Alphabetical Search

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Warble	Small lump on the back of cattle due to the growth of the grub of the warble fly. Blind warble is a lump from which the grub has escaped and the hole has healed over. Open warble is a lump with a hole in it through which the grub is breathing or has only recently escaped. Note: Warble fly - hypoderms lineatum and bovis.
Warehouse	Building in which goods are stored; a repository. A wholesale or large retail storage building.
Warm sweating	Process of loosening the hides or skins by keeping them damp and warm (c. 20 °C to 25 °C) by introducing a warm-water spray, or steam, so that bacteria develop and attack the hair roots and lower epidermal layer.
Warts	Growths of the skin which appear as black or brown elevation of the epidermis. Warts are caused by viruses, some of which are contagious.
Wash leather	In Germany and the UK an alternative term for chamois leather used for window and car cleaning purposes.
Wash leather	In Germany and Spain, the term is also applied to washable glove leather, usually white in colour. See: Aldehyde.
Washable leather	Leather which can be washed under normal washing conditions to an acceptable standard of colour fastness, flexibility, dimensional stability, etc.
Washed wool	Wool which has been washed at some stage, either on the animal´s back, after shearing or removal by the wool-puller or fellmonger.
Wash (v); washing	To thoroughly remove unwanted constituents such as dirt, stains, soluble salts, loose dye, etc., from a material by washing with water.
Waste	Solid waste or effluent discharged into the environment.
Waste (manufacturing)	Waste generated during the manufacturing process.
Waste (packaging)	Any packaging or packaging material covered by the following definition: Any substance or object which the owner discards or wants to or is forced to discard. Note: 1975 & 1994 European Directives.
Waste treatment plant	Plant where solid wastes are treated such as incineration or recycling.
Waste treatment practice	Specific treatment practice such as: Incineration, landfill disposal, recycling .
Waste water characterisation	Information about a sample of waste water. Generally, these are BOD, COD, suspended solid, etc. See: Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD); Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD); Suspended solids.
Waste water treatment plant	Plant purifying industrial or domestic effluents.
Water fastness	Ability of a coloured leather to resist transfer of colour to an adjacent fabric by water. See: Test Methods IUF 421.
Water absorption (static & dynamic)	Taking up of liquid water.
Water content	Water content of a solid waste; it is an important parameter for waste characterisation. Can be calculated out of volume or mass of waste.
Water drop test	Test to evaluate the absorption speed of a water drop and the colour modification of leather or the halo after drying.
Water of plumping	Water contained in a hide or skin in such a way that it is plump, stiff and resistant to compression as well as translucent. It is water mainly within the well-swollen fibres and fibrils.
Water of swelling	Water taken up by a material, such as collagen or gelatine, by the action of osmotic forces developed when the pH is raised above, or lowered below, the iso-electric point.
Water permeability	Ability of a membrane or other material to permit water to pass through it.
Water proofness	See: Waterproof (v); waterproofing.
Water repellency	See: Water resistance.
Water resistance	Material which has been specially processed to impart resistance to wetting, or penetration of water.
Water spots	Drops of water on a finished leather which have dried out leaving a mark. Usually caused when the leather has not yet received its final top seal coat.
Water stain	Area of leather that has become wet and then dries out leaving a typical water stain or mark.
Water transmission	Water crossing through the leather.
Water vapour absorption	Taking up of water vapour.
Water vapour permeability	Ability of a membrane or other material to permit water vapour to pass through it.
Water/steam mottle	Mottled appearance to the finish. Caused by excessive moisture in the leather or the final coat not dried sufficiently before the final plating/printing.
Water-based finish	Aqueous finish using either no solvents or only small additions of solvents.
Water-dilutable	Finish products dilutable in water. For example, non-thermoplastic binders such as milk casein, blood and egg albumen, modified casein.
Water-in-oil emulsion	Suspension of fine particles or globules of water when dispersed throughout an oil.
Waterproof (v); waterproofing	Imparting of properties to a material, such as leather, to make it resistant to wetting or penetration by liquid water and to avoid transmission of water through its cross section.
Waterproof leather	Water-resistant leather which is thoroughly impervious to the penetration of water.
