The difference between artificial leather and genuine leather

When it comes to leather products, people always like to add a question at the end: is it real leather or artificial leather? Many people ask this question casually, but they don’t know the specific difference between the two. So is artificial leather better or real leather? What are the precautions to be taken during use? The following article specifically talks about the difference between artificial leather and real leather. If you are interested, you may wish to take a look!

The difference between artificial leather and genuine leather

1. Artificial leather is a plastic product that looks and feels like leather and can be used instead of leather. It is usually made of fabric as the base, coated with synthetic resin and various plastic additives. There are mainly three types: PVC artificial leather, PU artificial leather and PU synthetic leather.

2. Genuine leather is made from animal skin, which is conceptually different from artificial leather made from chemical fiber materials. The genuine leather mentioned in the market is generally one of the three types: top layer leather, second layer leather, and synthetic leather. The prices of the three types of leather decrease in sequence.

3. First of all, you should identify the leather from its patterns and pores. Genuine leather has clearer pores and patterns on its surface, cowhide has more evenly distributed and fine pores, yak leather has coarser and sparser pores, and goat leather has fish-scale-like pores. The pores of pig skin are round and large and arranged in a triangular shape. The patterns and pores on the surface of these natural leathers do exist and are unevenly distributed. There are animal fibers on the back and the layers are clearly discernible in the side section. There are animal fibers in the lower layer. Scratching with fingernails will result in the leather fibers standing up, giving a velvety feeling, and a small amount of fibers may fall off. Fabric can be seen on the back of artificial leather, and there are no animal fibers on the sides. Generally, the epidermis has no pores, but some have imitation leather artificial pores, and there will be inconspicuous pores. Some patterns are not obvious, or there are more regular artificial patterns, and the pores are also quite consistent.

4. Touching the surface of genuine leather with your hand, it feels smooth, soft, plump and elastic; while the surface of general artificial leather is rough, rigid and has poor softness. If you bend the front of the leather downward about 90 degrees, natural wrinkles will appear. The thickness and number of folds produced by bending different parts are obviously uneven, which basically means that this is genuine leather, because genuine leather has a naturally uneven fiber structure, so the wrinkle patterns formed are also obviously uneven. Artificial leather feels like plastic, has poor resilience, and the thickness of the creases when bent are similar.

5. Genuine leather has a strong smell of fur, and the smell is still obvious even after processing. Artificial leather products have a smell of plastic, not fur.

6. Distinguish them by smelling the burnt odor and looking at the state of the ashes. When genuine leather burns, it will give off a smell of burnt hair, and the burnt ashes are generally easy to break into powder. When artificial leather burns, the flame is also strong, it shrinks quickly, and has an unpleasant plastic smell. It becomes sticky after burning, and will harden into blocks after cooling.