Leather has been used for thousands of years and there are numerous types of leather, each of them has a unique look and feel. If you already have general understanding about normal leather like suede ,waxed leather turn out to be familiar to you.

This type of leather is made from the leather of a cow or other animal that has been tanned. The tanning process creates a leather that is water resistant and can be easily cleaned. The wax in waxed leather helps to enhance its appearance.Wax leather has a rich, dark look that many people like.

What is the history of waxed leather?

The method of waxing leather dates back to primitive times, when the inherent need for waterproofing brought about the discovery of this technique. Fishermen and sailors who valued its water-resistant qualities coated the leather with oils and wax. This substance filled the porous surface of the material, enabling it to withstand the harshness of the humid climate and seawater.

Waxed leather’s development continued on land in the horse-riding culture. Riders sought durable, weather-resistant material to protect them from the elements, resulting in waxed leather saddlebags and boots, emphasizing the material’s functionality.

What is waxed leather?

Waxed leather derives its name from applying wax to full-grain leather.

The treatment process is that after being tanned carefully, the surface of the leather will be covered with a wax layer using a brush, sponge, or spray. Because of different using purpose, there will be many kinds of wax leather. It depends on the thickness of leather: much or little, dry or wet, thin or thick….

The wax smooths out the leather texture and is a defensive shield against moisture, scratches, and cracking, ensuring refined artistry and lasting resilience,enhancing the water resistance,durability and the features to be softer, more supple and easy to clean.

What is type of waxed leather?

Currently,this kind of leather can be divided into two kinds : wet wax leather and dry wax leather.

As its name, wet wax leather has grease surface, with large amount of wax on surface so it is heavy, its color is darker. If wet wax leather has scratches on it, just rub for a while, its original color will return. Regarding to dry wax leather, its surface appears to be more smooth, it is lighter, has less wax amount and less possibility of getting scratches compare with wet wax leather (but if gets scratches, it also can easily come back to original surface).

To be more detailed:

Wet wax leather:

Its color will not be changed when you crush or fold, and it is considered common waxed leather.

If its color is changed and looks quite different from original status, and its surface is still rough, then the leather is crazy horse leather. It is not leather of a horse as it might be thought, it is completely cowhide used to be used in saddles.

If we impact in the leather, its color changes but the surface is smoother, then the leather is oil wax leather. This kind of leather is lightly glossy but the leather is still get scratch easily. The leather can also change its color but it is less compare with crazy horse leather. However, it is popular to many people.

Dry wax leather:

This kind of leather is frequently mistaken to nubuck leather due to its similar appearance: rough surface, evenly colored and the color is unchanged. However, it gets scratches easily and has typical smell compare with buck leather.

Dry wax leather is divided into three kinds:

The most popular one is waxed buck leather, the combination between waxed leather and buck leather. Its velvet surface is smooth and light. Touching to its surface, we may feel it and nubuck leather are alike but it is completely lighter and all of its features belongs to waxed leather. Waxed buck leather has low possibility of getting scratch and its surface has high absorbency ability. And as it belongs to buck leather type, it is mistaken easily. Waxed buck leather is used to make shoes and worn together with jean.

The next one is also crazy horse leather but is the dry one. Its color can be changed dramatically but it is lighter, has rough surface like wet leather but it is smoother than wet leather.

The third types is waxed pull-up leather, the smooth level is same as oil waxed leather, and color change ability is weaker than crazy horse leather. This kind of leather is the impressive combination of waxed leather and pull-up leather to improve the color durability. Therefore, compare with pull-up leather, this leather kind has impressive color durability. In some places, pull-up leather is considered oil waxed leather, but to distinguish each other, we call dry waxed leather as pull-up leather, waxed pull-up leather as oil leather.

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