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More on Leather - The
History
Once upon a time many thousands of years ago,
primitive man began to make leather. It would have been one of the very
first manufacturing industries. Animals were hunted and killed for food,
but before they were eaten the skin had to be removed from the animals.
Sharp flints were probably used to peel the skin away from the carcass.
The skins would then have been worn for warmth and protection from the
elements and probably wrapped around the feet; as the first type of
shoes. But the skins left like this would soon begin to decompose and
rot away. They realized that drying the skins would preserve them, but
the result was a very hard, inflexible and uncomfortable material.
The skins would have to be softened. This would have been done by
rubbing with fats. The fat also had another
advantage; it helped prevent the skins getting wet. This way the skins
lasted even longer and with more bending and flexing of the wearer, the
softer and more pliable they would become.
Then some old chap made a fantastic discovery. By using water, various
barks, leaves and berries, you could make a liquid containing vegetable
extracts. It was a powerful solution, as was discovered when the skins
were immersed in it. They became rot resistant and considerably softer
than the dried skins ever were. The active agents in this liquid are
called tannins. This was probably one of the first methods of tanning
leather.
This process of tanning skins spread and was improved upon. By Roman
times, armour, water containers, belts, straps, tents, boats, etc. were
regularly being made from leather. By the middle ages, things began to
be very well organized. Tanneries were set up, mainly concentrated into
special areas. These areas had to have good sources of materials: - A
supply of hides and skins - Plenty of water - Lime for softening and
assisting with hair removal - Plenty of trees for the extraction of
tannins from the bark. The processes that we use today are based on
those discovered by our ancestors all those thousands of years ago.
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