ASTM D1517-99(2004)

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Designation: D 1517 – 99 (Reapproved 2004)
Standard Terminology Relating to
,
1 2
Leather
This standard is issued under the fixed designation D 1517; the number immediately following the designation indicates the year of
original adoption or, in the case of revision, the year of last revision. A number in parentheses indicates the year of last reapproval. A
superscript epsilon (e) indicates an editorial change since the last revision or reapproval.
INTRODUCTION
These definitions are divided into two groups: the first group covers general terms, and the second
group covers definitions applicable to sampling.
The definitions of general terms include some of those encountered by personnel concerned with
specifications and procurement of hides, leather and leather products by the Federal Government.
The definitions applicable to sampling are mainly to be used in connection with the sampling for,
and testing of, physical and chemical properties.
Terms adequately defined by unabridged dictionaries are not generally included.
GENERAL TERMS but firm, dry, strong leather.
aspergillus niger—one of the most common mold growths
alligator—a general term used for leather made from the skins
found on vegetable tanning vats and on leather, usually
of all aquatic species with a grain similar to the american
greenish or blackish in color.
alligator which cannot be killed legally and, therefore, is not
automobile leather—see upholstery leather.
used by the United States industry.
back—a crop with the head trimmed off behind the horn holes.
alligator-grained leather—leather of various types, such as
(OZUP in Fig. 1.)
calf, sheep or cattlehide embossed to resemble the grain of
bag leather—a general term for leathers used in traveling bags
alligator hide.
and suitcases. It does not include the light leathers employed
alum leather—leather produced by alum tannage, usually in
for women’s fancy handbags. The staple material for bag
combination with other substances. Before the invention of
and case leather at present is leather made from the hides of
chrome-tanning this was the principal method of tanning
animals of the bovine species, but heavy sealskins and
with mineral agents.
goatskins are also used.
aniline dyed leather—leather which has been colored by
bark tannage—leather tanned by use of vegetable tannins
transparent dyes as distinguished from leather treated by
found in barks, wood, and other plant derivatives, as
pigments or other opaque material.
distinguished from mineral tannages.
aniline finish—a clear finish with little or no pigmentation.
barkometer—a hydrometer used for determining the specific
antelope finish suede—applied to lambskin, goatskin, or
gravity of tanning solutions. A specific gravity of 1.000 is
calfskin, sueded and finished to resemble antelope.
equivalent of 0 deg barkometer (Bk), and each additional
antelope leather—a fine, soft leather made from an antelope
degree Bk is equivalent to an increase of 0.001 in specific
skin, velvety in texture and sheen, sueded on the flesh side.
gravity.
This leather is so rare, that for practical purposes, it is
baseball leather—leather used for covers of baseballs. The
virtually nonexistent.
better grades of balls have covers of alum-tanned horsehide
apron leathers—any one of several varieties of leather used in
front leather. Some cheaper grades are made of kip and
connection with textile machinery and blacksmith aprons.
sheepskins.
Comber and Gill Box apron leather is soft, mellow, tough
basil—uncolored vegetable-tanned sheepskin and lambskin.
leather, tanned from steerhides, heavily stuffed and boarded
bate—to treat unhaired hides or skins with a warm aqueous
or otherwise softened. Rub Roll apron leather is a flexible
solution of an enzyme in order to remove certain undesirable
nitrogenous constituents.
1 beam—a convex wooden slab sloping downward from about
This terminology is under the jurisdiction of ASTM Committee D31 on Leather
waist height over which a hide is placed for trimming off
and is the direct responsibility of Subcommittee D31.91 on Administrative and
Editorial.
excess flesh and ragged edges and scudding by hand.
Current edition approved April 1, 2004. Published May 2004. Originally
belting butt—a double back with the tail cut off at the butt
approved in 1957. Last previous edition approved in 1999 as D 1517 – 99.
line. (RUT8S in Fig. 1.)
These definitions have been developed in cooperation with the American
Leather Chemists Assn. (Definitions of Terms X1-1961). belting butt bend—a double bend with the tail cut off at the
Copyright © ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, PO Box C700, West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959, United States.
D 1517 – 99 (2004)
box calf or sides—sides or skins finished by folding with the
grain side in and rubbing the flesh side with a cork-surfaced
instrument known as a hand board. Machinery is now also
used. The effect is sometimes imitated by embossing. Also
called “box” or “willow” finish.
break—(1) heavy leather—the places, in the areas where the
fore shank and hind shank join the body of the hide, where
the texture of the leather changes quite sharply from the firm,
close weave of the bend to a loose, open texture.
