Effect of some Skin Defects on Physical Properties of the Leather

This study was conducted to identify some of ante and post-mortem surface defects in Sudanese raw sheep and goat skins and to evaluate the effect of some of these defects on some of the key physical properties of the leather produced. The results indicated that most of the ante-mortem defects disappear during the tannage, re-tannage and finishing operations. However some defects remain visible and the major problem is caused by some of the post-mortem defects such as holes caused by flay cuts and grain damage due to putrefaction. This leads to a decrease in some key physical properties of the produced leathers such as tensile strength, break load and elongation due to the damage caused by those surface defects. It is concluded that if the post-mortem defects are eliminated the quality of produced leather could be improved. Index Terms Ante-mortem, Post-mortem, Hides, Skins, Defects