Leather yarn product and method of manufacture

Abstract

A leather yarn embodies a novel combination of five parameters which enables the leather yarn to be readily worked by garment knitting machine needlework into a unique knitted fabric having a soft "leather hand". The parameters are: 1. Softness; 2. Consistent Thinness of Depth; 3. Consistent Narrowness of Width; 4. Adequate Tensile Strength; and 5. Continuity. The leather yarn is cut from a thin leather having a weight in the range of about 3 oz. to 11/2 oz. as measured by a standard leather thickness gauge such as the Woburn ounce weight caliber, made by the Woburn Machine Company, Woburn, Massachusetts. The softness parameter is obtained by the selection of a leather with the softness characteristics of fine garment/dress glove leather (a standard category in the tanning industry). The consistent narrowness of width and thinness of depth (and manufacture of the yarn at a marketable cost) is obtained by a number of specifically interrelated machine cutting operations. These specific cutting operations are employed to produce a leather yarn having specific physical characteristics which avoid subsequent jamming and breaking of the leather yarn in the knitting machinery which utilizes the yarn. The continuity of these significant properties is secured by the selection of an appropriate raw skin, (preferably a young animal) and by the selection of a tanner who produces fine garment/dress glove leather, and by machine cutting to produce long uniform lengths without splices. (Both selections are well within the ability of anyone having ordinary skill in the leather art). The tensile strength is insured again by the proper selection of skin and its tannage in accordance with a standard leather industry category, that is, fine garment/dress glove leather. The purpose of these five (5) parameters is that when combined they render a leather yarn capable of being knit on kitting machines and by needlework into fashion garments.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.