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Mill Leather is a widely favored type of leather, cherished for its remarkable qualities. Are you aware of all its pros and cons, and how to distinguish it from other leather types? Today, we'll delve into the realm of Mill Leather and explore the best practices for its utilization.
What Exactly is Mill Leather?
It's a waxed leather type that retains its grain, with some areas exhibiting pits and others not. It may or may not have grains. Typically, during production and tanning, Mill Leather retains its natural, wild traits, including scars or insect bites.
In case Mill leather exhibits an excessively unattractive surface, it will be converted into waxed leather or other types of leather to align with consumer preferences.
Distinctive Features of Mill Leather
Mill leather embodies all the characteristics of Waxed leather: durability, smoothness. With a soft, velvety surface highlighted by fine grain patterns, it offers an exquisite tactile experience and serves as a focal point for products in the fashion market.
It can be said that alongside Waxed leather, Mill leather stands as one of the finest, most popular, and trendiest leather types in today's leather goods industry.
Categorizing Mill Leather
Currently, Mill leather is divided into 2 types:
1. Dry Mill Leather
With a shinier surface, lighter skin tone, less wax content, lower susceptibility to scratches compared to wet wax, and less vibrant coloration.
2. Wet Mill Leather
Featuring a slick surface, heavier skin, higher wax content hence prone to scratches, with wet wax leather typically exhibiting rich and vibrant colors.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Wet Mill Leather
1. Advantages
Mill wax leather always carries a rugged and distinctive image, infusing each product with a unique character that stays memorable to consumers.
Mill wax leather boasts high surface durability, with scratches adding to its beauty. It withstands impacts effortlessly, maintaining its charm over prolonged use.
Mill wax leather exhibits a pronounced 'water rise' effect, owing to its high grain texture. Although prone to scratching, it develops a distinctive shine after water treatment, resembling antique leather pieces.
2. Drawback
Due to its characteristic beauty in scratches, many people who dislike scratches would not prefer Mill wax leather because when observing the scratches, users may lack confidence in using products made from Mill leather. Mill wax leather tends to appear older than other leathers due to the wax layer on its surface.
Mill wax leather is highly susceptible to mold in humid environments and improper storage. It easily picks up color from users' clothing (without affecting product color), though it washes off easily.
With its waxy texture, Mill wax leather is prone to paint chipping (long-term risk of paint peeling). Therefore, Mill wax leather is often left unfinished or treated with a gum finish.
The natural grain surface of Mill wax leather gives it a matte finish, but it can also quickly develop a shine during use or can be polished according to each consumer's aesthetic preferences.
How to Preserve Mill Leather
1. Preserving Unfinished Mill Wax Leather?
For unfinished Mill wax leather, store separately from other waxed leather and different types of leather to prevent color transfer between leather types and wax transfer from heavily waxed leather to lightly waxed leather (phenomenon of leather darkening).
- Regularly expose the Mill wax leather and use a clean (dry) cloth to wipe away dust and dirt.
- Keep the waxed leather in a dry, ventilated area, away from direct sunlight, avoiding moisture from the ground, walls, and airborne dust.
If the leather develops mold, use diluted glass cleaner spray and a clean cloth to wipe along the spiral pattern in that area. Change cloths when moving to a different area to avoid spreading mold from dirty spots. Then let the leather air dry naturally without heat or sunlight exposure (which can lead to dryness and brittleness) because excessive wiping can cause dryness and brittleness.
If the product is heavily moldy, both the back and front surfaces must be treated using the method above, but use a separate brush for the back surface.
2. Preserving Finished Mill Wax Leather?
Preserving finished Mill wax leather essentially parallels preserving unfinished Mill wax leather.
However, with finished products, it's advisable to stuff crumpled newspaper inside to absorb moisture and maintain the product's shape.
Limit the use of Mill leather products during rainy weather or exposure to water. If they get wet, they should be dried and aired indoors to prevent mold.
Regular cleaning and periodic wiping are essential to ensure the leather remains mold-free.
Identifying Mill leather
Observing the overall surface, you'll notice Mill wax exhibits unevenly distributed grain layers as it's a naturally selected type. Some parts of the leather, such as the armpits, belly, neck, etc., may have very few or no grain.
Wet wax features a slick surface, heavier due to higher wax content than the leather, feels dense, prone to scratches, with bold yet vibrant colors.
Dry wax, with less wax content, feels lighter than wet wax. Its surface is smooth and glossy, less susceptible to scratches, with deeper and more diverse colors.
Closing Words
We hope the information provided here has helped you better understand Mill leather and choose the most suitable products for yourself. If you're looking to own a pair of 'quality' leather shoes, feel free to visit us, one of the reputable addresses specializing in providing leather products for men.
We have received strong support from gentlemen like yourself, so you can rest assured when purchasing products from here.
Posted by: Hung Vu
Keyword: What is Mill Leather? Distinguishing, Recognizing, and Advantages of Mill Leather
