TIP# 162 - GRANDPA WAS A TANNER AND A CURRIER Tanyards were not the most welcome addition to the neighborhoods … they stank! But every community had one and desperately needed on. Leather was early on needed for belts, saddles and many other items; the days of plastic and silicone was not known yet! What would the settler do without his leather "breeches" of shoes? Carriages later needed tops … the list was almost endless. So, when a man moved into the county and announced he was a tanner or a currier, he was welcomed with outstretched arms. While many settlers had learned to tan hides at home, it was not a job that they relished. So, the tanner could earn a living wage. The tanner was normally paid in one half of the hides he tanned. He also collected and kept the hair as it was used as a wonderful addition to hold lime mortar together. He could make money from the hair sales, increasing his profits, and he also sold what is known as offal to peddlers who resold it to make glue. The tanner separated out his hides into different categories. There were cows, bulls, ok, horse, often moose, buffalo, calf, sheep, deer, goat and pig skins. While the tanning process cured every type of hide and some of the skins, the thinner hides which were more delicate were "tawed." Tawing was seldom done in the little country tanneries. To start the process, the tanner had to prepare the hide by splitting it in half making two sides. The smaller size was easier to work with and everything "worthless" was trimmed away. The hide then had to be soaked in water which softened the hide. By soaking the hide in lime water loosened the hairs. If this process was not used, the tanner stacked wet hides for several days, causing them to "sweat". Stopping just short of rotting the hides, the sweating didn't hurt the leather. The next step was to put the hide over a beam which was slanted. The tanner scraped the hide with a two-handled knife on the flesh side which eliminated the fat and tissue. On the grain side, it took off the hair and the outer layer of skin. Following a thorough washing the under skin was covered with tannic acid and gelatin. This toughened the skin into leather. The tannic acid was produced from tree bark with the black oak being considered the best and hemlock the next. Some men learned to run a bark mill which was a simple device with a vertical post, a heavy pole as an axle. A corregated edge crushed the bark when pulled by a horse or oxen. This operation could produce about 1 ½ cords of wood a day. Since the tannery needed water, and lots of it, you would always find it located by a stream of water. Each tannery had about 6 vats sunk in to the ground and walkways ran between them. Each vat as six feet long and four feet deed and from 4-6 feet wide. The hides were soaked first in a week solution of bark called "ooze". This was increased in strength over a period of several months - all this was preliminary to the actual tanning. When the hides were ready, the tanner filled a dry vat with layers of bark, one inch thick, and then a layer of hides, then the bark, alternating to the top. The vat was then filled with water and kept full while the hides lay between the bark. This process could last up to one year. On occasion, the tanner turned the sides with a pole with a large hook on one end. This took a lot of muscle. A good tanner could "sense" when the hides were ready - he could tell by the feel of them if the process was completed. He had to pull the heavy leather hides out and put them on a cart. Then he took the cart to the stream for a washing once again, then laid them on drying racks. But, the process was not yet over. The tanner had to take heavy clubs and "thump" them. This toughened the leather and compacted it into a required size. The leather used for shoe soles always came from the butt of a bovine hide which is the thickest part near the backbone. Upper bellies were used for "uppers" for the heavier shoes and for boots. Calf skins were used for the fancier footwear. Calf skins were handled a little differently. After they were soaked, scraped and washed, these skins stayed a week or more in a blend of pigeon or hen dung and turned quite frequently. The tanning required a ooze which was increased in strength. They were not layered. Sheep and goat skins had to be tawed. Tawing was done as follows: After the soaking, scraping and washing, they were immersed for a long period of time in a mix of alum and salt. Then the skins were curried. The currier started working when the skin was still wet. He had to make a soft and pliable hide so he had to remove any thick spots. Using a fluted pin, he removed the yellow bloom from the grain side. Next, he scoured both sides with a small stone mounted in a handle. He kept repeating this process to burnish the surface. The hides were then crammed into a mix of tallow and neat's foot oil and beaten with a mallet, with the final step for now being hung up to dry. The drying process stiffened the hide but the currier was not yet done. He had to "bruise" an stomp the hide in addition to working it with his hands. © Copyright 9 July 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved, sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Sandi Gorin - 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141-3409 (502)651-9114 or sgorin@glasgow-ky.com A Proud Kentucky Colonel PUBLISHING: http://members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html KYRESEARCH: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios BARREN CO OBITUARIES: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/BarrenObits PRAYER&PRAISE: http://www.listbot.com/subscribe/prayerandpraise