Furniture and Furnishings - Leather Sofa

Hi there,

We live in Switzerland and plan to a buy a good leather sofa. We have found our "dream "sofa but it is slightly expensive( a 3-er and 2-er cost Fr 7000). The salesman said it is made of genuine Bio leather( we dont know what it means) :confused:

But the actual confusion is we are not sure if we could take this sofa to India.Will leather sofas able to sustain in tropical conditions. :confused: :confused: ....

Please help.....


Thanx in advance

your home will be climate controlled, won't it? if so, i'm sure it'd be fine. if not, with very high humidity, you've got not only your leather furniture to worry about, but also all your wood furniture.

dear tulip
bio lether=echological lether=not real but imitation
that doesn't mean it is a bad thing. it is resistent, easy cleaned, can take hot summers without a problem

for heaven's sake, go back & ask the salesman what the heck this thing is made of!!!! and don't spend a dime until you know. :rolleyes:

It is my guess that the 'bio' refers to the manufacturing process. Switzerland is a fan of biotechnology as are other European countries. There is an International Bio Fach Exhibition at which manufacturers exhibit food, cosmetics, furniture, textiles and other natural products. Europeans have been said to have a new religion and that is the consumption of ony natural and high-quality products. These products tend to cost more, but Europeans are economizing on entertainment and recreation in order to shop at super markets and stores that sell natural products. The European consumer attitudes have changed from Fast Food to Slow Food, resulting in McDonalds closing in Switzerland. If you've noticed at your local grocery here in the US, there are more and more organically grown food items appearing.

In the leather industry some manufacturers have moved from using chemicals in the leather manufacturing process to using bio-catalysts. Rather than chemicals, they use catalysts similar to those found in saliva to turn animal hide into leather. Improving the tanning process of leather in such a way makes for a less polluting industry. After scraping the flesh off animal skins, tanners soak them in lime (calcium oxide) and sodium sulphide to remove hair. They then loosen up the hides’ fibers to soften them, again with lime. Sodium sulphide produces foul-smelling gases; lime leaves a poisonous sludge.

Using enzymes to dehair the hides certainly makes for a safer and cleaner industry. They are using enzymes to replace lime that softens the hides. A protein-carbohydrate blend called proteoglycan is stripped out of a hide to leave a clean web of tangled fibres of protein collagen. Amylases, similar to those in saliva that turn carbohydrates into component sugars, break down proteoglycan just as lime does. Then the hides can be soaked in chemicals or vegetable tanning agent to stop decay and then are dyed and finished. The hides are as soft as those soaked in lime.

As indicated, make sure that the sofa you have your heart set on is real leather. Ask the sales rep to show you information describing the leather and the contents of the sofa. Find out care and maintenance information. (Note: Some leathers can not be cleaned.) Some sales reps are not as knowledgeable as they should be. And, as indicated, leather does not fair well in damp, humid conditions and will be subject to mold & mildew if not in an environment where temperature is maintained year round at about 70 degrees and humidity between 35-55%.

Please do post back and give us an update on what you learn about the bio-leather sofa. We folks in the US are not always current on what's going on across the ocean.

hi everyone..
i have a duty about bioleather
what is the meaning of bioleather and some information like thiss... so i need some help ..someone who have a thecnical writing about it please thanks your helps just that moment...