Reply To: Advise on what leather to buy for seat
Ed,
My Swedish cowhide and British Suede hide are loosely rolled around “broom handles”, which rest on the rafters. Soft smaller pieces I keep in a box, and the more resilient ones, flat in a drawer.
Please read the above remembering that I have wide and varied knowledge of nothing at all in particular.
As for cutting across the spine: the collagen fibres of the skin follow the direction of muscles, and the latter do not cross over the spinous processes (processi spinosa vertebrae [just to keep my old professor in forensics from rotating in his grave]). Thus, there is a weakness, but then again: the whole hide of a four feet subject hangs from both sides of the spine, it seems improbable that the load of sitting down across that line would rip a leather seat.
Sven-Olof Jansson
London, UK; Boston, MA
