#TANNING HIDES WITHOUT ALUM SKIN#

The combination of tannins is a closely guarded trade secret that each tanner passes down through the generations.ĭrying: The damp hides are removed from the drums and dried over a few days. Over the course of 30-60 days, the hides are moved from one drum to another, each filled with tanning solutions of varying concentrations. They are placed into drums filled with tanning agents and water. Tanning: now the hide is prepared for tanning. Common deliming agents include weak acids like boric acid, acetic acid, formic acid, lactic acid, phosphoric acid or carbonic acid. Liming: next, wool, hair and fat residues are removed by soaking the hides in large rotating drums filled with mild chemicals like milk of lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)₂).ĭe-liming: Once liming is done, the pH levels of the hides need to be lowered again and so they are soaked in an acidic solution.

#TANNING HIDES WITHOUT ALUM SKIN#

Smoking also acts as a preservative, and gives the resultant buckskin a pleasant, slightly smoky odour.Ĭuring: once the raw animal skin arrives, it must be immediately cured with salt to prevent bacteria from growing. The smoke from the fire (often laid with slightly rotted wood) releases phenol, a tanning agent which works to lock in the work of the previous steps to soften the skin and make it workable.

Smoking: In some cases, the stretched skin was smoked over an open fire. Stretching: Once the hides are removed, the most strenuous part comes in, which is the drying and even stretching of the hide. The fat proteins in the brain moisturize the hides, adding softness and strength to it, which prepares the hide to be worked into leather products. In addition to brains, this method may involve adding other fatty animal substances such as fish oil, sebum or marrow and other products like egg yolk, fermented milk, yak butter, liver, sour milk, claw oil or soap to prepare the tanning solution. Graining: This is the process where the hide is thoroughly scraped to remove all hair as well as the epidermis (outer layer of the skin).īraining: The hide is then stretched on a frame and then the brain tanning solution is rubbed on the hide.

Soaking: The next step is to soak the skin, allowing the hair to loosen and to soften the grain layer of the hide. In Greenland and other parts of the Arctic, people used traditional ulu knives and stones to scrape the hair from seal skin, then beat it – and even chew it! – to make the skin more supple. Skinning/Fleshing: This is the first step where the flesh, fat and membrane that covers the inside of the hide is scraped out and thoroughly cleaned.

Tanning hides without alum