished accordingly than attempt to reverse the tannery’s processing afterward.
The same principle applies to redyeing. We would be equally cautious about makers who routinely redye their leathers.
The real reason some jacket makers dye their leathers themselves is not because they are guru craftsmen, as you may think or have been led to believe, but because they cannot afford to pay the MOQ (minimum order quantity) that tanneries require for producing a custom color.
The problem is that the coloring system must be compatible with the leather’s existing finish; otherwise, the adhesion and fixation of the new color will be adversely affected.
To give a specific example, these jacket makers use pigment dyes to re‑dye their leathers or completed jackets, ignoring the fact that pigment dye can be applied only to pigment‑finished leathers. If the leather is, for example, aniline‑finished (which is usually the case with their leathers), applying pigment to an aniline finish is not possible without knowing the specific ingredients the tannery used in the finish, which vary widely and can very easily disrupt fixation of the new color. Such re‑dyeing efforts will most likely result, sooner or later, in one or more of the following:
- poor color fixation
- color bleeding
- rub-off
- color transfer
- crocking
- flaking or peeling
- an uneven looking surface
If you would like to know more about re-dyeing please read our below article:
Re-Dyeing leathers or leather jackets, not as easy as you thought.
