Normally after tannage water-resistant leathers have to be finished. A problem arises due to the scarce adhesion of normal finishing mixtures. Moreover, the products used for finishing must not damage the hydrophobic effect obtained during tannage. The same problem is present when finishing water-proofing military shoes and sports shoes, as well as upholstery leathers, where water repellency is an important aspect of the article. These considerations leads us to treat leather water-proofing as a sole subject, regardless of the final article.
Water repelling agents still find two large fields of application in leather finishing.
The first is the finishing of very absorbent leathers, which have to retain a soft and natural appearance. Antelana and nappalan articles are such cases. If you use directly finishing products on these spongy and open leathers, they may excessively penetrate leaving the leathers hard, wrinkled and not uniform, and more applications are necessary. If you use a hydrophobic agent before starting the finishing, absorption can be controlled and reduced, the appearance will be more uniform and the final effect very natural. These lacquers are often used as water repelling protection on unfinished leathers as suede, nubuk, etc., but the known low mechanic resistance of the polymer does not give effective results.