Our Materials

Our Leather

At Bell Robertson, we use the highest quality, natural, eco-friendly, vegetable tanned leather from US cattle and US tanneries. These tanneries have been using the same environmentally friendly, time tested tanning methods for over 100 years and they are known world wide for their high quality tannings. We are proud that our leathers are as durable as they are beautiful. We pride ourselves in offering heirloom quality leather goods that will stand the test of time and use. 

We use only full-grain leather on our products. What this means is that we use the outer most layer of the steer hide, meaning you are getting the full strength of the hide.  Our leathers will have all of the natural markings you would expect to find on a product as natural as a steer hide. This includes range markings, bug bites, brands, scars and stretch marks. This means that no two products from us will ever be a carbon copy of the one before. We go to great lengths to make sure that we offer a consistant quality from product to product and we love the fact that each piece of leather is slightly different from the last as it caries though with our high quality standards. 

Don't be fooled by labels such as "genuine leather", "Top Grain" and others. When you see these denotations it means is that the product is made from a highly processed shaving of the underside of the cow hide. Is it leather? sure. It is high quality? Probably not. You can make these leather products basically look like anything the producer wants because it does not include the outer most layer and strongest part of the hide. Below you will find a diagram that shows you the layers of the hide. Our products are made from the full grain. For our lighter weight items such as wallets and watch straps, we actually have the bottom layers shaved off to give us the thickness we require, leaving us with the outer most layer to make our products. This ensures that you get the real strength and beauty of a high quality leather. As you will see from the image, "genuine leather" and "top grain" leather products are made from the waste of what is taken off of a "full-grain" piece of leather.

We are proud to offer only the highest quality of full grain leather to you all, our valued customers. It gives us peace of mind knowing that the quality and durability of your fine leather goods from Bell Robertson will be heirloom quality.