Anaerobic leather - most people have heard of the leather find that was a shoe or a bag from antiquity, stored in a preservation condition that has allowed the relic to last several hundred years without being broken down. Is this the model of how, as a material, leather can be stored in a fossilised form taking carbon out of the atmosphe ...more

IntroductionMost new tanners learn, either through courses that they attend, or from experienced tanners in the tannery where they are employed, that it is important to use normal salt (sodium chloride) in the pickling process prior to tanning in order to prevent acid swelling of the hides or skins. Almost all wet blue plants use salt in ...more

In a fascinating 3-way Teams discussion (4, but I was just an observer) last month between SATRA’s Dr Christine Anscombe, the ISTT’s Dr Clive Jackson-Moss and Authenticae’s Karl Flowers, the likely future of training in the tanning industry in Europe, and in countries which traditionally sent students to Europe, took som ...more

IntroductionDepending on the type of leather being produced, hides and skins are normally tanned using either a mineral or a vegetable tanning process. Chrome tanning accounts for more than 90% of the world’s leather production, but there is concern over the environmental impact of this tanning method. Vegetable tanning is a more en ...more

This is part of a series contributed by the International School of Tanning Technology (ISTT) in Grahamstown, E. Cape, SA, summarising complicated research papers into short articles more readily comprehensible to a wider audience.rnrnPart 1. Preparation of delimed hides with different residual concentrations ...more

IntroductionIn order to prevent hides from rotting between the time the animal is slaughtered and the time the hide is processed in the tannery, they need to undergo some form of preservation. The most commonly used form of preservation is salting, which dehydrates the hide and thus prevents bacterial growth. It is estimated that at least ...more

This is part of a series contributed by the International School of Tanning Technology (ISTT) in Grahamstown, E. Cape, SA, summarising complicated research papers into short articles more readily comprehensible to a wider audience. ...more

Grahamstown, E. Cape, SA - This article is a summary of practical experience that was gained by a tanner working in a shoe upper tannery over a period of close to 40 years. ...more

The previous 25 articles in this series have discussed the different clean technology options that are available to the tanner in the beamhouse and tanyard. This article will focus on the clean technology that is available in the dyehouse that can help the tanner reduce the environmental impact of the dyehouse processes. Many of the clean ...more

In this series on sustainable leather production, the previous ten articles have discussed the steps that tanners could take to reduce the salt concentration in tannery effluents. Another major source of pollution in a tannery is the liming / unhairing process, and the following few articles in this series on sustainable processing will h ...more