The stuff that looks like leather?

I've seen it called "faux leather" and there was a very good either 'How it's Made' or 'How Do They Do That?' programme on Sky which covered it. If you went to that programme's website, they might list all of the ones that they've made ... ?

Arfa

Leatherette seems to be the cloth type material, but is it used for more structural purposes, ie thicker ?. How do you know whether some bit of expensice equipment is being carried around in a case with a carrying strap made of this inferior material.? Is there a simple test? ie not microscope plus substantial knowledge.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

In the UK it's known as Rexine. In the US leatherette?

Leatherette -- as far as I know -- is the leather equivalent of particle board -- or turkey loaf. It's ground-up leather bits formed into a leatheroid substance. It's been around for at least a hundred years -- probably twice that.

I've always known Rexine and Leatherette to be very obvious plastic look-alikes for proper leather (Dansette record players and the like). I was assuming that he was talking about the stuff that is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, and is actually used to make furniture as well.

The "How It's Made" programme was episode 110 broadcast on 17th Feb 2008, and the item was "Synthetic Leather"

Arfa

was

I don't know how to tell the difference , in advance of any problems. The main materials difference seems to be that genuine leather is rip-stop but once a tear starts in the faux stuff it soon propogates into a full rip. But I don't know how to tell the difference , in advance of any potential problem.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Leatherette is not plastic. At least, not in the US. Please see my preceding post.

I'm not sure I've ever seen imitation leather that truly resembled the real thing -- though I've seen vinyl-on-cloth that briefly fooled me. The trick is to make the surface dull, and give it an appropriate pattern/texture.

Anybody remember DuPont's Corfam, their attempt to capture part of the leather market? It had two major problems. It had sharp edges when cut, so wing tips looked rather silly. Worse, it didn't stretch, so the shoe had to fit perfectly when you bought it. It wouldn't break in to your feet.

Synthetic leather would be essentially indistinguishable from the real thing. The term should be "artificial" leather.

"N_Cook" wrote in news:guj4oh$9b5$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

Naugahide?

I always wanted to raise naugas for their naugahide.... 8-)

Destructive testing comes to mind. :-)

Jonesy

Simply throw away the strap (or case) and buy one you know is sturdy.

The good cameras I own came with sturdy woven-fabric neckstraps you'd need a carpet knife to easily tear apart. Nevertheless, I replaced them with Tamrac leather-and-cloth straps.

If it's the same stuff I'm thinking of, you can usually see the ends of the threads on the cut side of the material. On the really cheap stuff, you can see the weave on the non-textured side.

I've never seen wingtips that didn't look silly, no matter what they were made of. ;^)

I'm merely quoting what the official episode guide called that segment of the programme.

Arfa

It depends on who's wearing them...

There are many different types of fake leather:

The stuff you're referring to is probably a PVC core, with urethane foam surface to make it soft. Varies potions and concoctions (I'm too lazy to lookup the names) are added to make the stuff flexible. These evaporate with time and are probably UV sensitive, resulting in a rather brittle crumbly surface simulated leather, while the PVC core generally holds together, especially if it's fiberglass reinforced. The stuff is also sensitive to solvents, oils, grease, and cleaning solutions, which dissolve the additives, and make the leather rather brittle. Oil from your hands can also cause problems.

Naugahyde?

I'm totally confused now. I was going to take a photo of some of the faux stuff. You could scrape the material wiht a finger-nail and the "leather" comes away as fibrous dust. I was going to compare it with a leather belt that the same scraping produced no sloughing.

But looking under a x30 microscope the belt is composed of semi-random woven mix of grey and 2 tones of brown stringy looking stuff - so artificial. Perhaps the dusty one is real leather , after all, but over time the collagen or whatever breaks down from some biological process.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on