Full-Grain Leather Tote

Details

A structured tote cut from a single 2 mm full-grain vegetable-tanned panel, so the body has one seam instead of four. The name claims full-grain and the claim is the expensive part, so here is what it means and what stands next to it on the shelf. Full-grain is the outer surface of the hide, pores and healed scars intact, nothing sanded off. It holds the tightest fibre in the hide, which is why 2 mm of it stands up unsupported. Top-grain is the same surface buffed away and refinished, which loses the strength and gains a uniform face. Genuine leather is a rung below that: a split from the lower half of the hide, sanded and embossed with a grain it never had. It is the second-worst of the four grades and the word is chosen because it reads as a promise. Bonded leather is the last: ground scrap and dust glued onto a fabric backing, sold under names like leatherette and PU leather, and it delaminates at the fold inside a year. None of the lower three appear anywhere on this bag, and the grade is confirmed by microscopy to ISO 17131 rather than asserted. The handles are saddle-stitched by hand and riveted at both anchors, because a handle tears out when the bag is lifted heavy, which is when handles are always tested.

• Single-panel 2 mm full-grain vegetable-tanned body, thickness to ISO 2589
• Grain uncorrected and unprinted, ISO 17131 on a sample from every hide
• Chromic oxide nil by ISO 5398, hexavalent chromium under 3 mg per kg by ISO 17075-1
• Hand saddle-stitched handles in waxed linen, riveted as well as stitched at four anchors
• Solid brass feet and rivets, no plated zinc that flakes at the rim
• Removable 3 mm base board, 12 oz cotton canvas lining, both replaceable
• Tensile strength to ISO 3376 and tear load to ISO 3377 on the body hide
• No bonded, PU, split or corrected-grain leather anywhere, including the trim
• The hide arrives pale and matt, turns amber where light and hands reach it inside six months, and darkens fastest at the handles. It marks. A bag that cannot be marked is a bag that is coated.