Once skins and
hides are removed, they are processed for cleaning and the removal
of any tissue and hair. This ensures the skin is as clean as possible
and ready to be tanned. Leather quality is determined by a number
of factors, but the most important is the way the hide is tanned.
Tanning Leather
Tanning leather involves multiple steps. Depending on the type of
process being used, the nature of the hide and the desired result,
some steps may be repeated. Consider these various forms of tanning
leather:
Brain Tanning
Brain tanning is one form of tanning leather that does not involve
a commercial process. This is done with nothing but the animal itself.
The basic process of brain tanning leather is to use materials from
the brain, hence the name. The brain lipids are then used to treat
the skin, producing a magnificent piece of soft leather.
The process of brain tanning leather actually dates back to the Stone
Age when cavemen and hunters would soak the hides in brains, pulling
them until they became soft. For these primitive people, this was
a part of daily life in making bedding and clothing to stay warm.
Although German and English tanners were brain tanning leather as
recently as the late 19th and 20th Centuries, the only thing that
remains from the Stone Age Europe are bone and stone tanning tools.
The earliest record of European tanning is:
Homer's
Iliad
"The ox hide, which is soaked in fat, is pulled to and fro by
men standing in a circle, thus stretching the skin and causing the
fat to penetrate into the pores."
Additionally, the following tribes and regions have been identified
by researchers as having been involved with brain tanning leather:
Zulu tribe of Southern Africa
Chukchee tribe of Eastern Russia
Nomadic people of Asia
Northern Asia
China
South America
North America
To brain tan a
hide, this process can take up to one year. However, fans of brain
tanned leather agree that the final product makes up for the wait.
First, the hide has to be de-fleshed, cleaned, and then "grained".
Although the hide is grained in one of several ways, the result is
the removal of the grain side, which is the side with the hair.
This leaves the softer under layer of the skin. Then the hides are
cured in salt and allowed to dry, creating a hard, yellowed "rawhide",
which is nothing like the finished product.
The rawhide is put into successively stronger solutions of brain material,
soaked, and then worked with brushes and scrapers to stretch and dry
the hide. This process is repeated several times and interestingly,
some tanners will smoke the hide as the last step, which produces
a handsome hide and rich color as well as a smoky scent.
www.BrainTan.com
Chrome Tanning
Chrome tanning, also called "mineral" tanning, is a quicker
process compared to vegetable tanning. Chrome tanning leather takes
about a day and begins with pickling the skin in an acid-salt mixture.
After the skin is pickled, it is put into a solution containing chromium-sulfate.
Chrome tanning leather is used to produce a wide
variety of garments, especially if the design requires a softer leather.
Vegetable Tanning
Vegetable tanning leather produces stiffer result that is still flexible
but better suited for sturdier products such as belts and luggage.
Hides are placed on frames and hung in vats of tannin, which is where
'tanning' got its name.
Tannin is a natural product found in certain parts of trees such as
chestnut, oak, and hemlock, using the bark, wood, leaves, and fruit.
This process involves the skins being moved through a series of vats.
The first vat will have a weaker solution of tannin than the final
vat.
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