French calf is finished on flesh side.
Dry hides are obtained from Buenos Ayres, where the cattle are raised on the plains. This city exports a large quantity of hides, dry, salted, and cured by smoking. The hides of cows generally yield inferior grain leather; but South American cowhides may be worked for light sole leather.
Calves’ hides are thinner, but when well tanned, curried, and dressed, they yield a very soft and supple leather for boots and shoes. They are finished with wax and oil on the flesh side, and can also be finished on the hair (grain of skin).
Calves’ skin (green salted).
Paris City calfskins. These are obtained in three grades—light, medium, and heavy.
Light grades run from four to five, or seven to eight pounds; medium grades run from seven to nine pounds; heavy grades run from nine to twelve pounds.
Patent leather may be made from colt, calf, or kid skin. Coltskin is the skin of young horses, or split skins of mature horses.
Patent colt and kid are used for the most part in the medium fine grades, and patent side (cowhide) is used in the medium and cheaper grades. Chrome tanned are used entirely in the manufacture of patent leather.
Patent leather, as it appears in shoes, may be described either as varnished leather, coltskin, or kid, and sometimes the French use calfskin. The process is largely a secret one, although there is no longer any patent on the principle of the same. It is made by shaving the skins on the flesh side or hair side to a uniform thickness. Then it is de-greased to put the skin in condition to receive the finish and protect the same from peeling off. Successive coats of liquid black varnish are applied, the first coats being dried and rubbed down, so as to work the liquid thoroughly into the fibers of the leather. The last coat is applied with a brush, and baked to from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit for thirty-six hours and then allowed to dry in direct sunlight for from six to ten hours, which seems to be essential to remove the sticky feeling. Various ingredients are used in making the different varnishes, the first coating consisting of naphtha, wood alcohol, amyl acetate, etc. The black varnishes consist of linseed oil and various other mixtures, heated in iron kettles. The final coating is a naphtha preparation resembling japanning material. The hide is stretched on a frame during the varnishing operations.
It is almost impossible to tell the difference in quality of shiny leather by appearance, although in general the leather on which the grain shows through the varnish will prove more serviceable than that on which the finish is so thick as to hide the grain. Great care must be exercised in resewing patent leather shoes that have been exposed during the cold weather, as the cold has a tendency to freeze the finish. Patent leather, like all varnished coatings, is liable to crack. No one can guarantee it not to do so. The kid patent leather is more elastic and porous than other kinds. The serious objection to the use of patent leather for a shoe is its air-tightness. This makes it both unhygienic and uncomfortable. The kid patent leather is the only patent leather that has not this objection.