File: jayose/Jayose Library: Introduction to Tanning.txt

Good day. This is the first book in the set of three commissioned and approved by the Guild of Tanners for novice tanners to learn the craft. We congratulate you on starting down the road to becoming a tanner. Tanning is a very physical skill. If you keep at it for years, you will get stained skin, rough, calloused hands and bad eyesight.

That having been said, tanning is like many other skills: a work of creation. You are taking a useless hide, skin, or pelt from a dead animal and turning it into superb quality materials.

You don’t need to be smart to learn tanning but it helps to be strong. Tanning is exhausting work.

The Items: 1 small bottle oil, 1 small skin, 0.5 kg salt, 0.5 kg tanning solution, a hide scraper, a scraping table, a barrel of water, drying racks

A medium sized skin needs double this amount, a large skin four times.

All normal skins and furs use neatsfoot oil.

To tan a hide, you will need to:

1) Salt the hides.

2) Scrape the hide down to, and including, the thin membrane. It’s best to scrape from tail to head.

3) Wash all salt from the hide, and soak the hide in a solution of tanning crystals.

4) Break the skin by stretching, pulling, etc. until soft. Lightly coat with oil to soften. Hang on a drying rack in the shade for a while to let the oil be absorbed.

Keep in mind this is only one way to tan a hide, and there are other techniques. Some leatherworkers prefer tannic acid to tanning crystals, for example. Also, some methods work better than others on any given type of hide. It never hurts to learn other methods and discover what works best for you.