← Traditional crafts
H63-06 · Module 6 of 7 · Pages: 20 · Worksheets: 5
Tanning hides
From a slaughter hide to soft fur and leather for a strap: salting and drying, fleshing, tanning with alum and salt, oak bark and oil, softening, protection from chemicals, and the rules
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In short
- Hides of animals that died or were ill are never touched: anthrax and other diseases pass to humans. Only hides of healthy animals from slaughter.
- A hide is salted or dried the same day. An unsalted hide starts to rot within 1–2 days and the hair slips.
- Alum and salt are the simplest home method for fur (rabbit, sheepskin with wool). Such a hide mustn't get soaked in the rain for long.
- Lime for removing hair is a strong alkali: goggles, rubber gloves, boots. Chrome is never used at home.
- Oak bark gives real, lasting leather, but it takes 4–8 weeks for a thin hide and months for a thick one.
- Spent baths and scraps of flesh don't go into a stream, a well or the ground near water. Rules on animal by-products and sales: check with the competent authority.
What's inside
Chapters
- What tanning is and which hides
- Safety, disease and rules
- From slaughter to raw hide
- Soaking and fleshing
- Fur with alum and salt
- Bark tanning with oak
- Oil, egg yolks and smoke
- Softening, dressing and finishing
- What to make and how to store it
- Waste and waste water
- Common mistakes
- Printable checklist
Worksheets
- Salt and bath calculator
- Dates
- Hide log
- Tanning calendar
- Labels and equipment list
Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.
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