92 LEATHER, RUSSIAN 



The doors from all the rooms open into one common passage or vault, and are kept 

 close, except -when the skins are inspected. It is a point of much nicety to determine 

 when the fermentation has proceeded to such an extent as to loosen the wool from the 

 pelt ; for if it be allowed to proceed beyond that stage, the pelt itself would become 

 injured. 



When the fermentation is completed, generally in about five days, the skins are re- 

 moved to a beam, and there ' slimed," that is, scraped on the flesh side, to remove a 

 slimy substance which exudes from the pores. The wool is then taken off, cleaned, 

 and sold to the hatters, for making the bodies of common hats. The stripped pelts 

 are steeped in lime-water for about a week, to kill the grease ; and are next ' fleshed 

 on the beam.' After being placed in a ' drench,' or a solution of sour bran for some 

 days to remove the lime and open the pores, the skins are alumed, and subjected to 

 nearly the same processes as the true kid-skins. These Mediterranean lamb-skins do 

 not in general measure more than about 20 inches by 12; and each one furnishes 

 leather for two pairs of small gloves. These kinds of leather generally leave the 

 leather-dresser in a white state ; but undergo a process of dyeing, softening, ' stroking,' 

 &c., before being cut up into gloves. 



The tanning of one average-sized skin requires about Ij Ib. of good Sicilian 

 sumach ; but for leather which is to receive a bright scarlet dye, from one half to 

 three quarters of a pound of gall-nuts are employed in preference. Inferior goat-skins 

 are tanned with a willow-bark infusion, in pits, in which they are turned repeatedly, 

 and laid out to drain, as in tanning sole leather. The finest skins for the brightest 

 scarlet are cured with salt, to prevent their receiving damage in the transport, and 

 are dyed before being tanned. This method is practised in Germany and France. 



Leather of deer- and sheep-skins is prepared with oil, for the purpose of making 

 breeches, &c., and for wash-leather, used in cleaning plate. After they are completely 

 washed, limed, and beamed, as above described, they have their ' grain ' surface re- 

 moved, to give them greater softness and pliability. This removal of the grain is 

 called ' frizing,' and it is done either with the round edge of a blunt knife, or with 

 pumice-stone. After being freed from the lime by steeping in fermented bran-water, 

 they are pressed as dry as may be, and are then impregnated with cod-oil, by beating 

 with stocks in the trough of a kind of fulling mill. Previously to the application of 

 the oil, they are usually beat for some time alone to open their substance. The oiled 

 skins are stretched, hung up for some time in the air, then fulled with oil as before a 

 process which is 8 or 9 times repeated. The oil is slowly and evenly poured upon the 

 skins in the trough during the action of the beaters. One hundred skins usually take 

 up in this way from two to three gallons of oil. The fulled oil skins are thrown into 

 large tubs, and left for some time to ferment^ and thereby to combine more intimately 

 with the oil. They are lastly subjected to a weak potash-lye-bath, to strip them of the 

 loosely adhering oil. They are then hung up in the air to dry, and dressed for the 

 market. H.M. 



IiEATHER, RUSSIAN, as tanned at Kazan. The hides to be tanned may be 

 either fresh from the animal or dry, no matter which ; they are first laid to soak for 

 three days and nights in a solution of potash, to which some quicklime is added. The 

 potash used is made of the tree called in Russ Him (the common elm), which sort is 

 said to be preferable to any other, if not essential ; it is not purified, so that it is of a 

 brown colour and of an earthy appearance : about 12 poods of this (the pood is 36 Ibs. 

 English), and 2 poods of lime, serve for 100 skins. As they have no way of ascer- 

 taining the degree of causticity of the alkali but by its effect upon the tongue, when 

 they find it weak they let the skins lie longer in the solution. 



When the skins are taken out of this solution they are carried to the river, and left 

 under water for a day and night. 



Next a vedro of dog's dung is boiled in as much water as is enough to soak 60 skins, 

 (the vedro is equal to 2-696 English imperial gallons) but in the winter time, when 

 the dung is frozen, twice that quantity is found necessary. The skins are put into this 

 solution, not while it is boiling hot, but when at the heat which the hand can bear ; in 

 this they lie one day and one night. 



The skins are then sewed up so as to leave no hole ; in short, so as to be water-tight ; 

 about one third of what the skin will contain is then filled up with the leaves and small 

 twigs chopped together of the plant called in Russ Toloknanka (Arbutus ttva-ursi, 

 sometimes called bearberry), which is brought from the environs of Solikamskaga, 

 and the skin is then filled up with water. 



The skins thus filled are laid one on the other in a large trough, and heavy stones 

 upon them, so as by their weight to press the infusion through the pores of the skin in 

 about 4 hours ; yet, as it was said at the same time, that the skins are filled up with 

 the same water which had been pressed out 10 times successively, and that the whole 

 operation takes but one day and one night, this leaves but 2J hours for each time. 



