Changes

Unless you have very strong political views, just about everyone today has some items made using leather. Over the ages it has been used for boots, clothing, shields, and armour, tents, bottles buckets and fire hoses. In the Saxon period it was even more widespread as they did not have any of the other flexible materials we have today, but despite these innovations, it is still in great demand for good shoes, saddles and harnesses, suitcases, handbags, wallets, upholstery and many other high-quality products. The characteristics of leather were just as important then as they are today; flexibility, strength and durability.

As an aside, a story from the 1950's in central Africa, relates how the skin of an Eland (the largest antelope) was cut into a spiral, and then draped over a branch from a tall tree. The thong was then tied to a large boulder and spun. After some hours, the action of the spinning boulder pulling down on the leather, the sun and the application of fat, created a rope when made up that could 'pull a five ton truck out of the mud'.