Was investigating the art of making leather goods recently and became fascinated by the process and things that can actually be made by hand.
Was curious if anyone wanted to share any stories of creating their own leather goods?
Holly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning
"Tanning is the process of making leather, which does not easily decompose, from the skins of animals, which do. Often this uses tannin, an acidic chemical compound. Coloring may occur during tanning.
Tanning leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin so that it can not ever return to rawhide.
Making rawhide does not require the use of tannin and is made simply by removing the flesh and then the hair by way of soaking in an aqueous solution, then scraping over a beam with a somewhat dull knife, and then leaving to dry, usually stretched on a frame so that it dries flat.
The two aforementioned solutions for removing the hair also act to clean the fiber network of the skin and therefore allow penetration and action of the tanning agent."
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