Ok, I know virgin wool is derived from the first shearing of a sheep. I have always assumed virgin olive oil came from the first crop of fruit from the olive tree. I never really thought about extra virgin olive oil, but maybe someone can clue me in on that too.
My real question is what the hell is virgin leather? I recently saw a leather jacket with a tag in it proclaiming it to be “genuine virgin calf skin”. What does this mean?
Since there is no chance of a second crop of skin from a calf, could this mean the calf was never allowed to mate? A silly guess, but I can’t think of anything else it could be. Wouldn’t a calf be too young to mate anyway? And what possible benefit could this have to the quality of the leather produced?
Extra Virgin olive oil: Perfect flavor and odor,max acidity (oleic acid) of 1g/100g - 1% with maximum peroxide value mequiv02/kg of 20. In some jurisdictions it must also mean that taste, mouth feel and aroma have been judged acceptable by a panel of experts. In California, oils with the California Olive Oil Council sticker have been so judged. Note that Extra Virgin olive oil may be chemically processed or extracted and need not be “Organic”. Over 50% of the oil produced in the Mediterranean area is of such poor quality that it must be refined to produce an edible product. Extra Virgin olive oil accounts for less than 10% of oil in many producing countries. Used on salads, added at the table to soups and stews and for dipping.
**Fine Virgin olive oil ** Perfect flavor and odor,maximum acidity (oleic acid) of 2g/100g - 2% with maximum peroxide value mequiv 02/kg of 20
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“Kidskin is an extremely soft, smooth, thin type of leather, made from the skins of milk-fed baby goats (kids). These kids are carefully raised so that they do not eat herbiage (which will change the texture of the skin in undesirable ways), or get bruised or scratched, so that their skins remain perfect and smooth. Kid leather is used for fine-grained, glace-finished (that is, grain finishing, a process in which a smooth, shiny finish is made on the topside of the skin by soft buffing or polishing on plush wheels) gloves, and kid gloves are often dyed so that the inside of the glove remains white. The traditional color for the kid glove - the default color, as it were - is white or some other related shade like ivory or taupe, and this color was and is especially favored for formal wear, but other colors, such as black, red, blue and brown have also found favor.”
Virgin wool is wool that has not been used in something else before. It comes directly from the sheep to the item marked virgin wool and is not reclaimed from another used. It has nothing to do with how old the sheep is. Rcycled wool is shoddy.
Products that are marked as ‘virgin leather’ means the animal the hide comes from was not killed for the specific reason of it’s hide - with leather it is most often dairy cattle that suffer abrasions to the skin - scratches from barbed wire and other such imperfections that would make marking the hide as a higher quality impossible. Garment and upholstery grade leathers are generally obtained from animals that are kept in a more strictly controlled environment so the hides will not be marred by a brand, barbed wire or anything else that would otherwise leave any kind of large blemish on the leather in the course of tanning and treating. Higher end coats, automobile leather and furniture grade is of the latter as the price can be jacked up considerably. Virgin leather is also considered by many to be the ‘cruelty free’ leather. I hope this helps
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Thank-you very much for that information. So, just to make sure I understand, virgin leather is actually an inferior grade of leather? It is leather that has not been protected from scratches and imperfections because the cow was not specifically raised for its leather.
So this is another case of devious marketing: When people see the term virgin leather they assume they are getting something special, but in reality they are getting the old scuffed-up leather.
I am pretty sure that it has no meaning, in the usual sense, at all. It is like ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘natural’ or any other word that the advertisers think will be a hook to attract people to their product.
