11/24/2023 0 Comments Chemistrry of animal hides![]() ![]() The earliest record of European tanning is in A smoke tanning now follows, according the the description of Sawayama…”įrom Chemistry and Technology of Leather edited by Fred O’Flaherty, 1956Īlthough English and German tanners were brain tanning as recently as the late 19th and early 20th century, all that remains from stone age Europe are some bone and stone tanning tools. Tanning is accomplished by coating with animal brain matter or spinal-cord substance, for which mechanical tumbling, kneading, and staking probably are indispensable. To prepare Koshuinden leather, one starts with dried deerskin which has been soaked to the extent that the grain layer, together with the hair can be shaved away with a skiving knife. “ An oil tanning process which appears to be ancient, but which is still carried on in Japan…. There are accounts of brain and/or smoke tanning by the Zulus of southern Africa (brains), the Chukchee of eastern Russia (liver, urine and smoke), nomadic peoples of Asia (fermented milk, butter, and egg yolk), northern Asia (brains, liver and sour milk,) China (smoke), South America (smoke) and North America (brains, smoke, liver, sweet corn, eggs, pine nuts, yucca root and a whole lot of other things!). It was part of the daily life of primitive peoples on every continent. Soaking hides in brains and pulling them soft seems to be one of them. Stone age peoples, cavemen, and hunter gatherers all over the world had some things in common. Genesis iii 21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The Stone Age But deer me, that’s getting ahead of things, lets go back to the beginning. Well that’s because buckskin was such a common commodity of exchange in the American colonies that after the Revolution, buck became the slang for a dollar bill. Guess what those breeches were made of… Have you ever told a friend, “ uh, that cost me a couple of bucks“. ![]() Did you know that it was the work clothes of the common laborer in 18th century America and Europe? That General George Washington ordered buckskins to be made for the troops? Or that it was fashionable among the elite of Europe? Remember those images of men in powder white wigs, breeches and long stockings. Little do they know that it was once as common as blue jeans. ![]() When most people think of buckskin they envision long fringed Indians on horseback or adventurous frontiersmen on a remote mountain hunt. Adapted for the web from a chapter in Deerskins into Buckskins ![]()
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