Leather Finishing

The Leather Finishing Production Stage covers any additional surface treatments that are used to finish the leather. The Leather Finishing Production Stage is a multi-select stage and more than one processing option can be selected. All Leather Example Materials share the same Leather Finishing process options. The plant-based materials category has no process options for this Production Stage, as all impacts are included in previous Production Stages.

• Leather coating, polyurethane, for leather is the default process and should be selected unless it is known that no surface coating is applied to the leather. This process includes polymer surface treatments to make the leather hydrophobic.
• Brushing/buffing, for leather should be selected when the leather is brushed, buffed, or napped to create a softer hand feel. Suede and nubuck leathers are napped and/or buffed and should select this process option.
• Embossing, for leather should be selected when the leather is embossed using heat and/or pressure to create a surface pattern on the leather. This may be performed before or after other surface treatments such as Leather coating, polyurethane, for leather to further enhance the surface appearance.
• Painting, for leather should be selected when the surface of the leather is painted using pigments and/or paints to enhance or change the surface color.
• Waxing/oiling should be selected when a wax such as paraffin or an oil treatment is applied to increase water repellency and/or increase flexibility. The most common type of leathers that are oiled are vegetable tanned leathers and full grain aniline leathers.
• Finishing Kind Leather {Asiatan} (impact contained in tanning stage) should be selected only when using Kind Leather from Asiatan that includes tanning, re-tanning, drying, and finishing. When selecting this process, it should be paired with the “Kind Leather {Asiatan}, (includes tanning, re-tanning, drying, and finishing)” process in the Tanning stage.
• Finishing {PrimeAsia} (impact contained in tanning stage) should be selected only when using Finished Leather from PrimeAsia that includes tanning, re-tanning, drying, and finishing. This process applies to both: Finished leather, from Steers (US and Australia) {PrimeAsia}, and Finished leather, from South American raw hides {PrimeAsia}.