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For thousands of years, man has known how to preserve the skins of animals, making them soft and pliable. Egyptian leather specimens, which are more than 3,000 years old, have been found in almost a perfect state. The Babylonians also made leather, and the Hebrews discovered a tanning process that is still in use today.
The principle leather still made by ancient methods is known as chamois leather. Today, we wash windows and cars with a chamois cloth. The word tan was coined by the Romans, who used both leather and tanned skins as a basis for money; our word money comes from the Greek word pecuniary, meaning money, which is a derivative of the Latin word pecunia, meaning cattle.
American Indians piled the deerskins so that the tissue surrounding the hair rotted off. The flesh was then scraped from the inner side of the skin. The hide was tanned by pounding oil, brains of animals and wood ashes into the skin. After being dried, the hide was smoked over a fire, a process that produced a soft leather called buckskin by our Native Americans. The slang word of buck, which is used when referring to a dollar bill, comes from the fact that deer hides were once used for money.
While all animal skins can be tanned, hides from cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses were and are the most important for making leather. Cattle hides are most often used in the making of leather for shoes, clothing, luggage and upholstery. Most animal skins were cured to prevent spoilage before going to a tannery. After arriving at the tannery, the hides were soaked in water to soften and also to remove any substances that could have been used as preserving agents. After the soaking operation, the hides were washed to remove either dirt or foreign matter.
The skins are then placed in a machine that removed the flesh and tissue from the inner side of the skin. For the next three to seven days the hides are in the beam room, where they have been placed in a vat to be soaked in a solution of lime and sodium sulfide. Now. the hair could be easily removed from the hide and saved, washed, dried and used for making felt, coarse blankets and other articles. However, today, in some tanneries, the hair is chemically dissolved.
The hides were then put in a vat containing a lime solution that swelled the hides, making it necessary for the hides to be fleshed again. To remove these last bits of skin and hair roots, the hides are scraped. This scraping was usually performed by hand, using a moon shaped knife.
After the hides were washed again, they were soaked in a neutralizing agent, such as ammonium sulfate or chloride. This operation is called bating. In the past, dung from dogs, chickens and pigeons provided these enzymes. (Today, bating is provided by finely divided pancreases.)
From here, the leather (hides) went into either a vegetable or mineral tanning, depending on what the leather was to be used for. Leather for shoes, bags, upholstery, harnesses, belts, etc. went through a vegetable tanning known as bark tanning. Most leather was tanned with an extract of some type of bark. All Vegetation contains a bitter ingredient known as tannin; however, hemlock was the main plant from which tannin was derived. This tannin is removed from the plants by using hot water. The tanning combines with the proteins to form a compound that will not rot easily. Vegetable tanning produces a firm, heavy and water resistant leather.
Suede leather was made from lamb and sheep skins, which is the flesh side; finished without glaze and then buffed to give a fine nap. Suede leather has little resistance to water. Cordovan leather, which is produced from sheep skins, was either embossed or tooled and most often colored scarlet. The name Cordovan leather comes from the Spanish City of Cordova, where this highly prized leather was first produced. Imitation leather came into use during World War II due to the great demand for leather. Tanneries, which were once familiar landmarks in almost every sizable community, have disappeared from the American scene, and with them vanishes the knowledge and skill of the old time tanners.