on leather
The use of hides and skins, tanned or untanned, as useful articles has been with us for thousands of years. The Oxford Dictionary refers to leather as "material made from the hide or skin of an animal by tanning". Tanning, in simple terms, refers to the treatment of raw hides and skins with tanning substances to render the material immune to bacterial attack, ie to produce leather. Additional changes introduced in the process of tanning are secondary and are related to the tanning and retanning chemicals used.
There are hundreds of different leather types and tens of thousands of different chemicals to choose from when producing these leathers. The most important chemicals in the tanning process are the tanning agents as they define the process of leather manufacture as a whole. In this modern day and age, tanners will choose tanning chemicals based on price, convenience of use, environmental issues, and by matching the physical and aesthetic properties introduced by the tanning chemicals to the desired leather properties of the end product. A basic knowledge of the general processes involved in leather production, the tanner's true raw material ie collagen, the pretanning, tanning and retanning chemicals used in the production of leather, and the mechanistic interaction of tanning chemicals, are all factors which are important in order to appreciate just part of the intricate process of leather manufacture.
The Tanning Process
Hides and skins are primarily composed of water, protein and fatty materials. The most important protein in the production of leather is collagen, which makes up approximately 29% of the mass of a freshly flayed hide. The collagen desirable for tanning is found in the grain and reticular layers where it is "intimately woven" in a three-dimensional mesh that is think and tightly woven in the grain and coarser and stronger in the reticular layer.
After slaughter, hides and skins must be temporarily preserved for shipment and
There are hundreds of different leather types and tens of thousands of different chemicals to choose from when producing these leathers. The most important chemicals in the tanning process are the tanning agents as they define the process of leather manufacture as a whole. In this modern day and age, tanners will choose tanning chemicals based on price, convenience of use, environmental issues, and by matching the physical and aesthetic properties introduced by the tanning chemicals to the desired leather properties of the end product. A basic knowledge of the general processes involved in leather production, the tanner's true raw material ie collagen, the pretanning, tanning and retanning chemicals used in the production of leather, and the mechanistic interaction of tanning chemicals, are all factors which are important in order to appreciate just part of the intricate process of leather manufacture.
The Tanning Process
Hides and skins are primarily composed of water, protein and fatty materials. The most important protein in the production of leather is collagen, which makes up approximately 29% of the mass of a freshly flayed hide. The collagen desirable for tanning is found in the grain and reticular layers where it is "intimately woven" in a three-dimensional mesh that is think and tightly woven in the grain and coarser and stronger in the reticular layer.
After slaughter, hides and skins must be temporarily preserved for shipment and