How to tan a hide

[Sholdyn]

Tanning; many of us have done it, many different ways. I have tanned hides galore, trying various emotes to accomplish this grueling task, but I never actually tried to find out how hides are ACTUALLY tanned. Well, I did a google and found that it was pretty interesting.

So for those of us who don't know how it's done, here is the basic process. Hopefully this will help out with the emotes.

Tanning is basically treating a raw animal skin so that it won't rot and also to make it soft and pliant. This is done chemically, using mainly tannic acids. Today we have synthetic formula's to do this, but back in the day it was done with brains. One website said that the rule of thumb is that any creature's brain is large enough to tan its own hide.

If you are not going to tan the hide right away you are suppose to cure it by cleaning it and drying it. For small animals air drying is fine, but larger animals need to have their hides salted. Then you are suppose to soak the hides in water to soften them and also boil the brains with crushed up bones and soak the hide in that. Obviously this is a problem on Arm, but one site said you mash the brains with bones and form a paste to spread over the hide. This could be emoted easily enough.

The biggest problem I see is that the hides are supposed to be stretched over a frame. This makes sense, but is a little difficult unless you live in the Grey Forest. I guess you could stretch it over the ground and place heavy rocks around it to hold it. Then you scrape the hide clean and smear on the brains. After braining the hide (that's actually what it's called) you smoke the hide. You're suppose to put rotting wood and pine cones over hot coals to do this, but be creative in Arm. Kank dung would probably work well, but use your own judgment. Smoking the hide does several things such as colour it, seal in the braining process and make sure the hide maintains it shape and suppleness, even if it gets wet.

Well. That was one long post, but I hope it was worth the read for some of you hunters out there.

[Bestatte]

I thought the first part of the process is scraping the guts off the inside and raking the lice out of the outside...

Then you soak it in a bat guano (highly alkyline) solution for a day, then stretch and scrape it some more...

Then soak it again in an acidic solution, then dump it into a rinsing solution to get the guano and acid out..

Then finally you let it dry on a stretcher that lets the hide hang down from the rafter of the building...

and then it's ready to cut/shape.

I know - KNOW! that bat guano is involved in part of the process. Or is/was in real life anyway.

If you want to make cuirboulli, you'd boil the hide instead of one of the latter parts of the process, that toughens it up and makes it stiffer.

[Jherlen]

This is an awesome post, very helpful. It's certainly going to make my tanning sessions a little more descriptive than:

> craft hide into a tanned hide
> emote stretches ~hide across ~bench and does things related to tanning it.



One question: what would a hide scraper be used for?
 ---EDIT: Bestatte answered that before I was even able to post it.  

[Armaddict]

bat guano isn't available -everywhere- is it?

Hides have been tanned for a long time, in a lot of different places.

[Delirium]

From what research I've done:

Smoking is not a required process, unless you want to ensure it won't stiffen if it gets wet, and/or want it to attain that "golden" color that most people expect a tanned hide to be.

Since these hides range from scaled to striped, I doubt smoking is necessary... and we all know how common water is on Zalanthas. For the finer, more high quality leather clothings, it might be that smoking is used to keep heavy sweat from stiffening them.

I still can't figure out how they dye leathers, possibly by using precious water to soak them in a vat of dye after the hide has been smoked, or by staining it very carefully and tediously. Yet another reason why high quality goods are available mainly from Merchant Houses with the vast resources needed to pump them out on a regular basis, I guess.

[Bestatte]

I have no idea, Armaddict. I know there are bats in England, and bats in New England. Bats live in rain forests, and -near- desert areas but I'm not sure how near. There are definitely bats in Africa and South America, and various species of bats in New Zealand and Australia. There are species native to Ireland and Scottland, Wales and Germany, and if I remember right, there's at least one native species in Russia somewhere.  Bats are a rather hearty lot and from what I can figure out, have little difficulty acclimating to pretty much any geographical location except for extreme cold. They're just blind mice with wings, afterall

Perhaps Tuluk would have bats, since there's at least some natural moisture, as compared to the desert surrounding Allanak.

