EVER NEW Natural Chamois XL Mega Size (6.5 sq ft) Automotive® Premium New Zealand Sheepskin for Car Boats and RV! Amazing Renewable Resource! …

I bought this for maintaining precision metrology tools (gage blocks, micrometers, etc), where a non-scratching, lint-free, absorbent fabric is important. I bought this particular one because it seemed like it was an actual real chamois (shammy) and not an ultra-thin piece of chinesium garbage. What I received is basically half a small sheepskin, so it's pretty big. Just like the instructions say, you have to get the tanning oils out or otherwise they will leave a film behind. The bottom line is this: if you want a long-service-life wiping cloth, this is your best bet, but it comes at a (modest, in my estimation) price: you have to prep it before first use. This took me about 45 minutes to an hour, and the process is fairly tedious. Considering the expected lifetime of a shammy, and the size of the thing, I don't think this is an unreasonable amount of time, but be aware that you can't use this right out of the packaging.To help you on your way, I've included some pictures of how I went about the initial cleaning, and it worked well for me. Into a glass bowl, I poured soapy water as hot as my hands could tolerate and worked the liquid through the shammy, making sure to keep it spread out (not bunched up) as much as possible. Your objective is to get the oils out and diluted into the soapy water. If you bunch the shammy up, you aren't going to get efficient extraction and it will take you much longer. Don't ask me how I know this. The first picture shows the yellow color of the water. This is good: it means a lot of the oil isn't in the shammy anymore. The next step is to dump that water and rinse and wring the shammy out. You want to get as much of the old water out as possible to minimize carryover, because the next thing you do is fill the bowl with the hot water (no soap!) and work the shammy again to drive more of the soap and oils out. Do this a couple times with just hot water, then go back to the first step: working it through with hot soapy water. The second or third time around, the water should be less yellow and look more like the second picture. Keep iterating this process until the water is clear and not milky. The yellow color will be hard to see, but milkiness when you are rinsing with just water means there is still oil (or possibly soap) coming out of the shammy. The third picture shows the bowl of water after removal of the now-clean shammy. Any bubbles that form in the water should dissipate quickly. If you pour water from the faucet into the bowl and the bubbles persist, there is still soap in the shammy. Depending on your use, this may be okay, but for me, I wanted no soap, so lots of washing is the cure here. Finally, you can tell you're done when you wring the shammy out and it doesn't bubble but instead the water just sheets cleanly out of it. Once you see clear water and no bubbles in the shammy, you're done and you can let it air-dry. I wasn't lying when I said it was tedious, but I also wasn't lying when I said you get an object that will last for a good length of time and serve you well throughout.TL,DR: good product, respectable hide thickness, setup is a pain, but totes worth it in the end. Not a piece of knockoff "import" garbage. Also probably "renewable" and "assembled in USA" are BS (see below).If you made it this far, then perhaps you will tolerate one more unsolicited opinion/rant: be wary of anything that is labeled as "renewable". In this particular case, while technically sheep are a renewable resource (if you leave them unattended, they make more sheep!), the obvious implication here is that this is a "green" option. That may be true, but it may not be. I don't have the answer for you one way or the other, but consider that these sheep are slaughtered for their hides, which likely means they are fed for meat production (lamb chops == $$$, lamb skin == side product). This in turn suggests that they are fed to enhance muscle mass, which is probably accomplished by an energy-intensive diet. That animal feed has a significant cost in fertilizer, pesticide, etc, which also has its own significant energy burden. Add to that, these particular hides are made in New Zealand (a place that pretty much has only sheep, bungee jumping, and Hobbits), yet they are tanned in Turkey and "assembled" in the USA. I don't know what "assembled in the USA" is supposed to make me believe, since if I have to clean the tanning oils out of the shammy when I receive it (in the USA), clearly this is the actual product of Turkey. Perhaps they really mean "packaged in USA", but I suspect it means "I put a sticker on it in the USA, hooray!". All that is by way of pointing out that Turkey is a very long distance from New Zealand AND the USA, so these hides traversed the globe to get to you. How much bunker fuel do you think the Panamanian-registered container ship burned to bring these to you? Those things are amazingly fuel efficient (no, seriously, they are, like, approaching Carnot efficiency limit), but still, it's an energy cost over a long distance. If you add all those things up, you start to wonder whether or not it would be better to just use paper towels or some locally-produced-yet-petroleum-derived alternative, because, even though that is an objectively bad choice, this alternative is actually worse. On the other hand, a paper towel is a single-use item, whereas a shammy can provide years of service life. As I said above, I don't know what the answer is, but "renewable" and "assembled in USA" are clearly marketing BS, so please don't buy this believing you are saving the world/'Murica.I bought this product because it was the best tool for the job at hand. If that's you, then don't hesitate to do so as well. I hope this helped you with your decision. Or maybe your eyeballs are bleeding after the wall-o'-text. If so, that's your problem. Keep your [stick] in a vise.

This is definitely the real deal chamois. It took me over an hour to get all the oils out. I followed the instructions of a previous reviewer. I'm looking forward to using it on my car. This thing is huge so it will absorb a lot of water. I've been wanting a real chamois for quite a while and I think I found a keeper.

As soon as you open the box you can tell it's the genuine article - nothing else smells like genuine chamois! This is exactly as described - it's soft, supple and THIRSTY. Properly used, it works great. If you've never used one before, try this: soak it thoroughly before using it, then carefully wring it thoroughly. Shake it open, spread it out, lift it over your head, and flop it out over the surface your working. Keep your hands spread wide apart and drag the chamois flat across the surface, letting pull flat across it towards you. Move over a little more and do it again, repeating as necessary. Once the chamois is damp enough, pause and wring it out and continue. Once you get the hang of it, you will realize you can do a car in just a few minutes. Just fold it a little while you're working around mirrors, tail lights, louvers etc. Once you're done, rinse it out thoroughly, wring it out well and lay it flat to dry. When you go to use it again, you will realize that it's stiff and cardboard-like; don't worry, this is normal; just carefully soak it until its thoroughly wetted, wring it out and you're good to go again.

This is a nice size and works well after it's broken in; but, be aware that it takes a long time to work out the tanning chemicals and also to end the little bits coming off on your dried surface. I expect this chamois will get better with time.

Excellent quality. You will love it.

My husband did not like quality of material and thought it would be larger in size, but uses it anyway to clean his cars

soft and absorbent. wash thoroughly with mild soap as directed before use. rinse repeatedly to remove ALL soap. proper preparation is well worth effort to give a first use excellent experience that is well worth effort. great produce that i believe will provide many wash and years of use. recommend and would buy again. love large size.

If you are old enough bet you have like we have bought many chamois in our years. Most of these chamois were to small and were not very good quality. This chamois is like the Oldies from the late 60's!!! Great-Large sized and stands up to lots of use-We are very happy with this purchase. Texas

It's not actually square in shape so I'm not sure how they calculate the square footage size.

I've seen bigger tea towels