Anyone here know the basic (or detailed) process of making a leather jacket? Obviously, I know that at some point a pattern comes into the mix, and the actual construction of the coat begins, but how do you go from, say, animal hide to leather fit to make stuff out of. I've heard phrases like "tanning the hide," but I don't know what that means. Also, there's that shiny leather, and the non-shiny leather. How does that happen? Any help on this would be great. Thank you all.

It's simple enough to find this sort of stuff out on the Internet, you know.

Having said that, I did a little of your research for you (sadly it's in PDF):
http://www.csiro.au/resources/leathermanufacture.html - good detail about the modern process
www.contractleathers.com/HistoryandProcess.pdf - a little bit of history of leather production, since I wasn't sure whether you meant now or in the past

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Get lost (and I mean that in the nicest way possible).