Soft, pleasant to the touch, velvety suede is a material that not only looks impeccable, but is also famous for its increased wear resistance and easy care. This is a special type of animal skin treatment, known to people for a long time. Today, suede is a popular fabric for sewing a wide variety of products.
@leathercosmosrussia
It is known that people learned to use animal skins to make clothing and individual household items back in the 9th century. To make this material last longer, it was treated with products containing large amounts of fat from various, at that time undomesticated animals.
Several hundred years passed before people learned to use fish oil and mixtures of vegetable oils to soften and improve the quality characteristics of the skin. At the same time, at first the skins of chamois (an artiodactyl mammal, a close relative of the familiar goat) were used for dressing. A little later, people learned to work with the skin of pigs, goats, and sheep.
It is known that in the Polish cities of Lviv, Krakow, and Gdansk, already in the 15th-16th centuries, suede production was seriously engaged.It was from there that the technology of treating leather with fatty oils came to Russia. Suede, which was made in Arkhangelsk and Nizhny Novgorod, became especially famous for the high quality of suede.
In the 17th century, Europeans made clothes mainly from goatskin, oxhide, or buffalo. For example, in southwestern France it was discovered that treating the skins of these animals with cod oil increases their hygroscopic properties.
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Suede is a unique material that is soft and thin. It is velvety on both sides, does not allow moisture to pass through and retains its appearance and inherent properties even after a long stay in water or soap solution.
The production process of this material is interesting. It takes place in several stages, each of which has its own characteristics. In general, suede involves soaking the skin with so-called “active” fats of fish, marine mammals, as well as some vegetable or animal oils. Fats oxidize, creating stable chemical compounds with individual skin elements (collagen fibers). To make the impregnation process more intensive, impact grinders are used. They do not spoil the structure of the material, but make the entire procedure more effective.
@tkan.club
There is another method of dressing, in which the skins are soaked in a formaldehyde solution before sueding.
Suede is used for sewing outerwear, shoes, bags, gloves, and interior items. It is ideal for furniture upholstery and sewing covers.
Thick suede in the old days (and in some parts of our planet even today) was used to sew clothes for hunters and fishermen, and military uniforms.
Today this material is widely used in orthopedics.Suede is not only soft, it practically does not cause allergic reactions, and therefore is ideal for the manufacture of therapeutic shoes, corrective corsets or belts and many other products.
@fb_room
The use of thin suede in optics is interesting. This fabric is suitable for polishing lenses and mirror surfaces.
When purchasing a suede product, it is important to pay attention to the quality of the workmanship. Thus, the surface of a good natural fabric is heterogeneous, porous, and a little rough to the touch. In addition, it smells like leather, but the smell is unobtrusive.
To check that the suede is natural, you can run your palm over the pile. If after this the surface becomes a little lighter, then the material is of high quality. If the color has not changed, then it is not suede, but ordinary synthetics.
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