Thickness of leather

For example, pig leather or lamb leather is much thinner than cow leather. Cow leather is even so thick that it is usually split down to a usable measure. An unsplit cattle skin has a thickness of about 45 millimetres. A leather in such a thickness can hardly be stitched. Therefore, such thick leather does not appear in the car sector at all and in the furniture sector very rarely.

To achieve the desired leather thickness, leather is first split and then shaved.

Cow leather is usually split into at least two layers.

The usual thickness for car or furniture leather is 0.9 to 1.2 millimetres. Thicker leather than 1.4 millimetres is called thick leather. Garment leather of light leisure jackets has a thickness of 0.5 to 0.9 millimetres. Depending on the type of leather, the leather thickness varies.

Since leather is a soft material, it is difficult to measure the thickness simply with a calliper. The soft material would be pressed thinner and the results would be different depending on pressure. In the case of standardized leather thickness measuring devices, the thickness of the leather is determined with a predefined area and a predetermined contact pressure. Since leather is inhomogeneous, it is nearly not possible to measure uniform results over the entire surface of a skin. The measurement of the thickness of leather is regulated in national and international standards.