Buckskin
Description
A soft, pliable, suede-finished skin obtained from a deer, moose, or elk. Genuine buckskin has the outer grain removed then is finished with oil tanning or alum tawing followed by sueding on both sides. It is usually prepared from smoked skins, which produces a dark honey color. Unsmoked buckskin may be almost white in color. Buckskins were used for clothing in colonial America, especially by frontiersmen and Revolutionary War soldiers. Currently buckskin is usually imported from Mexico, Central America, or South America for use in shoes, gloves, and clothing. Much modern buckskin is an imitation prepared with chrome-tanned leather that has been dyed and oiled to resemble authentic buckskin.
Synonyms and Related Terms
buck-tanned leather; daim (Fr.); bokkenvel (v.hert)(Ned); dikke gladde stof (Ned); ...van geiten/schapenleer (Ned); … van bukskin (Ned);
Additional Images
Elk
White-tailed Deer
Resources and Citations
- Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982
- Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles, Phyllis G.Tortora, Robert S. Merkel (eds.), Fairchild Publications, New York City, 7th edition, 1996
- Edward Reich, Carlton J. Siegler, Consumer Goods: How to Know and Use Them, American Book Company, New York City, 1937
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckskin_%28leather%29 (Accessed Oct. 18, 2005)
- American Leather Chemists Association Glossary at www.leatherchemists.org
- G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 181
- Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997
- The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998
- Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000