FIG. 1 Hide, Showing Various Cuts
(2) shoe upper leather—the superficial wrinkling formed
when the leather is bent, grain inward. Adjectives commonly
used to describe this characteristic are “tight,” “fine,” “loose,”
butt line. (RR8S8S in Fig. 1.)
“coarse,” and “pipy,” or “flanky.”
belly—that part of the hide below the belly line. (VWP8Pin
bridle leather—a harness-finished strap leather.
Fig. 1.) For steerhide leather, the belly line (RU) passes
brining—a process of curing hides by soaking with salt
through a point at or above the top of the rear break. For
solution (sodium chloride).
cowhide leather, the belly line passes through a point at or
bronzing—excessive concentration of crystallized dyestuff on
above the top of the front break and a point not more than
the surface of the leather tending to give a metallic sheen.
2 ⁄2 in. (64 mm) below the top of the rear break.
brush coloring—the application of dye-stuff to leather with a
bend—a back with the shoulder cut off at right angles to the
brush or swab, the leather being laid on a table. Also called
backbone line at the break of the fore flank. (OYR8P in Fig.
table dyeing.
1.)
buck sides—cattlehide shoe upper leather finished to resemble
biff—to beat a salted hide that has been placed on a rack, in
buckskin.
order to shake loose salt from the hair.
buckskin—leather from deer and elk skins, used for shoes,
bisulfiting—the treatment of hot solutions of vegetable tanning
gloves, and clothing. Only the outer cut of the skin from
extracts with sodium bisulfite in order to increase their
which the surface grain has been removed may be correctly
solubility and rate of take-up by hides.
defined as “genuine buckskin.” Leather finished from the
bleaching—(1) the process of removing oxidized tannins and
split or under-cut of deerskin must be described as “split
insoluble materials from the surface layers of leather, in
buckskin.”
order to prevent crackiness of the grain. It is performed by
buffalo leather—leather made from the hides of domesticated
dipping the leather in a weak alkaline solution to render the
water buffalo of the Far East, not the American bison.
tannin readily soluble, dipping in water, neutralizing in weak
buffing—the mechanical operation of removing a superficial
acid solution and washing.
portion of the grain of flesh surface with sand paper or knife
(2) the process of lightening the color of chrome leather
in order to produce a velvet surface or to minimize natural
by treating with synthetic tannins or precipitating white pig-
surface defects on the grain or flesh.
ment in the surface of the leather.
buffing dust—the fine particulate leather fiber that is sanded
bleeding—the transfer of materials exuded from leather to
off during buffing.
other materials that come in contact with it.
buffing paper—rolls or continuous paper coated with specially
blocking—the adhesion between touching layers of leather
graded and treated abrasive particulates that is used to buff
such as occurs under moderate pressures during storage or
leather on a belt sanding machine.
use.
bullhides—hides from bulls are characterized by thick and
bloom—a light-colored deposit of ellagic acid appearing on
rough head, neck and shoulders, and coarse flanks. They are
the grain surface of leather tanned with certain pyrogallo
often poor in quality and heavy, ranging from 60 lb (27 kg)
tannins, such as myrabolans, valonia, and dividivi. The
up.
appearance may be objectionable for some purposes, but
burnishing—similar to buffing but using polishing paper/
bloom does not significantly affect the other physical prop-
cloths with no or very fine abrasives that produces a very
erties of the leather.
smooth polished appearance on the leather surface.
blue—usually in the phrase “in the blue,” applied to hides or
butcher cuts—damage to hides caused by improper removal
skins that have been chrome-tanned but not dyed nor
from the animal, usually in the form of cuts or furrows on the
fat-liquored.
flesh side.
blushing—dulling or mottling of the finish of the leather
butt—that part of the hide or skin covering the rump or hind
resulting from condensed moisture during the drying of the
part of the animal.
finish. Also referred to as lacquer bloom.
cabretta—skin of hair sheep, originally Brazilian, used prin-
boarded leather—leather on which a false or accentuated
grain has been produced by folding the grain side and cipally for glove and garment leathers. (See also cape.)
working the leather back and forth. Hand boarding is done calf leather—leather made from the skins of young cattle from
with a curved cork board attached to the worker’s arm and a few days up to a few months old, the skins weighing up to
rolled over the folded skin. 25 lb (11.3 kg). It is finer grained, lighter in mass and more
boardy—adjective applied to stiff, inflexible leather. supple than cowhide, or kip leathers.
