Our Vegetable Tanned Leather

Our tannery, situated in Tuscany - widely considered the home of leather tanning - is one of the oldest in the area to specialise in vegetable tanning and recognised as one of the world's best.

With traditional tanning techniques passed down over the centuries, the tannery has combined this handcrafted traditional experience with modern technology to produce the best leathers available and this leather is used in every Lamont product.

Vegetable tanning is the most traditional form of tanning leather and the only one that gives leather its unmistakable, natural properties meaning that every piece is unique. Below, you can find the step-by-step guide on how our tannery transforms a by-product to one of the highest quality materials in the world, along with the credentials of our leather.

	Sustainable Sustainable full-cycle vegetable tanning process. Only natural products and traditional processes are used, ensuring the art of tanning can continue for centuries to come.
	Allergenic Metal Free Vegetable tanning is a natural process, meaning no heavy metals are used in the production of our leathers.
	Biodegradable All of our leather is vegetable tanned. As such, it has no negative environmental impact and is fully biodegradable.
	Non-Toxic Vegetable tanning does not use chemicals and therefore is non-toxic. All of our leather is produced using the vegetable tanning method.
	Environmentally Conscious We only use hides from the meat industry and therefore all of our leather is a by-product.
	Minimum Water Usage We are committed to minimising water usage by recycling and reusing water where possible.

VEGETABLE TANNING PROCESS

1. PRE-TANNING

The first step is to prepare the hides. We begin by soaking them in a water based solution, which hydrates them and removes any hair. They are then cut down the middle to make two “sides”.

2. TANNING

The second step is to put the sides into large vats, which are filled with a solution of natural tannins. Tannins are biomolecules that bind to organic materials and are the property that turns an animal hide into the material we know as leather. The most traditional tannin comes from the bark of a chestnut tree. The vats used to create the Lamont leathers have been used for a very long time, and like a vintage wine, this adds to the quality of the leather.

Once the leather comes out of the vats, it is “skived”, or trimmed down to a desired uniform thickness across the whole side.

3. DYEING & DRYING

The newly tanned leather is now ready to take on the variety of rich colours we have in our range. They are placed into giant barrels like washing machines, which gently rotate, softening the leather and infusing the colours throughout the leather. All of our leathers are dyed throughout, ensuring that the colour is never lost over time and use.

The dyed leather is hung to dry naturally, another important step to ensure the highest quality of leather and colour.

4. FINISHING

At this final stage the leathers are sprayed with a natural wax to help seal and protect them. Every side of the leather is meticulously inspected to ensure quality and a good colour coverage. Given the organic and natural way of making our leather, there may be some minor variations, such as colour or veining, which is testament to such a natural material and its quality.

The entire process takes around six weeks from start to finish.