Abstract

The skins of a number of Brazilian goats covering a range of breed, age and sex were subjected to chemical, physical and histological characterisation. Half of each skin was processed into leather and its softness assessed by hand and instrumentally using both the BLC softness gauge and a compression test. It was found that each measure of softness could be related to the apparent density of the leather which in turn was associated with both the compactness of fibre weave in the skin and the fat content of the skin.