Whatever though - the first soaking process would need some highly alkyline substance, and historically, bat guano has been just the right thing.

[Delirium]

Bestatte: Bat guano might work, I've never seen it referred to before.

Historically, brain tanning was a popular method, and is still used today.

[Foamy007]

A hide scraper is used to remove the hair from the side of the hide along with the guts, also you can use urine to cure the hides, boil it down and it will give it a yellowish color but will cure the hides and turn it into a usuable material, albeit if not cleaned after tanning properly will stink.

All in all tanning a hide is a very taxing job not like simply sewing up a piece of cloth or something, and i find that many will just emote a few things and go on to a new hide OR work the hide they have just tanned without letting it dry or anything of the sort.

If I am wrong about the urine thing sorry, its just something that i picked up here and there, and feel free to correct me if im wrong.

[amoeba]

Whatever though - the first soaking process would need some highly alkyline substance, and historically, bat guano has been just the right thing.

Desert soils, at least in the southwestern US are fairly alkiline.  Salt is readily available.  Bats are a little harder to find. I've seen them in caves such as carlsbad caverns, but not many other places.  I would look up tanning methods employed by native american desert tribes, such as the Hopi and the Navajo.  (yes I'm too lazy to look it up myself)

[Cuusardo]

I know that oils are used to make leathers more supple.  Would it not stand to reason that animal fats are used in the tanning process?

[Cale_Knight]

Bat guano, yes. More commonly, though, it was pigeon.

[Manhattan]

wait how do u guys kno all this stuff about tanning? did u do research online or in libraries? or was ur dad a tanner lol

usually if i have questions i consult wikipedia.org, wat bout u

[Jacques]

One of my ex-girlfriends was a taxidermist. The "one brain, one hide" is a very old, very tried-and-true method. It's also very messy - high "ick" factor.

To be brief, the other methods people have mentioned were likely the result of people trying to find BETTER ways to do it, and occasionally succeeding. After all... (and everyone say it with me)

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Sholdyn]

Cuusardo

I know that oils are used to make leathers more supple. Would it not stand to reason that animal fats are used in the tanning process?

Actually, the brain also contains many oils that condition the leather as well as tannic acids.

And thanks to everyone for adding ideas.

[Saikun]

Interestingly enough, I just saw a thing on tanning. A segment on a show called "Wost Jobs in History" on the BBC. It referenced the Victorian England way of doing it, specifically... which was to soak the hide in a lime solution for a long time, then drag it out, and scrape off the hair (the lime loosened the hair) then turn it over and scrape off all the fat.

Then they'd soak it in a pool of dog/chicken feces to de-lime it. Here's the "job description" from the show's website:

"Are you that special person we are looking for? Is your idea of a great day at work one that involves you standing all day in a barn full of rotting flesh, dog poo and chicken dung? Then tanning – the conversion of cattle and sheep hides into leather – is just the career for you.

You'll be getting your hands dirty from your very first moment at work, de-fleshing and de-hairing cow hides from dawn to dusk. The unique smell of rotting animal tissue will soon become a comforting backdrop to your working day, enlivened at times by the fascinating aroma of old, warmed-up dog and chicken faeces, which will be stored in a foetid pool to de-lime the hides. If you're really lucky, the foul pool won't be changed for months just to get that lovely bacteria-infused mixture going.

Strangely, the rest of the population doesn't seem to have the same affection for this environment, so you'll be forced to work some distance from them. In 1882, the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen writes a play – An Enemy of the People – in which a tannery has contaminated a local (and lucrative) spa. But the doctor who exposes this crime is vilified by the rest of the community!"

Here's a link to the main page, which is really neat anyway:

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/W/worstjobs/index.html

-S