The stuff that looks like leather?

[N_Cook]

Fibrous stuff used for equipment carrying straps, belts etc. Looks very much
like leather but splits quite easily, anyone know what it is called/how its
made/material ?

 

[Arfa Daily]

Fibrous stuff used for equipment carrying straps, belts etc. Looks very
much
like leather but splits quite easily, anyone know what it is called/how
its
made/material ?

I've seen it called "faux leather" and there was a very good either 'How
it's Made' or 'How Do They Do That?' programme on Sky which covered it. If
you went to that programme's website, they might list all of the ones that
they've made ... ?

Arfa

 

[N_Cook]

I've seen it called "faux leather" and there was a very good either 'How
it's Made' or 'How Do They Do That?' programme on Sky which covered it. If
you went to that programme's website, they might list all of the ones that
they've made ... ?

Arfa

Leatherette seems to be the cloth type material, but is it used for more
structural purposes, ie thicker ?. How do you know whether some bit of
expensice equipment is being carried around in a case with a carrying strap
made of this inferior material.? Is there a simple test? ie not microscope
plus substantial knowledge.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

In the UK it's known as Rexine. In the US leatherette?

Leatherette -- as far as I know -- is the leather equivalent of particle
board -- or turkey loaf. It's ground-up leather bits formed into a
leatheroid substance. It's been around for at least a hundred years --
probably twice that.

 

[Arfa Daily]

In the UK it's known as Rexine. In the US leatherette?

--
*We waste time, so you don't have to *

Dave Plowman [email protected] London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I've always known Rexine and Leatherette to be very obvious plastic
look-alikes for proper leather (Dansette record players and the like). I was
assuming that he was talking about the stuff that is virtually
indistinguishable from the real thing, and is actually used to make
furniture as well.

The "How It's Made" programme was episode 110 broadcast on 17th Feb 2008,
and the item was "Synthetic Leather"

Arfa

 

[N_Cook]

I've always known Rexine and Leatherette to be very obvious plastic
look-alikes for proper leather (Dansette record players and the like). I was
assuming that he was talking about the stuff that is virtually
indistinguishable from the real thing, and is actually used to make
furniture as well.

The "How It's Made" programme was episode 110 broadcast on 17th Feb 2008,
and the item was "Synthetic Leather"

Arfa

I don't know how to tell the difference , in advance of any problems.
The main materials difference seems to be that genuine leather is rip-stop
but once a tear starts in the faux stuff it soon propogates into a full rip.
But I don't know how to tell the difference , in advance of any potential
problem.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

I've always known Rexine and Leatherette to be very obvious plastic

look-alikes for proper leather (Dansette record players and the like).

Leatherette is not plastic. At least, not in the US. Please see my preceding
post.

I was assuming that he was talking about the stuff that is virtually
indistinguishable from the real thing, and is actually used to make
furniture as well.

I'm not sure I've ever seen imitation leather that truly resembled the real
thing -- though I've seen vinyl-on-cloth that briefly fooled me. The trick
is to make the surface dull, and give it an appropriate pattern/texture.

Anybody remember DuPont's Corfam, their attempt to capture part of the
leather market? It had two major problems. It had sharp edges when cut, so
wing tips looked rather silly. Worse, it didn't stretch, so the shoe had to
fit perfectly when you bought it. It wouldn't break in to your feet.

The "How It's Made" programme was episode 110 broadcast on
17th Feb 2008, and the item was "Synthetic Leather".

Synthetic leather would be essentially indistinguishable from the real
thing. The term should be "artificial" leather.

 

[Jim Yanik]

Fibrous stuff used for equipment carrying straps, belts etc. Looks
very much like leather but splits quite easily, anyone know what it is
called/how its made/material ?

Naugahide?

I always wanted to raise naugas for their naugahide....

 

[Allodoxaphobia]

Leatherette seems to be the cloth type material, but is it used for more
structural purposes, ie thicker ?. How do you know whether some bit of
expensice equipment is being carried around in a case with a carrying strap
made of this inferior material.? Is there a simple test? ie not microscope
plus substantial knowledge.

Destructive testing comes to mind.

Jonesy

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Leatherette seems to be the cloth type material, but is it used for more

structural purposes, ie, thicker? How do you know whether some bit of
expensive equipment is being carried around in a case with a carrying
strap made of this inferior material? Is there a simple test? ie not
microscope plus substantial knowledge.

Simply throw away the strap (or case) and buy one you know is sturdy.

The good cameras I own came with sturdy woven-fabric neckstraps you'd need a
carpet knife to easily tear apart. Nevertheless, I replaced them with Tamrac
leather-and-cloth straps.

 

[Bob Larter]

Leatherette seems to be the cloth type material, but is it used for more
structural purposes, ie thicker ?. How do you know whether some bit of
expensice equipment is being carried around in a case with a carrying strap
made of this inferior material.? Is there a simple test? ie not microscope
plus substantial knowledge.

If it's the same stuff I'm thinking of, you can usually see the ends of
the threads on the cut side of the material. On the really cheap stuff,
you can see the weave on the non-textured side.

 

[Bob Larter]

Anybody remember DuPont's Corfam, their attempt to capture part of the
leather market? It had two major problems. It had sharp edges when cut, so
wing tips looked rather silly.

I've never seen wingtips that didn't look silly, no matter what they
were made of. ;^)

 

[Arfa Daily]

Leatherette is not plastic. At least, not in the US. Please see my
preceding
post.



I'm not sure I've ever seen imitation leather that truly resembled the
real
thing -- though I've seen vinyl-on-cloth that briefly fooled me. The trick
is to make the surface dull, and give it an appropriate pattern/texture.

Anybody remember DuPont's Corfam, their attempt to capture part of the
leather market? It had two major problems. It had sharp edges when cut, so
wing tips looked rather silly. Worse, it didn't stretch, so the shoe had
to
fit perfectly when you bought it. It wouldn't break in to your feet.



Synthetic leather would be essentially indistinguishable from the real
thing. The term should be "artificial" leather.

I'm merely quoting what the official episode guide called that segment of
the programme.

Arfa

 

[William Sommerwerck]

William Sommerwerck wrote:

I've never seen wingtips that didn't look silly, no matter what they
were made of. ;^)

It depends on who's wearing them...

 

[UCLAN]

Fibrous stuff used for equipment carrying straps, belts etc. Looks very much
like leather but splits quite easily, anyone know what it is called/how its
made/material ?

Naugahyde?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naugahide

 

[N_Cook]

I'm totally confused now. I was going to take a photo of some of the faux
stuff. You could scrape the material wiht a finger-nail and the "leather"
comes away as fibrous dust.
I was going to compare it with a leather belt that the same scraping
produced no sloughing.

But looking under a x30 microscope the belt is composed of semi-random woven
mix of grey and 2 tones of brown stringy looking stuff - so artificial.
Perhaps the dusty one is real leather , after all, but over time the
collagen or whatever breaks down from some biological process.