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skin is shifted from the pickling crock to the tanning crock 

 where it remains for at least a week. While in the tanning 

 solution, the skin must be stirred several times a day to 

 insure that the solution reaches all parts of the hide properly. 



When the skin is removed from the tanning solution it 

 is no longer a raw skin. It is then drained and oiled with 

 neat's foot oil on the flesh side and a few days are allowed 

 to let the oil "dry in." In the past tanners coated the hide 

 with butter, lard or vegetable oil and the Handbook of Mu- 

 seum Technique states that the "Red Indians used the 

 brain of the killed animal"' to lubricate the skin. 



At this point in the procedure approximately eight days 

 have passed, depending upon the skin, and the end is not 

 yet in sight. The skin is now dampened on the flesh side 

 with a sponge soaked in carbolic water, which prevents 

 mold, and placed in a sweat box to permit the dampness 

 to penetrate it thoroughly. 



On removal from the sweat box, the skin is staked, a 

 process that opens the pores by stretching and pulling. 

 Small skins may be pulled back and forth over the fleshing 

 knife, but big skins are tied to a board with a small loop 

 and vigorously pulled and stretched by hand. 



The Handbook of Museum Technique instructs that at this 

 point the tanner should "Place the hide in a barrel or basin 

 and tread for two hours or more with bare feet, turning the 

 hide over and over. This works the vegetable oil or butter 

 into the hide and softens it with the warmth of the feet. 

 Kick it around and tread it thoroughly to work the oil 

 well into the hide."^ Years ago, Dominick V'illa did stomp 

 the skins with his feet, but the ubiquitous machine has 

 made this unnecessary. If it is necessary to further soften 

 the skins, Mario places them in the kicker, a strange looking 

 wooden machine that literally kicks the skins until they 

 reach the desired softness. 



Mario Villa inspects a hide stretched out to dry after completion of 



the tanning process. Crock in foreground is type used for several 



soaking processes that skins undergo. 



This weird-looking device has wooden "feet" that literally kick soft- 

 ness into skins. 



Unusual and impressive challenge for tanner Dominick Villa was this skin of a ivhale-shark, now part of a Museum exhibit. 



Dominick retired in 1961, after 30 years at the Museum. 



DECEMBER Page 11 



