Although leather has a number of desirable properties such as thermal stability and fire retardancey, in addition to high toughness, it has a few drawbacks such as weight, high water absorption, poor soil and rot resistance, and nonuniformity. If these defects are overcome, leather's usefulness would be further enhanced and its competitive position with respect to synthetics would increase. This study reports the physical and mechanical properties of buffalo leather after chemical graft copolymerization with ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, and 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The optimum conditions for grafting (e.g., monomer and initiator concentrations, temperature and time of grafting, and solvent leather ratio) were extensively investigated. The study achieved outstanding properties for buffalo leather in reduction of water uptake after grafting, especially on using 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate and butyl acrylate monomers. FT-IR and solid C-13- NMR for leather before and after grafting confirmed the grafting process. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.