Ostrich leather is recognised through its unique texture and tactility. Ostrich leather is categorized into two types of leather, namely body skin and leg skin.  

The ostrich body leather is made up of quilled and smooth areas, quaintly known as the “valley and hill” grain pattern.  The distinct quills are formed as the site where the feather grew, and give ostrich its characteristic three dimensional look and feel.  Traditionally only the fully quilled areas were used in products whereas modern usage tends to combine both areas to great effect.

Ostrich leather’s flat fibre structure can be compared with a rope where fibres all run in the same direction resulting in exceptional strength.  This is the reason why ostrich leather has a very high tear strength. 

The leg skin has a distinctly different look and texture from the body skin.  The metatarsal creates a rather reptilian looking broad scale band running down the centre of the leg skin. The leg leather is naturally much smaller in size and best suited to small leather goods, boots and contrast detail on larger products.  Most commonly sold in a high gloss glazed finish, leg skin leather is available in more matt effects as well.