D 1517 – 99 (2004)
cape, skin or leather—skin of South African hair sheep. country hides—hides taken off by butchers and farmers; their
Fine-grained leather, superior to wool sheep for gloves and quality is usually lower than that of packer hides because
garments. Loosely applied to all hair sheep, but should be they are removed by less skilled hands and are not cured as
qualified to show origin, if other than South African. well as packer hides.
carding leather—a type of tannage of side leather used on the cowhide—term specifically applied to leather made from hides
of cows, although it is sometimes loosely used to designate
cards of textile machinery.
any leather tanned from hides of animals of the bovine
carpincho leather—leather from the skin of the carpincho, a
species.
large South American rodent. The skin is used in making
crocking—the transfer of finish or color when leather is
glove leather, usually chrome-tanned and washable. In the
rubbed with a wet or dry cloth.
glove-leather trade, it is classified as a pigskin. It resembles
crop—a side with the belly trimmed off. (OO8P8P in Fig. 1.)
pigskin in appearance, a characteristic being the occurrence
croupon—untanned, whole cattlehide with the belly and
of bristle holes in straight-line groups, usually five holes in
a group. shoulder cut off. Comparable to a butt bend in tanned leather.
crushed leather—leather made from chrome-vegetable ret-
case leather—see bag leather.
anned kidskins with the grain accentuated by boarding or
chamois leather—a soft, pliable absorbent leather which is
other process.
recognized in this country and abroad as being made from
crust—used as an adjective or in the phrase “in the crust,”
the inner side of a sheepskin, known technically as flesher,
refers to leather than has been tanned but not finished (see
from which the outer or grain side has been split prior to
also rough).
tanning.
curing—treating raw hides or skins so as to minimize putre-
chestnut extract—a vegetable tanning agent extracted from
faction and bacterial action, but to enable the skins to be wet
the wood of the chestnut tree and used in tanning/re-tanning
back conveniently in preparation for tanning (see brining,
heavy leathers.
dry pickling, dry salting, green salting, and pickle).
chrome retannage—the process of applying trivalent chro-
curling temperature—the temperature at which noticeable
mium salts as a secondary adjunct to the main tannage to
curling occurs on gradually heating a leather specimen in
impart or enhance certain leather properties; usually applied
water.
after splitting and shaving.
currying—a process of treating tanned hides with oils and
chrome tannage—conversion of raw hides/skin into leather
greases to prepare them for belting, sole, harness leathers,
with chromium compounds, thereby substantially increasing
etc.
strength properties and resistance to various biological and
cut stock—a term generally applied to bottom stock for shoes,
physical agents.
such as soles, taps, lifts, blocks, and strips cut from sole
coarse rough fiber—fibers of flesh surfaces of leather or splits
leather. Also applies to cut-to-pattern leather.
which are frayed, separated, and present a shaggy appear-
deep buff—the first cut or split underneath the top grain or
ance.
machine buff on which no traces of the grain remain.
cockle—hard, firm nodules appearing on the necks and bellies
deerskin—a deerskin tanned and finished with the grain
of sheepskins.
surface intact.
collagen—the principal fibrous protein in the corium or derma
degrained leather—leather from which the grain has been
layer of a hide or skin.
removed after tanning, by splitting, abrading, or other
collar leather—a subdivision of harness leather, made from
process.
very light cattlehides in full thickness, or of cattlehide splits,
degras, moellon—the partially oxidized oil pressed out of
and used for covering horse collars.
sheepskin after tannage with cod or other marine oil. (See
Colorado steer—a side-branded steerhide, not necessarily
also moellon.)
from Colorado.
doeskin—commercial term for white leather from sheep or
comber leather—a steerhide leather, heavily stuffed and
lambskin, tanned with alum or formaldehyde or both.
usually boarded, used in textile combing machines.
double shoulder—the fore part of the hide cut off at right
combination tanned—formerly, tanned with a blend of veg-
angles to the backbone line at the break of the fore flank,
etable extracts. Today, tanned with two or more types of
with the belly cut off and the head cut off behind the horn
tanning materials, such as chromium compounds and veg-
holes. (R8UT8S8 in Fig. 1)
etable extracts, or chromium compo
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