Leather tanning is certainly one of the oldest activities of man. The prehistoric man had understood that the skin of the animals he hunted could be used. Naturally, the tanning process has undergone many changes from prehistory to the present, especially since the twentieth century, a century in which industrialization, hide tanning companies, and new machinery have allowed a development in the research of specific leather products.

Leather is actually a waste from the food industry, but it is “recycled” by the tanneries and the companies in the leather processing industry in such a way as to make it a luxurious and fashionable material.  The tanning production process can be substantially divided into three main phases: tanning, retanning and finishing.

Imagine the various stages of processing as a path between departure and arrival. Although starting from the same point, if a skin goes the long way and makes some important and challenging steps, it comes to an end a long time later, with much more effort, and with an enormous expenditure of energy. On the other hand, if a skin makes a shorter path or cuts along the path, avoids difficult and expensive steps, it arrives much earlier and with less energy expenditure. This is why some types of leather, though starting from the same starting line, are very different at the end of the cycle of tanning, retanning, and finishing. They are definitely different from one another and, of course, are sold with different final prices.

Many operations are optional and therefore doing them or not doing them is only a matter of cost and of the final result that a company wants to achieve with that particular article.