CUR 



CUR 



gulfs and straights, where, wanting room 

 to spread, they are driven back, and thus 

 disturb the ordinary flux of the sea. 



CURRENTS, in navigation, are certain 

 settings of the stream, by which ships are 

 compelled to alter their course or velo- 

 city, or both, and submit to the motion 

 impressed upon them by the current. See 

 HTDROGBAPHY. 



CURRYING is the art of dressing cow- 

 hides, calves-skins, seal -skins, &c. prin- 

 cipally for shoes : and this is done either 

 upon the flesh or the grain. 



In dressing leather for shoes upon the 

 flesh, the first operation is soaking the 

 leather in water until it is thoroughly 

 wet ; then the flesh side is shaved on a 

 beam about seven or eight inches broad, 

 with a knife of a peculiar construction, 

 to a proper substance, according to the 

 custom of the country and the uses to 

 which it is to be applied. This is one of 

 the most curious and laborious operations 

 in the whoJe mystery of currying. The 

 knife used for this purpose is of a rectan- 

 gular form, with two handles, one at each 

 end, and a double edge. They are ma- 

 nufactured at Cirencester, and composed 

 of iron and steel : the edge is given to 

 them by rubbing them on a flat stone of 

 a sharp gritty substance, till it comes to a 

 kind of wire ; this wire is taken off by a 

 fine stone, and the edge is then turned 

 to a kind of groove wire by a piece of 

 steel in form of a bodkin, which steel is 

 used to renew the edge in the operation. 



After the leather is properly shaved, it 

 is thrown into the water again, and scow- 

 cred upon a board or stone commonly ap- 

 propriated to that use. Scowering is per- 

 formed by rubbing the grain or hair side 

 with a piece of pumice-stone, or with 

 some other stone of a good grit, not un- 

 like in thickness and shape to the slate 

 with which some houses are covered. 

 These stones force out of the leather 

 a white sort of substance, called the 

 bloom, produced by the oak bark in tan- 

 ning. The hide or skin is then conveyed 

 to the shade or drying place, where the 

 oily substances are applied, termed stuff- 

 ing or dubbing. The oil used for this 

 purpose is prepared by the oil leather 

 dressers, by boiling sheep skins or doe 

 skins in cod oil. This is put on both sides 

 of the leather, but in greater and thicker 

 quantity on the flesh than on the grain or 

 hair side. 



Thus we have pursued the currying of 

 leather in its wet state, and through its 

 first stage, commonly called getting out. 



When it is thoroughly dry, an instru- 



ment, with teeth on the under side, call- 

 ed a graining-board, is first applied to 

 the flesh-side, which is called graining ; 

 then to the grain-side, called bruising. 

 The whole of this operation is intended 

 to soften the leather to which it is appli- 

 ed. Whitening, or pairing, succeeds, 

 which is performed with a fine edge to 

 the knif already described, and used in 

 taking off the gre*ase from the flesh. It 

 is then boarded up, or grained again, by 

 applying the graining-board first to the 

 grain, and then to the flesh. 



It is now fit for waxing, which is per- 

 formed first by colouring. This is per- 

 formed by rubbing with a brush, dipped 

 in a composition of oil and lamp black, on 

 the flesh till it be thoroughly black : it is 

 then sized, called black sizing, with a 

 brush or sponge, dried, tallowed with a 

 woollen cloth, and slicked upon the flesh 

 with a small smooth piece of glass ; sized 

 again with a sponge ; and when dry, this 

 sort of leather, called waxed, or black on 

 the flesh, is curried. 



Currying leather on the hair or grain 

 side, called black on the grain, is the 

 same in the first operation with that dress 

 ed on the flesh, till it is scowered. Then 

 the first black is applied to it while wet ; 

 which black is a solution of the sulphate 

 of iron called copperas, in fair water, or 

 in the water in which the skins as they 

 come from the tanner have been soaked ; 

 this is first put upon the grain after it has 

 been rubbed with a stone ; then rubbed 

 over with a brush dipped in stale urine ; 

 slicked out with an iron slicker, in order 

 to make the grain come out as fine as 

 possible, and then stuffed in the manner 

 already described among the first opera- 

 tions of currying ; and when dry it is sea- 

 soned, that is rubbed over with a brush 

 dipped in copperas water on the grain till 

 it is perfectly black ; then slicked with a 

 stone of a good grit, to take out the wrin- 

 kles as much as possible : after this the 

 grain is raised with a fine graining-board, 

 by turning the skin or piece of leather 

 in various directions, and, when a little 

 dried, it is bruised, in order to soften it. 

 When it is thoroughly dry it is whitened, 

 bruised again, and grained in two or three 

 different ways, and when oiled upon the 

 grain with a mixture of oil and tallow it 

 is finished. 



Bull and cow hides are sometimes cur- 

 ried for the use of sadlers and collar- 

 makers ; but the principal operations are 

 much the same as those we have already 

 described. It should, however, be ob- 

 served, that only a small portion of flesh 



