This section you will find manufacturers, suppliers and tanneries of genuine leather, and the accessories and go the leather products, handbags, belts, shoes, wallets, watches, purses, hats, boots, slippers, to mention but a few in Zambia. Leather is also used to produce saddles and as furniture covers. So if you are looking to find leather and its products in Zambia, you will find details on this site. Tanning is the process of treating the skins of animals to produce leather. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound. Vegetable tanning uses tannin whilst chrome tanning uses chrome.
The leather manufacturing process is divided into three sub-processes: preparatory stages, tanning and crusting. All true leathers will undergo these sub-processes. A further sub-process, surface coating may be added into the sequence. The list of operations that leathers undergo vary with the type of leather.
Primary tanning converts pre-tanned hides into leather by preserving and halting the decomposition of the hide. Vegetable tannage is the conversion of rawhide into the leather with vegetable tanning agents. This process produces leather with greater body and firmness than the more general method of chromium tanning.
Hides arrive at the tannery and are stored in a Beam House. They are packed in rock salt for preservation, folded, and stored on pallets for up to 30 days. When ready to be processed, desalting removes salt from the hides by tumbling and propelling the hides forward with a series of pegs. The salt is collected and recycled for additional hide preservation. Haired hides are not desalted but are placed in soaking drums for one to two days to rehydrate and remove dirt, salt, and some soluble proteins. Hides are treated at the same time with lime to remove the hair and to soften and enhance the hide. Next, all hides are defleshed to remove surplus waste from the backside of the hides.
At this point, hides have a significant amount of moisture content and are approximately 4 mm thick. The hides pass through the splitting machine and are sliced into two layers. The bottom portion of the hide termed the reticular segment or split is used for inexpensive, inferior leathers. Often, these splits are sold to the handbag and shoe industry as well as to tanneries that specialize in production-grade, top grain, and split leathers. The upper portion of the hide termed the papillary segment or dermis is utilized for high-quality full-grain leathers. The fibre structure is the tightest at the uppermost layer of the hide allowing specialized retainage, a luxurious suppleness of hand, a full rich base dye, colour clarity, and a breathable protective finish.
Accessories are - whether made of leather or other materials - small items that can be added to other things to make them more useful, versatile or attractive.
Other accessories