How leather-making originated

Leather-making was a difficult and time-consuming task for tanners of long ago. People used animal skins for making leather, either from hunting or from livestock animals.

Eventually, leather-makers refined the process and improved it so that the leather would remain both strong and flexible over time.

People in ancient civilisations recognised the value of animals and learned how to use every part of them in many different ways.

Not only did animals provide food, but the remains of their carcasses also had value. People crafted tools from animal bones and teeth, they used the hair for sewing and they learned how to use the skins for shelter and clothing.

Early tanning processes resulted in problems with the leather because the skins rotted in warm temperatures and they became too stiff in cold temperatures.

These difficulties necessitated tanning processes to preserve the leather and make it easier and more pleasant to use. Early tanning involved working fats into the hides to make them more supple.

A common practice involved slaughtering livestock in the fall to avoid having to feed them over the winter. After the slaughter, the farmer would skin the animals to separate the hides. Next, the farmer would wash the hides in a river or lake to remove the blood and flesh from the skins.

The skins would soak in the water until it was time to continue the leather-making process..

The hides would then soak in vats of lime solution to remove the hair from the skins. After scraping off all of the hair, they would return the skins to the lime solution for alternate soaking and resting that lasted approximately six months.

After this process, tanners would use tannic acids created from tree barks to preserve and dye the hides. Sometimes, they added other ingredients such as cider pressings or sour milk to create the desired finished effects.This phase of the process took approximately three months. The finishing process involved working oil or grease into the leather to make it supple.

Items made from leather

Many different items were and are made from leather. Common items include saddles, tents, awnings, aprons, pants, sandals, shoes, boots, moccasins, sacksand bags, hats, belts, and gloves. Additional items such as buckets, bottles,and even shrouds to bury the dead were also made from leather.

The importance of leather

In ancient history, people did not have the same variety of materials available today. Plastics were unavailable and metal was prohibitively expensive. Pottery and glass broke easily, making them undesired materials in many situations.

These factors made leather an affordable and accessible choice for clothing and other necessities. People had animals readily available by hunting or from livestock. As the tanning process improved, leather became more conducive to a variety of purposes. People even used it to make bags for carrying liquids.

Where does leather come from?

You may not have thought it before but the history of leather is a fascinating area of interest, and this page guides you through the origins of leather-making, timelines and leather restoration and conservation.

The worshipful company of leathersellers

The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers supervised the control of the quality of mediaeval leather produced in the City of London. They received their first Chapter of Incorporation in 1444 from King Henry VI, having been granted articles for the regulation of their craft during the first Mayoralty of Richard Whittington in 1398.

Through the centuries the Company has played an important role in the leather industry, particularly in the field of technical education. The Company founded a technical college in Bermondsey in 1909 and in 1978 donated £500,000 for the erection of the National Leathersellers Centre at the University College, Northampton. The Company continues to maintain close links with the college and the industry as a whole and has recently been involved with the development of new premises for the Leather Conservation Centre, also located on the University College Northampton site.

 

Early leather production

The earliest crude leathers were made by first immersing the raw hides and skins in a fermenting solution of organic matter in which bacteria grew and attacked the hides or skins, resulting in a loosening of the hair or wool and some dissolving out of skin protein. The hair or wool was then scraped off with primitive blunt stone or wooden scrapers and fat or meat still adhering to the flesh side was removed in a similar manner. Tanning, the conversion of pelt into leather, was done by dusting the rawstock with ground up bark other organic matter and placing them in shallow pits or vats of tannin solution. Further additions of ground bark, were made from time to time until the tannin solution had penetrated right through the skin structure, taking up to two years for very thick hides.

The leather was then hung up for several days in open sheds. The dressing of the leather involved paring or shaving it to a level thickness, colouring, treatment with oils and greases, drying and final treatment of the grain surface with waxes, proteins such as blood and egg albumins, and shellac to produce attractive surface finishes.

During the middle ages leather was used for all kinds of purposes such as: footwear, clothes, leather bags, cases and trunks, leather bottles, saddlery and harness, for the upholstery of chairs, and couches, book binding and military uses. It was also used to decorate coaches, sedan chairs and walls. Many leather articles have been recovered from the Mary Rose a Tudor vessel which sank in 1545.

The majority of the leather was tanned with oak bark but soft clothing, gloving and footwear leathers were tanned with alum, oil and combinations of these two materials.

With the discovery and introduction of basic chemicals like lime and sulphuric acid, tanners gradually abandoned their traditional methods and leather production slowly became a chemically based series of processes. Sir Humphrey Davy, the inventor of the miner's safety lamp, investigated some of these processes.

The growth of industrialisation in the 18th and 19th centuries created a demand for many new kinds of leathers, eg belting leathers to drive the machines being introduced into industry, special leathers for use in looms in the textile industry, leathers for use as diaphragms and washers,

leathers for use in transport and for furniture upholstery. At the end of the 19th century, the invention of the motorcar, modern roads, new ranges of coal tar dyestuffs, the demand for softer, lightweight footwear with a fashionable appearance, and a general rise in the standard of living created a demand for soft, supple, colourful leather.

The traditional vegetable tanned leather was too hard and thick for these requirements and thus, the use of the salts of the metal chromium was adopted and chrome tanning became the tannage for modern footwear and fashion leathers. It produces soft, supple, beautiful and fine leathers, reflecting the way we live.

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