What Is Finished Leather? Surface Coats vs Crust and Unfinished Leather

Finished leather is leather that has had a surface coating applied after tanning and crusting; tanners call this last step finishing. The coat can be oil, wax, dye, pigment or a clear top coat, and it changes the color, sheen and how the surface takes water and stains. Leather that stops before this step is unfinished, or crust, leather.

This spec page is part of our guide to leather types, textures and finishes.

Where finishing sits in leather making

Leather making runs in a fixed order: preparatory stages, tanning, crusting, then surface coating, and some stages can be left out. Crusting thins, re-tans, oils and often dyes the leather, then dries and softens it. Finishing operations can include oiling, buffing, spraying, roller coating, polishing, embossing, glazing and tumbling.

Ageing effects added in finishing make distressed leather.

Finished vs unfinished leather

Aniline, semi-aniline and pigmented describe how leather is finished, not what kind of leather it is. Most pigment finishes are urethane and acrylic resins that form an opaque film, according to one care maker. See what aniline leather is for the dye-only end of the scale.

What a finish changes

• Breathing: in one study, unfinished chrome-tanned leathers passed 5 to 9 times more water vapor than the same leathers after an acrylic and polyurethane finish.
• Water: unfinished leather is highly permeable to vapor and has low waterproofness because of its open structure.
• Stains: aniline leather, with no coating, scratches easily and resists dirt and stains less; semi-aniline's light coat protects against scratching, and pigmented finishes carry a heavier coat.
• Labels: on EU footwear, a coating up to 0.15 mm thick still counts as leather; thicker coats make it "coated leather". More in what coated leather is.

How to tell if leather is finished

A care maker's water-drop test: on unfinished aniline leather a drop soaks in within about 30 seconds and leaves a dark patch that dries out; on finished leather it is not absorbed. Pigmented leather may bead the liquid briefly. Test on a hidden spot.

What is unsealed leather?

Leathercraft makers use "seal" for applying a top finish over dyed leather. Leather with no finish layer on top is unfinished leather. The store sells lambskin suede gloves listed with a crust finish, for example.

Can you dye or paint finished leather?

Not straight away. One dye maker says any old dye, paint or top finish blocks new dye, which can then rub off, so the surface must first be stripped close to natural leather with a deglazer. After dyeing, the same maker says to buff off the excess and seal it with a top finish, which it describes as water resistant.

Weaver Leather Supply applies six top coats side by side on dyed vegetable-tanned leather and compares color change and gloss. Note one difference: the presenter says a top coat locks in dye but does not make leather resist water, while the dye maker above calls its top finish water resistant.

For care, the store says to moisturize finished leather with a leather lotion on a soft cloth and to avoid saddle soap and mink oil.

Where to see finishes named

The Leather Collection custom bomber jacket is offered in finishes including natural, aniline, semi-aniline, nappa, glazed, distressed and two-tone.

FAQ

How do you finish leather after dyeing?

One dye maker's sequence: let the dye dry, buff off what did not soak in, then apply a top finish.