TANNED FISHSKIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1944, Page 2

TANNED FISHSKIN

NEW LEATHER RIVAL MANY USES ENVISAGED NEW YORK Future competition for traditional leathers may be foreshadowed by experiments on the tanning of fishskin now being conducted in the United States at the Engineering Experiment Station of the University of New Hampshire. Leather experts feel there would be a definite field for fish leather in small limp-leather products such as belts, billfolds, coin, purses, cigarettecases—if a practical and economical method of processing could be worked out. Enthusiasts even discuss its use in woman's shoes and handbags. There is not to great a difference, for leather-making purposes, between fish and animal skins. Both have genuine leather-forming fibres. One big point in favour of fishskins is that they contain no natural grease— and degreasing is one of the major jobs in a tannery. But fishskins do have scales. Descaling by mechanical means (scraping the scales off. as for cooking) is likely to damage the fib'res. One of the problems now being worked on at New Hampshire is to find chemicals which will remove the scales without harming the leather.