Tanning Skins
I imagine tanning skins or at least preserving them didn’t come too long after the ancient craft of hunting. The thought of using skins, particularly in colder climates must have happened as the skin was pulled off to bare the meat. Perhaps the first step was simply to wrap the fleshy skin around the shoulders! There would be little doubt that early clothing made from animal skins rotted, smelt and became hard and dried out. How clothing made from animals skins evolved is the history of tanning skins. It is quite probable that tanning was accidentally discovered. Tannin leaches out of leaves, bark, and organic matter and enters water streams in many places around the world. One of our favourite drinks, ‘tea’ is an example of matter containing tannin. We could imagine a scenario where brown coloured water containing tannin was carried in skins, and over time the skin accidentally turned into leather.
The small mat you see above is made from kangaroo skins from the Centre of Australia. In the early years of my life, our family lived on kangaroo meat and each rectangle in this mat came from the back-piece of a kangaroo. I cured these small pieces as a young boy, some 42 years ago by sprinkling saltpetre (potassium nitrate) and alum on the skin, followed up with the application of liberal amounts of neat’s-foot oil. They didn’t turn out to be the supplest leather, but even after forty-odd years there is very little hair slip and the fur-skin has stood the test of time. Notice that the fur is very short as these kangaroos lived in the 45 degree heat of Australia's desert interior. Years later and with much more experience I tanned many skins including, possum, wallaby, kangaroo, deer, goat and sheep. The four kangaroo skins making up the vest below were taken in the alpine country of Tasmania, and you will notice how the fur is quite long and fluffy, and in places has a white tip that easily blends with the snow fields (bigger images
here).
This fur vest is 28 years old (in 2010) and is very supple and in very good condition. This item was tanned using the Leidrieter’s kit (no longer available) which used chrome salts and a neat’s-foot blend.
Australia has a many trees that contain significant amount of tannin including, Wattles, Mangrove Trees, Gum Trees, and also some fig, oak and honeysuckle trees. We have a CD on our eBay shop that has 14 old books with many great tanning recipes. You can get a copy of the CD by visiting our eBay Store. Tanning Skins back to Farming Tips |
