Elmo
		Elmo Leather is an international company with the world's leading Furniture- and Automotive industries as customers. Today, Elmo Leather is the brand for what is probably the world's finest leather, and only the hides that have passed the company’s hard inspections may be called Elmo Leather.Elmo Leather was established in 1931 in Svenljunga, Sweden. A tannery with generations of experience in processing hides and leather in a community where craftsmanship traditions are strong. Today, Elmo Leather is an international company renowned for its top-quality leather production, with factories in both Sweden and Denmark.

Although the company has seen many changes, it remains essentially the same - albeit on a larger scale. It is still the inspectors, sorters and all the other skilled professionals who guarantee that only the very best hides are made into leather. When it comes to the selection process, there are no robots or computers as yet that can replace the human eye and hand. This reliance on the human factor is the strength, charm and weakness in the business. Second best will never achieve this hallmark The finest hides in the world come from Scandinavian animals. The high quality is due to the excellent animal husbandry as well as the climate. This is why the majority of rawhides in Elmo’s tanneries are Scandinavian.

As soon as the hides reach Elmo’s factories, they undergo an initial rigorous sorting process. From then on, they are tested continuously throughout the six weeks it takes to turn rawhide into finished leather. Finally, just before the leather leaves the factory, they are checked one last time. Only the hides that have passed all the checks and inspections can be called Elmo-leather. Second best will never achieve this hallmark. A truly fine hide requires extremely little surface treatment or none at all. It is the hides of these qualities that have a really exclusive, naturally soft feel. The surface is genuine and shows, for instance, the variations in grain between the back, neck and flanks. It is also possible to see tiny, natural features that life has left imprinted on the hide. Small hallmarks of authenticity that proclaim the difference between effect and defect

History. The oldest sample of leather found in Sweden is the sheath to a bronze dagger from approximately 1100 BC. Yet, the art of turning hides and skins into leather is far older than that. Long before man came up with the idea of tilling the earth, he was a hunter.

		He must have discovered the possibility of protecting and warring his own body with hides from his game quite early. Eskimos still do it. Untreated hides rot if kept damp, while dry ones harden. In order to use them, our forefathers must have figured out a simple tanning method to make leather out of hides. It is feasible that they used the natural animal fat. The method is still used by the Tartars on the steppes of Asia and by the Eskimos. By first scraping off the fat and then working it in again, you can retain the suppleness of the hides. Oak bark and alum. Chance brought people, through centuries, to new discoveries on how to turn raw hides and skins into soft and durable leather. People made use of plant parts such as oak bark and alum. Without actually knowing it, they came across the existence of organic, as well as mineral tanning substances.
The chemist's discovery. It was not until the 1700's, that people began studying various tanning methods more scientifically. In the year 1853, the Swedish chemist. Karl Hyltén-Cavallius discovered a process in which chrome-salts is the active mineral. The method was developed throughout the years, making it suitable for practical and industrial use. Since the late 1800's, chrome-tanning has been the leading method for preserving leather.

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