Comments on: So what exactly is pigskin leather?

By: J. Mark Bertrand

J. Mark Bertrand — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:00:00 +0000

I’m having a Bible rebound in tan pigskin now, not because it’s economical but because I like pigskin. A lot of vintage leather goods were made in pigskin (and not just vintage footballs), and I’ve always liked the look. My understanding is that the process used to imprint grain patterns on pigskin contributes to the stiffness of “genuine leather,” but as the description from Leonard’s suggests, not everyone would like the natural pores in the leather.

Tim’s comment is absolutely right. It’s tempting to say “goatskin is better than calfskin is better than pigskin,” etc., but it’s really a case-by-case thing. I have some vintage Cambridge Bibles is calfskin so rigid it could probably take an edge and substitute for a kitchen knife, and a genuine leather Oxford NRSV I have to keep reminding myself isn’t really “good”, because it certainly feels that way.

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:44:50 +0000

Nope, just plain jane burgundy pigskin…

By: Peter M. Lopez

Peter M. Lopez — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:22:08 +0000

What, no seam or stripes?

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:24:36 +0000

@Gary – I agree that “Berkshire” probably has a better marketing spin than “pigskin”, which might be offensive to some. I’m just glad that they dyed it burgundy rather than leaving it a natural human skin color – that would be just too weird!

@Tim – I wasn’t sure if “Berkshire leather” was like the NET Bible’s “Cromwell leather”, which is later described as bonded leather… FWIW, here is Cambridge’s leather page.

You make a good point on the overall variability of leathers – I’m coming to the conclusion that unless you pay for a premium cover material, it’s often best to just get the synthetic alternative (or hardcover). Bonded or “genuine leather” or Berkshire or pigskin all seem to be equally stiff – though I’d get one of those if it meant a sewn binding instead of glued.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:01:53 +0000

ElShaddai,

The whole leather binding debate is just plain wierd in my opinion. The quality of any Bible binding in leather, IMHO, is on a case by case basis. I own a calfskin NRSV, which I thought would be much smoother and limp, but it wasn’t. Other more “genuine leather” editions I have found seem to be better.

Also, thanks for finding out what is Berkshire leather. I have an NRSV Catholic Readers edition, that was pretty expensive for its size. It said it was made of Berkshire leather, but I could find no info on exactly what that was. Pigskin? Hmmm….

http://catholicbibles.blogspot.com/2008/08/nrsv-catholic-edition-readers-text.html

By: Gary Zimmerli

Gary Zimmerli — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:59:07 +0000

Hmmm. Maybe Cambridge thinks “Berkshire” sounds nicer than “pigskin”. I suppose it does, but if it was mine, I wouldn’t care what they called it! I don’t have a “real” leather Bible in my whole collection!