Demystifying leather belt quality
From reading online, I know that full grain leather is "the best" and top grain leather is "second best" and genuine leather is some of the worst. This is mostly concrete to me, although I don't have a full grain leather belt. I do have one top grain leather belt that is in perfect shape after a few years, and I have had genuine leather belts split and break within two or three wears.
But what about everything else? I mostly get my clothes from thrift stores, and come across so many variations of leather descriptions. Two recent examples from pickups: (1) "Aniline Finished Leather - Made in USA". Got this today (it's essentially this: https://poshmark.com/listing/Aniline-Finished-Brown-Leather-Belt-64cbad5c02760bac75b7f672). (2) Coach made in USA burgundy belt made from "burnished cowhide". From my limited experience, these belts feel and look closer to the top-grain leather belt than the genuine leather belts I've felt and worn.
Is there a resource out there explaining all of the different kinds of belt leathers? Otherwise, would love to at least learn about aniline + burnished cowhide leathers!
10 Replies
leather quality is largely a myth, i have a 10 year old dockers belt that is objectively shit leather and still does its job with no signs of stopping
that being said, if it names the leather used (cowhide in this case, not just full grain vs top grain etc) thats usually a green flag. this looks fine for $30
Full vs top vs split grain leather is generally all garbage. Shell cordovan is a split grain leather. All nubuck and chromexcel leathers are a corrected grain leather
This info doesn't apply to belts only, but all leather. Bags, shoes, belts... everything is cut out from the same processed material after all, the hide.
I am assuming that you're already acquainted with what "full grain", "top grain" and "genuine leather" refers to, so I will jump straight to the point. Full aniline finishing is a process that takes place during tanning. Essentially, some step after your leather has mingled with tanines, you place the hide in a drum vat with aniline dye, your leather gets stiffer, gets homogenously dye-d through, and you have mostly one-shaded, solid leather!
You could aniline dye full grain, sand the full grain down and dye it that way, even dye the split.
Burnishing on the other hand isn't done during the tanning, but afterwards as far as I am aware.
You essentially polish and buff the duck out of your leather until it's all shiny, glossy, and texture-y.
You could technically burnish aniline leather, just do all kinds of different stuff.
In my view, any variant of "broad naming" is going to be due to marketing or regulations. 100% wool doesn't mean anything when you can't trace individual sheep, or mixture of herd from some farm, or where and how the yarn has been spun, woven, and the list goes on.
Same thing with leather, really.
my intuition told it was a green flag, and it was $3 for me, so of course I got it, and the fit is perfect lol
This makes a lot of sense. Part of me was hoping there was just a simple classification across the board, but I guess it doesn't matter a ton with how easy it is to try out belts on the second hand market. Thanks for all of the details though - I am mostly following along, and it is fascinating
No worries at all. I wholeheartedly agree with the second hand market bit.
But despite that ease and availability, I am still hoping not to waste money/time, and it's easy enough to spend a few seconds looking at what a belt says to look for any indicators of quality
Just theorycrafting, but there is also the option of sourcing your leather from some reputable seller and then finding a belt maker.
Sure, expensive entry, but I bet you could make a few belts from one hide.
And then you're way more sure about the quality of your leather.
And you get to say: I was there when this belt was born.
You don't have to search for a silver needle in some hay bale, too.
There is no standard grades or rankings for leather, those terms just describe the processes to make the leather rather than tell you if one is "better" than another. For example, there are shit full grain leathers and amazing corrected gain leathers, it is up to you to decide which of these type of leathers suits your needs. Rough summary:
1. Full grain: contains the outermost layer of leather. Tanned hides are super thick and need to be split into layers to be usable, where the innermost layers (inside the animal) are typically the most fibrous, and the outermost layers (outside the animal) have a tighter fiber structure.
2. Top grain: leather that comes from the outer layers, but does not contain the absolute outer surface. This is typically when the outer surface is sanded to remove scars and marks. Notably, all full grain leathers are also considered top grain, but not vice versa.
3. Suede/split grain: comes from the hairier inner layers of the hide. It does have a looser fiber structure than top grain leathers which means it's weaker, but the difference is very small and suede is still way way more durable than what the average person needs.
4. Corrected grain: leather where anything has been done to modify the surface of the leather. Examples include light sanding, embossing, or a surface coating of pigment/wax/plastic.
5. Genuine leather: literally anything that has any component of real leather, including everything on this list. Many products with high quality leather are still labeled genuine so you can't use it as an indicator.
I’m waiting for a Horween No 8 Chromexcel belt and a matching pair of desert shoes, from Crown Northampton. That’ll be the most expensive belt I’ve bought. Hope it’s a good one!
As always, essential reading:
https://nstarleather.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/the-grades-of-leather-hierarchy-youve-probably-read-about-is-a-myth/
North Star Leather
North Star Leather
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