68 American Fisheries Society 



Hides. In attempting to create markets for the hides, it was 

 first necessary to assemble a supply of raw skins and distribute 

 them among tanners and others desirous of ascertaining their 

 fitness for special uses. By so doing, a large number of persons 

 were interested to experiment with these skins. 



In many cases, tanners found that their methods were unsuited 

 to these products and some of them, therefore, assumed that good 

 leathers could not be produced. In other cases, some success 

 was attained, and such tanners were encouraged to continue their 

 experiments, with the result that they have evolved satisfactory 

 methods of tanning these hides into leathers suitable for making 

 shoes, bags, etc., and have become interested in the development 

 of the industry. 



In the course of this work in tanning and finishing the hides, 

 one of the principal difficulties met with was the problem of 

 removing the shagreen, composed of minute horny denticles. 

 Some attempted to remove this before the hides were tanned, 

 others after tanning. The latter has been the more satisfactory. 



After the hides are tanned, neutralized, dyed, rendered pliable 

 and drained, they are given a coat of paraffin and oil, tacked and 

 dried slowly. They are then smooth-plated and shaved on the 

 grain side to remove the coarsest part of the grain or denticles. 

 The hide is then gone over lightly on a rapdily revolving car- 

 borundum wheel, when it is ready for finishing. Tanners were also 

 interested to test the hides of the different species of sharks to 

 determine whether differences in quality exist, and the fitness of 

 each for special uses. 



Having aroused the interest of the tanners, it then became 

 necessary to develop methods for skinning the sharks, pickling 

 and boxing them in a manner acceptable to the trade, to supply 

 the fishermen with this information and encourage them to save 

 the hides. Here again difficulties arose. Unlike mammal hides, in 

 which the flesh and hide are held together by a thin layer of con- 

 necting tissue, shark skins are firmly joined to the flesh by tough 

 septa extending into the flesh, which have to be severed with the 

 knife. As a result, the task of skinning sharks, particularly those 

 of large size, was a laborious, time-consuming one, threatening to 

 make the undertaking unprofitable. Steps have been undertaken 

 to overcome this difficulty, and, of one device that has been 



