Tanning Process

[Xig]

Hi

Why is the tanning process different in different parts of the world? Is this an apparent difference or a root one?

[HaloJones]

I think some of it is down to local rules on chemicals, process, working with hazardous processing and environmental legislation.

 

[Matt S]

Availability of raw materials (hides, tanstuffs and currying), local demand/use, local water chemistry, local weather conditions, local tradition/culture.

[Gosut]

Following this topic with interest. My father's father tanned their own leather. Unfortunately, my father hated the process, and didn't discuss it much. The only thing he commented on was soaking the leather in the creek, taking it out and scraping it down, and putting it back, and that it was a long process.

We once found one of these pieces of leather. It was hairless, thirty years or more old, and I recall it was hairless and dark colored. Unfortunately, I don't know if it was cow or hog. The latter is significant because a hog carcass was scalded to make it easier to remove hair and usually butchered with skin intact.

My point is the one thing my father said about the process: soaking the hide in the creek. The streams here are loaded with tannins. Enough to tan hide? Don't know. Such was my father's dislike for tanning leather that he may have left out significant parts, such as soaking in a barrel with bark. Whatever the process, I strongly suspect it was something passed down, and utilized available resources.

For what it's worth, some miles from here, someone tossed the remains of butchered deer carcasses beside the road. That was last fall. The skins still appear intact. The only "tanning" they have experienced was from the natural environment. Don't particularly want to investigate that further. Only know that the hides are still there, laying on top of the ground. Probably hard as a rock, too.