The
Difference Between Salt Drying And Tanning This
information has been supplied by a friend of mine called Regis
Gasparotto. He has had to adapt the procedure to be suitable
to be made at home or even outdoors). Salt drying
hides is not considered tanning, but conservation. The difference is that a tanned hide can be exposed to moisture and will not rot, where as the salt preserved hides once exposed to moisture turn back to their natural state and rot. So, by the procedure you show on the video you have preserved skins instead of tanning. (This in an emergency will do just fine) In the leather industry tanning is the moment where chemically a hide or skin starts to be called leather. It will no longer rot due to the chemical modifications of its structure. The most natural procedure I know is called vegetable tanning, which consists of immersing the skins in infusion of wood, bark and leaves containing tannin. This chemical is easy to recognize due to its tendency to react with iron. In other words, every wood that you cut with a carbon steel blade and it turns black contains it. One kind of tree that you can find in the northern hemisphere is chestnut. If acacia is available where you are it’s also a good choice. Another hint to recognize tannin vegetables is the high astringency (the feeling you have in your mouth when you eat green banana) the higher the feel, the higher is the tannin power). You can find this extract readymade in powder form in any tannery or I can help you to obtain it from the tree (much more fun). You don’t have to worry about disposing of them because they are 100% natural. The equipment you will need are basically buckets (a few of them) hot water, good blades, ph tapes (not fundamental but they help to control the process) soda ash, vinegar (or concentrated acetic acid). Roughly the procedure is washing and soaking, fleshing, pickling, tanning and oiling. I will describe these processes in detail in my next mail. Thanks for the videos, they are really cool. Regis Gasparotto |
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