Tanning Leather

Tanning ProcessesChina
Once skins and hides are removed, they areSouth America
processed for cleaning and the removal of anyNorth America
tissue and hair. This ensures the skin is as clean asTo brain tan a hide, this process can take up to
possible and ready to be tanned. Leather quality isone year. However, fans of brain tanned leather
determined by a number of factors, but the mostagree that the final product makes up for the
important is the way the hide is tanned.wait. First, the hide has to be de-fleshed, cleaned,
and then "grained". Although the hide is grained in
Tanning leather involves multiple steps. Dependingone of several ways, the result is the removal of
on the type of process being used, the nature ofthe grain side, which is the side with the hair.
the hide and the desired result, some steps mayThis leaves the softer under layer of the skin.
be repeated. Consider these various forms ofThen the hides are cured in salt and allowed to
tanning leather:dry, creating a hard, yellowed "rawhide", which is
Brain Tanningnothing like the finished product.
Brain tanning is one form of tanning leather thatThe rawhide is put into successively stronger
does not involve a commercial process. This issolutions of brain material, soaked, and then
done with nothing but the animal itself. The basicworked with brushes and scrapers to stretch and
process of brain tanning leather is to use materialsdry the hide. This process is repeated several
from the brain, hence the name. The brain lipidstimes and interestingly, some tanners will smoke
are then used to treat the skin, producing athe hide as the last step, which produces a
magnificent piece of soft leather.handsome hide and rich color as well as a smoky
The process of brain tanning leather actually datesscent.
back to the Stone Age when cavemen andChrome Tanning
hunters would soak the hides in brains, pullingChrome tanning, also called "mineral" tanning, is a
them until they became soft. For these primitivequicker process compared to vegetable tanning.
people, this was a part of daily life in makingChrome tanning leather takes about a day and
bedding and clothing to stay warm.begins with pickling the skin in an acid-salt mixture.
Although German and English tanners were brainAfter the skin is pickled, it is put into a solution
tanning leather as recently as the late 19th andcontaining chromium-sulfate. Chrome tanning
20th Centuries, the only thing that remains fromleather is used to produce a wide variety of
the Stone Age Europe are bone and stonegarments, especially if the design requires a softer
tanning tools. The earliest record of Europeanleather.
tanning is:Vegetable Tanning
Homer's IliadVegetable tanning leather produces stiffer result
"The ox hide, which is soaked in fat, is pulled tothat is still flexible but better suited for sturdier
and fro by men standing in a circle, thusproducts such as belts and luggage. Hides are
stretching the skin and causing the fat toplaced on frames and hung in vats of tannin,
penetrate into the pores."which is where 'tanning' got its name.
Additionally, the following tribes and regions haveTannin is a natural product found in certain parts
been identified by researchers as having beenof trees such as chestnut, oak, and hemlock,
involved with brain tanning leather:using the bark, wood, leaves, and fruit. This
Zulu tribe of Southern Africaprocess involves the skins being moved through a
Chukchee tribe of Eastern Russiaseries of vats. The first vat will have a weaker
Nomadic people of Asiasolution of tannin than the final vat.
Northern Asia