Water-resistant leather	Leather resistant (repellent) to the penetration of water, usually chrome tanned or combination tanned, originally heavily greased, but other water-resisting (repelling) agents may be used.
Water-soluble dyes	Organic dyes, soluble in water, used in finish preparations. Note: Brightening dyes.
Water-soluble inorganic matter	Amount of inorganic matter (residue after drying at 750 °C) in a water extract of leather. See: Test methods IUC 6.
Water-soluble organic matter	Amount of organic matter in a water extract of leather. Usually measured by difference between the total water soluble residue (residue after drying at 100 °C) and the water soluble inorganic matter. See: Test Methods IUC 6.
Water-wash spray booth	Booth of a spraying line which has a water curtain inside for trapping finish spray particulates.
Wax	Solid, fairly hard, organic material, naturally occurring or synthetic, with a comparatively low melting point, insoluble in, and lighter than water, soluble in organic solvents such as ether, and having a slightly greasy feel. May consist of hydrocarbons such as paraffin wax, or of esters such as bee and carnauba waxes.
Wax top coat	Top coat finish preparation using wax to impart desired surface properties, giving a waxy handle.
Waxed leather	Upper leather finished on the flesh side and dyed; vegetable tanned with a high content of hard grease, though not necessarily.
Waxed leather	Leather bearing a wax finish.
Waxy materials	Substance that is a plastic solid at ambient temperature and, on being subjected to moderately elevated temperatures, becomes a low viscosity liquid. Usually contains a variety of molecular weight species and reactive functional groups (as esters), although some classes of mineral and synthetic waxes are totally hydrocarbon compounds.
Weakness/strength	Weakness or strength of hides or skins depends on many factors. Note: Fibre structure, degree of bacterial or infestation damage, pre-tannery treatments, processing at tanneries, etc.
Weight range	The two weights governing the group into which a hide is placed for sale, for example: Ireland/UK; wet-salted ox/heifer hides       kgs green weight               36/+               31/35,5               26/30,5               22/25,5               21,5/-
Weight class	A particular class into which certain hides or skins are placed on the basis of their weight. Note: Cowhides 26 kilos and up, 25,5 kilos and under.
Weight-giving	Characterises the ability of a vegetable tanning material to increase the weight of, as well as to tan, hide and skin.
Welt	Strip of leather between the edge of the upper and sole, lying flat on the sole edge to which both the upper and sole are attached.
Welting leather	Tanned cattle hide leather of tannage and quality suitable for the manufacture of welting for footwear.
Wet blue	Term for a hide, or skin, which has been subjected to the usual beamhouse processes, chrome-tanned and left wet; may be stored or exported in this state.
Wet blue weight	Weight of chrome tanned hides or skins after samming to approximately 50% to 60% moisture.
Wet dust collector	Equipment for removing the dust from an air-stream with the aid of water, such as an irrigated cyclone or scrubber unit. See: Water-wash spray booth.
Wet leather	Leather with a high (approx. >60% water) degree of moisture.
Wet look	Glossy leather which has the appearance of being wet. The wet look coat is usually applied in two layers, a base coat and an unpigmented top layer, usually polyurethane.
Wet out (v) ; wetting out	See: Wetting back.
Wet post tanning operations	Operations carried out in a leather after tanning, and before drying and finishing operations.
Wet rubbing	Rubbing by a wet (water) felt or fabric.
Wet salted	Treated in the wet state with solid salt sprinkled on the flesh side, or immersed in brine, drained and then treated with solid salt and merely allowed to drain without any drying process.
Wet salted hide	Hide which, after treating with salt, has been merely drained so that it remains wet.
Wet salted weight	Weight of wet salted sheepskin or of trimmed green hides after salting or brining and piled to drain to 35% to 45% moisture, including the weight of the preserving salt.
Wet salt (v); wet salting	Curing of hides or skins by treating with salt, and then merely draining so that the product remains wet. Note: Sprinkling with solid salt or immersing in brine.
Wet stuff (v); wet stuffing	Introduce a more or less solid mixture of oils, fats, and waxes into damp leather by hand, drumming or impregnation.
