New! Click here to view our new video about types of leather and their strength.Did you know that when you keep your special books on a shelf and never touch them, the leather could deteriorate in just a few years? That's why it's been said that binding books in leather is a bad idea. But at Leonard's we know that leather just needs oil to keep it strong. That's why librarians used to go through their collections and rub each book with a special oil. Museums still do that today.
If you use your book often, the natural oils in your hands will keep the fibers alive. Leather books that are gently handled or treated with conditioning oil can last for hundreds of years. In that case, reading your Bible daily isn't only good for you, but good for your Bible, too.
Over the centuries, many different varieties of leather have been used for bookbinding. At first, bookbinders used wooden boards covered with a kind of leather called vellum, made from very young calfskin, lambskin, or kidskin. This worked very well, because the vellum would shrink tightly over the boards and look very smooth and neat.
Later, kings started wanting their books decorated with fancy gold stamping. Gold stamping didn't work well on vellum, so the bookbinders started using regular goatskin and shaved calfskin, which takes gold stamping very well. Nowadays, since goatskin is usually expensive, and calfskin hard to find in weights light enough to work with, we use different types of leather for bookbinding.
At Leonard's Book Restoration Station, we use genuine leather, not bonded leather. (OK, we now carry a synthetic leather for those who would rather not use animal hide.)
One of the leathers we use most often at Leonard's is pigskin, because it's very strong, but still affordable. Natural pigskin looks a lot like human skin. Once it's dyed purple or red, it really looks much better.
We also use pigskin that has been artificially grained to give it a more attractive look. For example, they can press it to make it look like goatskin, since real goatskin is expensive. Artificially grained leathers are not as soft, because they have been pressed so much, but they look very nice and they are strong and easy to use.
Another leather we use often for bookbinding is sheepskin. This leather used to be considered inferior for bookbinding because it's fragile and can tear easily, but we like it because it is soft, pretty, affordable, and easy to work with. Sheepskin works well for small books and keepsakes. If you take care of your book bound in sheepskin, it will last a long time.
There are a few other leathers we may use occasionally. Calfskin, as we mentioned earlier, is generally too thick to work with, but when we can get it in a lighter weight, we may use it for Hebrew Bibles or on early 19th century books. Goatskin has a very nice grain and a beautiful feel but much of it comes from warring African countries, so the availability is limited in the United States. Another leather we really enjoy using is kangaroo skin. It is expensive, but it's very strong and very fun to use! It has a nice smooth surface and is very pretty, and we can stamp all kinds of designs into it without any trouble at all!
Many different types of leathers work very well for bookbinding, as long as you take care of the book and handle it often. Genuine leather is good because whatever leather you use, whether pigskin, sheepskin, calfskin, goatskin, or kangaroo skin, if you take care of the book and handle it often, it will last for many years, maybe centuries to come!
