In the manufacture of leather, the final wet end processing of the skins is very important procedure, where they are retanned and dyed, ready for finishing to the highest possible standards. These are excellent on all types of leather articles for a sparkling, highly flexible wax finish. Used to protect and preserve the colour after dyeing and imparts a soft, lustrous patina. Particularly effective for emphasising tooling, carving or embossing with a subtle two tone effect.

As approximately 90% of all leathers produced are used for application which requires durability, the need for very "fast" finishes i.e. finishes with resistance to water washing, soap washing, excessive dry rubbing, or dry cleaning solvents is required. In fact, leathers with a fast finish are normally disadvantageous to such applications, as these types of finishes do not lend themselves to re-dyeing, gold finishing, blind-tooling or polishing.