Q:

How can I detect leather besides a sniff test?

Sometimes I'm buying things that look like leather but you can't easily tell. I sometimes use the sniff test. Is there any other test for determining if an unlabeled item is leather or not?

A:

Besides reading the labeling and testing the smell, there are some things you can look for: 

Looking very closely, does it have pores (real) or only a pressed texture (fake)?

The hair follicles provide the grain pattern that is so much a feature of the value of the leather... In most animals the grain pattern is uniform, in terms of both regularity and distribution over the pelt.

Covington, Anthony D. Tanning Chemistry: The Science of Leather. Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2009. Page 36. Print. 
Are the cut edges rough or very smooth (some fake leather will have very smooth cut edges)?

