THE TANNING OF LEATHER

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21088, 13 February 1934, Page 6

THE TANNING OF LEATHER

* USE OF WATTLE BARK The process of making sole leather was described by Mr R. O. Page, worki manager of the Woolston Tanneries, Ltd., to members of the Christchurch Footwear Repairers' Association last night. Mr Page traced the develop. ments of the industry from the earliest times. He contended that there had been no great change in the process during the last 200 or 300 years. In the earliest times, said Mr Page, men probably found that smoke had a beneficial effect on the hides of animals. Later developments showed that oils and the fat of animals made the hides more pliable. The process of tanning leather by oils and fat was still retained to-day by the Chinese and Eskimos, and was adopted in the manufacture of chamois leather. A more complete tanning agent and one that was used by the tanner to-day was the vegetable extract. Long ago the tanner used such vegetable barks as were available to him. The English tanner used oak bark, the Continental tanner used chestnut, the Russian tanner used spruce and flr, and. the American tanner used hemlock. Thus the early tanning factories were generally set up near forests. Now, however, the tannin was extracted from the bark and the tanner in any country had at his disposal the tannin extracts of any tree in the world. To-day shipping and the supply of hides tended to be the controlling factors in the location of factories. The bark of the Australian wattle was becoming more popular. Before the war. oak bark was largely used by English tanners, and the wattle bark was more or less confined to the Germans. Statistics to-day showed, however, that the amount of oak bark used was almost negligible, and that wattle tannin was being used to an increasing extent. At the conclusion of his address Mr Page answered a number of questions and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.