Living · 6 pages · 12 min
How leather is skin that was stopped from rotting
Tanning cross-links the collagen in a hide so the skin does not rot or dry into rawhide.
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From the opening
Leather is animal skin treated so its collagen fibers do not rot, dry into horn, or fall apart the way a raw hide does. Tanning stabilizes those fibers, and the result is still the layered structure of skin with the ordinary path of decay interrupted. The opening covers collagen is the fiber being saved, vegetable and chrome tannages cross-link it, and oils restore flex after tanning.
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Inside
- Collagen is the fiber being saved
- Vegetable and chrome tannages cross-link it
- Oils restore flex after tanning
- Rawhide is dried skin not leather
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Collagen cross-linking in vegetable and chrome tanning
- Fatliquoring after the hide is tanned