Leather Processing is considered a Traditional job and the methodology involved differs from country to country. The process depends upon mainly the experience, and the available resources to treat the skin and making it utilize in a day-to-day life style.
Animal Leather is used from the Stone Age in all countries for various purposes such as clothing, bed spreads, floor spreads for comfortable sitting, to draw water from wells and to fetch water from distant places. Hence, the process differs from place to place, people to people, who were involved in hunting, chopping and de-skinning the animals.
Ever since, man found alternatives to his clothing needs, the animal skin found its way to various other utilities such as garments of various designs, shapes and sizes, bags, pouches and wallets, hand gloves, footwear, saddles and belts, etc.
Here is the method of leather processing in my own experience.
Normally, the skin after stripped off the slaughtered animal, finds its way in the market as processed leather within 3 weeks. During this tedious period, the leather undergoes various methods of treatment, right from salting for preserving the raw skin for the period of stacking and transportation to Leather Tanneries. Then, so collected raw skins are soaked in tanks of lime for a few days. This process swells and softens the skins to make easy removal of hair. Hair is shaved-removed after de-liming. From this stage onwards the skin is called leather. This leather under process has to be again undergo re-liming, bating, soaking in drums. For this process chemicals and tanning agents such as chromium, softening agents such as fat liquor etc. are used.
Modern Industries use large drums made of Teak wood (Sagwan), rotatable by electric motors for such tanning, softening and coloring process of the leather. The leather processed by these methods then put on hangars in a shaded place to get dried. The dried leather passes through various shaving, splitting, stretching, and polishing process till it become fully soft to the required level, color, and thickness.
Finally the processed leather is measured in Square Feet (SqFt) and DeciMetres (DCM). To have an accurate measurement, the leather is placed flat, fully stretched over the conveyor body of a measuring machine and passed through a controlled unit which electronically displays the measurement of the leather.
source: ezinearticles.com
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