Table Cut Leather

Southcombe Gloves are very proud of the quality of their gloves. True glove experts, they carefully oversee each step of the design process to check that each stage meets their exacting standards. They only use the best quality skins to make the premium leather that quality gloves demand.

TABLE CUT LEATHER

Table Cutting is a skill and an art. After carefully examining each individual skin to see the particular amount of natural stretch, the leather is pulled up length ways and widthways to ensure that a fixed and measured amount of stretch is cut into the leather across the width but not in the length. Then the Table-Cutter will cut the gloves accordingly. The skill is to remove the natural, variable stretching of leather and to replace it with a custom amount. This ensures gloves give gently widthways but not lengthways, so you don't get overlong glove fingers every time you pull off your gloves!

Gloves made from leather that is not Table Cut may feel inflexible and can stretch out of shape very quickly. Unfortunately the majority of inexpensive gloves on the market are made from non-Table-Cut leather as it is a much cheaper, unskilled way to produce a pair of leather gloves.

In the UK, the traditional skill of Table Cutting requires a 3-year apprenticeship. There are also pockets of excellence in table-cutting around the world - Italy, India, Eastern Europe and the Philippines all have expertise in this area.