1. Understanding the animal skin

A few basic terms:

1. Epidermis: the outermost layer of skin. It is smooth.
2. Full-grain leather: leather complete with epidermis. It is smooth on the epidermis side and rough on the underside. For a detailed description please read “Full-grain leather“.
3. Split: the underside leather that remains after the epidermis is removed. It is rough.

The relationship between full-grain, epidermis and split

Below are simple equations to assist our customers to better understand full-grain leather as the benchmark of quality for leather.

In fact, epidermis and full-grain are the same. A split cannot be reattached to the epidermis once permanently removed, as seen in the 3rd equation. It also emphasizes that while both the epidermis and the split may be genuine leather, it is the epidermis of full-grain leather that makes it the benchmark of quality in the leather industry. The split is but the less valuable by-product.