thus been prepared, the skin is blacked on the flesh side with 

 lampblack and tanner's oil, and subsequently rubbed with paste, 

 applied with a brush. When it had been dried, the whole process 

 is finished by rubbing both sides with a glass sleeker, 



4. Horse hides are blacked on the hair side, or, as the curriers 

 term it, on the grain^ with a solution of copperas water. Leather 

 designed for harnesses, for covering carriages, and for other similar 

 purposes, is also blacked on that side in the same manner. 



5. The trade of the currier is divided into two or three branches. 

 Some dress only calt-skins, and other thick leather designed for 

 shoes, harnesses, and carriages: others confine themselves to 

 dressing skins, which are to be applied to binding books, and to 

 other purposes requiring thin leather. It may be well to remark 

 here, that the dressers ot thin leather usually tan the skins them- 

 selves, using the leaves of sumach, instead of bark. 



The Process of Making Morocco Teather 



(From Julia de Fontenelle and Malepeyre, The Arts of Tanning, Currying and 

 Leather Dressing, edit, and transl. Campbell Morfit, 1852.) 



Goat and sheep skins are converted by the tanners into true 

 Morocco, iyyiitation Morocco, skiver, and roan. 



True Morocco — Owing to the comparative scarcity of goats, the 

 tanners use very fresh skins, their supplies being drawn from 

 Switzerland, Germany, Africa, East Indies, and Asia Minor. As 

 imported, they are dry, and covered with hair, and require breaking 

 and softening, which is done by soaking them for several days in 

 water, treading them under feet, rinsing and scraping them on 

 the flesh side to produce evenness. They are then made to 

 pass through three old lime-pits, and after the hair is removed, 

 through a fresh pit, the same precautions being observed, through- 

 out, as in the treatment of calf-skins. This process is continued 

 until the hair can be easily detached, which generally requires 

 about a month, and the skins are then scraped on the beam, 

 reimmersing in lime-milk for two days, and again fleshed with the 

 scraping knife. 



Goat skins being of a dry nature, require more rinsing than 

 others, and the operation must be frequently repeated many times 

 in running water. 



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