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Calfskin or calf leather is a
Calfskin or calf leather is a leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...
or membrane
A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. Bi ...
produced from the hide of a calf, or juvenile domestic cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, Domestication of vertebrates, domesticated, Bovidae, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos ...
. Calfskin is particularly valuable because of its softness and fine grain, as well as durability. It is commonly used for high-quality clothing
Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...
, shoes, wallets, and similar products, as well as traditional leather bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...
s. In these contexts, just "calf" is commonly used. Fine calfskin is one of the skins used for vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...
and parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
manuscripts.
In Spanish, the word is , referring to leather from animals less than three years old. Chickenskin, despite its name, is a form of calfskin made using the skin of unborn calves.
In fashion, soft finished calfskin is sometimes described as (French for "velvet calf").
See also
* Goldbeater's skin, made from the intestine of a calf *Sheepskin
Sheepskin is the Hide (skin), hide of a Domestic sheep, sheep, sometimes also called lambskin. Unlike common leather, sheepskin is Tanning (leather), tanned with the Wool, fleece intact, as in a Fur, pelt.Delbridge, Arthur, "The Macquarie Diction ...
References