l've been told by shoo industry people that Australian leathers can be the best in the world and are often better than the best stuff coming out of European tanneries. Here's some stuff they have said:

*  Rendenbach leather soles are not the ultimate, why would they be? Their type of tannery methods are used by other tanneries, it's not like Rendenbach are doing amazingly different or superior methods/treatments of their leather.

*  Hermes' buys all their crocadile leather exclusively from one tannery in Queensland Australia.

*  Australian leather can be superior because of the climatic conditions. The extra U.V light makes for a much stronger/tougher leather. ln Australia the creatures are outdoors all the time so they get the extra U.V light. ln Europe the creatures can be locked indoors for many months of the year due to cold weather, so there is less U.V light to strengthen the leather and make it super-superior quality.

There is also the theory (mine) that we get alot more U.V light down here, so our creatures are obviously getting more U.V exposure than any other creatures in the world, hence a tendency for real top notch leather to be sort.

l also have a theory that the soils are more used and abused in northern countries due to a longer period of not properly fertilising the soil (due to older and bigger populations). This means nutritionally poor grasses, grains and seeds for the animals; this means that leathers will suffer quality because the animal bodies have to skip steps in growing the skins. lf the animals are malnourished (most would be these days), how can you expect them to make quality hides if the neccessary minerals in the food isn't enough to feul quality hide growth. l am convinced that poor fertilisation and pollution have strongly contributed towards the decline in leather quality over the last 200 years.

(Carving up two lushious mountains the size of Mount Everest and putting it back into the soils is argued to solve the problem in the short term, but modern built up human living areas will ensure that it is impossible to sustain the practise long term. We will drain and drain and drain. l wonder where it is going to end; if we take and take, how can we keep on continuing to draw the good milk from our Mother? ).

*  Australian croc leather from the top end of Queensland and Northern Territory are better than most of the better Alligator leathers.

lnteresting l think.

Last edited by The_Shooman (2009-11-11 16:50:46)