Customised leather finishing

Stahl offers versatile leather finishing solutions that help manufacturers ensure safety and reduce their environmental impact. Our chemicals support a variety of needs – from leather upgrading to color finishing. And with our technicians close at hand, we can formulate custom finishing systems to your requirements.

Stahl’s leather finishing portfolio helps leather manufacturers achieve a range of high-quality finishes in a safe and responsible way. Our chemicals meet international safety and environmental requirements, including the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL). Many of our leather finishing solutions are included in our low-impact Stahl Neo® portfolio.

Leather finishing process

After the wet-end leather production process, the leather is treated with coatings and upgrading solutions to change, improve, or develop its appearance or characteristics. This process is called leather finishing. The first step is to apply upgrading solutions that cover grain defects, using stucco. Next, the basecoat – which forms the base for the leather design – is applied. Finally, the leathers are finished with a topcoat to support the manufacturer’s visual and physical specifications. The final coloring is also applied to the topcoat, which levels the color of the leather. With specific topcoats, you can also create matt or gloss surfaces.

Leather finishing solutions

We offer a variety of finishing solutions that support the production of multiple types of leather.

Leather preparation:

Create high-performance bases, sealers, and topcoats with our leather preparation portfolio, which includes oils and waxes, auxiliaries, protein binders, dullers, fillers, or hand modifiers.

Leather enhancement:

Produce premium-quality leathers efficiently with our leather-enhancement solutions. Our portfolio supports a wide range of requirements – from solvent-borne lacquers and waterborne emulsion lacquers to upgrading solutions and penetrators.

Leather protection:

Protect and enhance leathers with our protection solutions. Our acrylic resins, butadiene and hybrid resins, compact resins, impregnation resins, polyurethane resins, solvent polyurethanes, velour finishes, water repellents, water-based topcoats, and crosslinkers support a variety of applications.

Color finishing:

Stahl’s color finishing solutions allow manufacturers to access new design possibilities. Our portfolio includes organic, inorganic, and iron oxide pigment types that produce a full spectrum of color grades, including metallics.

System solutions:

Add value to leather with our system solutions. Manufacturers can select from a diverse portfolio of systems including upgrading solutions, impregnations, casein finishes, easy-KATs and beauty makers, finishing resins, and patent systems.

Stahl has a complete portfolio of leather finishing chemicals, which enables leather manufacturers to achieve a wide variety of leather finishes. Click on the links in the table below to find the products you need.

Leather Finishing solutions next steps:

Leather Preparation

Leather enhancement

Leather protection

Color finishing

System solutions

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