Vegetable Tan + Water

[Shagbark]

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?

[Northmount]

Veg tanned leather does not have a sealed surface. Decorative tooling is done on veg tan leather. Part of the process it to dampen the leather so it will take the stamp impressions. Too wet is mushy, dry won't take impressions. There is a pinned topic about casing the leather in preparation for tooling if you are interested in following up that part of the craft.

Dampen the leather across all the surface and let it dry. Then there shouldn't be water spots after it dries. If the surface needs to be cleaned, use saddle soap. If there are stains, they can be bleached out (in most cases) using oxalic acid. There lots of threads about cleaning or bleaching leather if you want to search for them.

Tanning means the skin has been preserved. There are several methods of tanning. Each has its preferred uses. If the skin is not tanned, it will go rancid, stink, and rot. There are exceptions.

Tom

[TinkerTailor]

I have never bought quality leather with any residue of any kind, other than the oils and waxes that are supposed to be in bridle leathers etc. Veg tan smells like leather, and not unpleasant. I would suggest contacting the seller. The smell and residue may be from the leather getting wet during shipping and starting to rot, or something spilled on your package.. Or perhaps the leather had something applied to the back to slick it that hadn't cured/went bad. Does not sound like a normal situation to me. Where did you order from?

[Northmount]

I've had some really smelly veg tan hides from Tandy. Had to scrub them with saddle soap and bleach with oxalic acid to eliminate the smell. They were cheap hides with lots of range marks. Good for doing prototypes, but the smell was sickening.

Tom

[TinkerTailor]

To be honest i found the smell of calgary tandy in general sickening. Place smelled musty . Youd think with the amount of flat land out there and the prices they charge, they would pay for some sq. footage as well.....that store is way too small.