Eyeing up to find the best genuine leather in the midst of faux is a pleasure for the smarter heads grabbing the best deals of genuineness. The ambiguous terms used by salesperson are to mislead customers from leathers to any synthetic fiber, making them look natural, rich with elegant finish in cheaper deals. Use the following tips to stay wise.
- Stay circumspect of any product that does not specifically claim to be real leather. Good manufacturers are proud owners of genuine leathers sold as will be distinguishing as real leather jacket women, genuine leather, top/full grain leather, animal products.
- Imperfection in leather is good. Real leather might have scratches, creases and wrinkles--a good thing. Animal skin is the purest form of leather; thus each piece is unique.
- Check the surface grain, lesser pebbles and pores for imperfections and uniqueness that signal genuine leather. Imperfections in leather make them original. Also, very regular, even and similar grains often indicate a machine-made piece.
- Real ones get wrinkly under pressure just like real skin, whereas synthetics will just depress down but will retain rigidity and shape.
- The musty natural musk smell is the proof for real leather unlike plastic or chemical smell from the synthetics or low gradient leathers. Always remember, leather is just worked animal skin.
- Use fire test to recognize, but it will likely ruin a part of the good. Experiment this on the hard-to-see areas by holding up a flame up for 5-7 seconds as the real leather will have smell of burnt hair or will surely char unlike to the faux which catches flames easily and smells of plastic.
- Real leathers have rough edges where faux has even and perfect edges. Machine made leather has fine cut which is recognizable. Since real leathers are made of many strands, they fray around the edges and faux made of plastic has no such strands leading to clean cut.
- Leathers have unique elasticity when bent changing color naturally like skin. Faux’s are rigid and regular, usually difficult to bend by comparison.
- If the good ones are fake, water will puddle on top as real one’s will absorb small drop of water in just few seconds, letting you know about the genuineness of the leather.
- Real leather is expensive, know that for sure. Split layer is less expensive than top grain leathers. The greater the feel, the better the prices are.
- Full-grain leathers are mostly used for high-end products as they are extremely durable, whereas top-grain leather is used to get high-quality goods at reasonable price.
- Genuine leather has a specific grade to itself, as it has a suede side feeling to it. They are made by stripping off the harder and expensive grains from top to unleash the softer work leather underneath.
- Always stay away from bonded-leathers as they are made from ground up and glued leather shavings, being less impressive, generally used for book and other smaller item, but never worn.
Stay conscious and eye on the authenticity of the leather while buying one high-quality for yourself
P.C. Lookout for original makers of leather while buying one good quality leather clothing for yourself.