Wet toggle drying	See: Toggle dryer.
Wet wheel (v); wet wheeling	Abrading the flesh side of damp leather with an abrasive wheel to give it an especially fine nap.
Wet white	Leather which after tanning with white materials, such as aldehydes, aluminium and syntans, has not been further processed and is in the wet condition. See: Tan (v); tanning; leather.
Wet white weight	Weight of hides or skins tanned with “white” tannage after samming to approximately 50% to 60% moisture.
Wet work	All process operations in a tannery from the beamhouse through to tanning and dyeing.
Wettability	Ability of a material to allow a liquid, especially water, to spread over its surface.
Wetting agents	Chemical which, by lowering the surface tension, facilitates contact between water or aqueous solutions and solids.
Wetting back	Introduction of liquid, such as water, into hides, skins or dried leather.
Wheel	In the USA, same as drum. See: Drum.
Wheel (v); wheeling	Subject the flesh side of leather to abrasive action by means of a suitable revolving wheel to clean it or to produce a nap on it.
White tanning agent	Synthetic tanning agent specially designed to produce a white, lightfast leather.
Wild suede	See: Hippy velour.
Willow calf	Calf skin leather, coloured, commonly brown, usually with a typical willow grain or with a box grain pattern. Full chrome tanned and boarded either in one direction - head to tail - or in two directions, as with box calf.
Willow side	Coloured side upper leather dressed in the same way as willow calf. The term is applied to full chrome, semi-chrome and vegetable tanned side similarly dressed. See: Box calf and Box side.
Wire damage	Ancient practice of putting heavy wire rings into the skins of  animals can cause abscesses, stains from the metal, tears during handling of the hides and damage to knives and machinery.
Wood dyestuff	Dyestuff obtained from a wood, such as Redwood.
Wood tannin	Tanning agent extracted from a wood, such as  from chestnut, oak and quebracho woods.
Wooden grid	Frame of parallel, spaced wooden bars, upon which hides are spread for laying-away in vegetable tan liquors.
Wool	Keratinous fibres growing from the skin of most types of sheep and characterised by its fineness, softness, waviness and special surface pattern of scales.
Wool count	According to the ISO norm 7211/5, counting of a fibre or a thread, by weight of a 1 000 metres of material. Unit is the “tex”. For example, 20 tex correspond to 1 000 metres of thread of wool or cotton, which weighs 20 grams.
Wool dyes	Dyes used in dyeing wool.
Wool fat (grease)	Grease from sheepskins wool. Lanolin.
Wool puller	Operative who specialises in dewoolling sheepskins and preparing them for tanning or for sale to tanners.
Wool washer	Machine for washing wool removed from sheepskins.
Wool wax	Natural, anhydrous product from crude wool grease and consisting of ester waxes and free higher alcohols, chiefly sterols. See: Wool fat (grease).
Woolled sheep or lambskin	Sheep or lambskin tanned and dressed with the wool on. See: Shearling.
Woolly	Appearance of the flesh side of hides or skins where the fibres are particularly coarse. Note: Instead of a very fine nap appearance to suedes, a coarser nap is described as woolly.
Woolskin dyeing	Dyeing of sheepskins with the wool still on. Note: Sheepskin coats, woolskin rugs, etc.
Worm damage	Hair-like worms that live in the skins of animals. Stephanofilariasis - damage to the grain consists of rough, raised circular lesions 2 cm to 8 cm. in diameter. The lesions are deep and cannot always be cured by correcting the grain. Rhabditis dermatitis - lesion gives the appearance of small tortuous channels on the surface of the leather. Summer bleeding - enters the skin from the flesh side and causes bloody nodules to form. These are located in the corium, extending through the epidermis and the scar tissue is also deeply seated. In sheep, the damage cannot be eliminated, even in suedes, as the lesions are so deep.
Wrinkle (v); wrinkling	Formation of a pattern of fine furrow-like creases, depressions or ridges on a leather surface due to unsuitable finishing.
Wrinkled grain	Grain showing a more or less coarse pattern, furrow-like depressions or ridges, especially when bent inwards.

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