Leather is one of the oldest commodities in the contemporary world market. The manufacture of these hides and skins antedates by centuries any of man’s scientific knowledge of chemistry. Egyptian leather after 3,000 years, was found to be still of good quality. The color and the strength were unimpaired.
It is believed that until 1900, the development of the leather industry was chiefly the result of rule-of-thumb discoveries, since it is quite recent that many of the theories of leather tanning have been given chemical terms. Perhaps, the most modern advancement in the leather industry has been the discovery and application of chrome in the tanning process. At present, more than 70 per cent of upper-shoe leather is chrome-tanned.
Leather material which is the subject of this study was made from water snake locally known as Kalabucab, (Natrix sipedon sipedon) (Disteira orinata). The purpose of this study is to determine the quality of leather from the said raw material.