WELCOME TO THE TANNERY

With over 80 years in the leather business, we are one of the largest producers of high-quality leather in the U.S. We are a fourth-generation, family-owned business with a commitment to excellence and environmental responsibility. As specialty tanners we are committed to meeting your exact needs on a timely and cost-effective basis.

Slow Motion: the robot arm of the power slicker stretching out leather on the pasting Board. This helps increase yield and also helps give the leather a consistent thickness

🩸 Blood Core American Bison 🦬 a true shrunken grain and a nice read cut. Time to earn some patina @rose_anvil @jkboots

The coloring department: where art meets science. We utilize small and medium drums for sampling and experimenting with new leathers. Once we've perfected the engineering, we can seamlessly scale up to our large production drums #madeinamerica #leather

After vacuum drying, we give the leather some air. It needs a brief rest. To remove any remaining moisture, we hang the leather on a conveyor. For thicker leathers, this air drying step provides a necessary cooling period before undergoing a second vacuum dry. #leather #madeinamerica

Sneak peek at Redwood Mirage on the spray line! 🌿✨ Finish systems are all about layers - multiple coats that bring dyes or pigments together to give leather its unique vibe. #leatherlove #leather #redwood #madeinamerica

Toggle drying is a game-changer for our bison leather articles! By securing the leather to a board and passing it through a drying tunnel, we prevent shrinkage and enhance the natural texture. It's the perfect way to showcase the unique characteristics of bison hide.#leather #madeinamerica #tannery

Red Dog Oiltan. As indicated by its name, oil is integral to this tanning method. 8-8 1/2 oz requires a heavy veg retan. The surface oiling process ensures a uniform distribution of oil throughout the hide, yielding a leather with a rounded feel. Despite being a heavy-duty work leather, its design prioritizes a supportive yet supple final product #madeinamerica #leather

Monday Mostardini. A busy week of leather work ahead, starting with the roller press! #leather #madeinamerica

Friday air off. Vacuum drying done, now leather needs air time on the hanging conveyor for the last bit of moisture to evaporate #madeinamerica #leather

Tannery Tuesday! Another great week to get creative with leather! #madeinamerica #leather

Friday at the Pasting unit #leather #madeinamerica

Chocolate Ranch Hand stands out as a favorite western leather. Its exceptional quality comes from being made with completely aniline steer hide, carefully finished with a light layer of hot melt wax for a beautiful burnish. #leather #madeinamerica

Toggle dry mode activated! 🔄 Leather gets clipped onto a board, then stretched to perfection. 🔩 Finally, it cruises through a drying tunnel! #leather #ToggleDry #madeinamerica

There’s nothing quite like the grain character of bison.
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Peanut Rushmore Bison #madeinamerica

New sample finishing up! What should we name this color?!? #madeinamerica

Quality check. Checking weights (thickness) throughout the process is critical. Weight gushes are used in order to measure thickness. Thickness is measured in Ounces. .25 of an ounce is the thickness of a sheet of paper. #madeinamerica

Burgundy Madone in shipping. One our favorites. Subtle while indoors but a deep burgundy in the sun #madeinamerica

Leather being piled out of the drum after the retanning process. Leather will be stacked on a pallet and will cure overnight before starting the drying process. #madeinamerica

A variation on our to tobacco stampede. No surface finishing. Just a hot iron to give the leather some nice pull-up #madeinamerica

Thursday staining. Some leathers need a final color adjustment. A light spray stain can help dial in the final color #madeinamerica

Pearl Glove ready for Dry mill #madeinamerica

Roll coating oil and wax. An important step to impart a rich feel and depth of color #madeinamerica

The art of the throw. Piling leather completely flat on the first throw takes quite a bit of skill. Practice makes perfect perfect #madeinamerica

Contrasting colors on the pasting boards #madeinamerica

A little red for Valentine’s Day! #madeinamerica

Crunch on the mostardini. Final roll press helps add some luster. #madeinamerica #crunch

Dark Walnut Altitude Yak. Tibetan Yak leather with beautiful pullup. Similar to bison but with a more dense grain and an unique pebble #madeinamerica

British Tan Double shot coming through final sort. Gotta love that pull-up #madeinamerica

Back at it! Ready for another week of leather! #madeinamerica

Post buffing or polishing, small particles need to be removed. The leather passes through the air knife which is essentially a vacuum. Small particles are removed cleaning the grain if the leather #madeinamerica

Another great week to make some leather! #madeinamerica

Belt leather ready for measuring Monday morning. Have a great weekend #madeinamerica

Dry milling. Leather goes for a tumble in the dry mill. This is used to soften the leathers it can also put a pebbles texture into the grain #madeinamerica madeinamerica

Working with paint.

Pigments are used in leather finishing to achieve a consistent and uniform look. Whether using a lot or a little, it takes a skilled artisan to ensure perfect color matching and accuracy. #madeinamerica

Friday buffing. Getting the last bit of work done before the Christmas party. We’ll be off next week for Christmas and our maintenance shutdown. #madeinamerica

Hard work pays off in pasting. Pasting allows us to dry leathers with significantly higher stuffing content than we could vacuum drying. This allows for a gutsier leather and in our opinion, a leather that ages better #madeinamerica

Tannery Tuesday. Lots of leather to make this week #madeinamerica

No pigment just dyes. It’s hard to achieve this color that way but it makes a ball glove leather that preforms better than the rest. #madeinamerica

Checking out the leather prior to measuring #madeinamerica

Habanna Chieftan in the buffing department #madeinamerica

Buffing suede. To get a nice nappy texture we run the leather through the buffing line. This lifts and cuts the fibers of the leather so they are uniform and fluffy. #madeinamerica

Temper check. The temper refers to how firm or soft the leather is. Temper meters standardized how we measure temper. Lower numbers indicate firmer leather while higher numbers indicate softer leather. Leather is checked at various operations to make sure it is within spec. #madeinamerica

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Get in Touch

1306 E Meinecke Ave.

Milwaukee, WI 53212

414-562-4030

WELCOME TO THE TANNERY

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Get in Touch