Shagbark

Well, it's still a long ways from the softness of brain tanned leather.

I got a piece of vegetable-tanned cowhide in the mail yesterday, which I've never used before. It smelled funny, a nasty acidic chemical smell, and had a thin sticky residue on it. Being an idiot, I tried to wash the residue off with a damp cloth. Each spot on the hide that got so much as a drop of water on it now has a permanent dark stain. Even if it was a single drop that I immediately wiped up. Just rubbing a damp cloth across this leather leaves a permanent stain. I thought "tanned" always meant at least "won't be damaged by a little dampness." Is that not so for vegetable tan? Or did I get badly-tanned leather?