Leather industry

“ On the other hand, the value of hides and skins has risen enormously in the last decade, the period coincident with the rapid growth of the chilled and frozen meat industry, but the increased use of leather in many directions may be mainly responsible for the higher cost of the raw material, although it is obvious that the concentration of the chief supplies of hides in a few lands must tend to increase the severity of the competition among buyers. ”

“ The leather manufacture of Great Britain is equal in importance and utility to any other department of our industry, and inferior in point of value and extent only to those of cotton, wool, and iron. “If we look abroad on the instruments of husbandry, on the implements used in most of the mechanic trades, on the structure of a multitude of engines and machines ”

“ From the standpoint of chemical industry hides are amongst the most important of animal proteins, and their transformation into leather for boots, shoes, belting, straps, harness, and bags comprises the "heavy leather trade," which is one of the largest and most vital industries of the country. The heavy leather trade predominates over other branches of leather manufacture, not only because of the comparatively large weight and value of the material handled, but also because the resulting products have a more essential utility. ”

“ The quality of leather often used in saddles is simply an insult to the judgment of the fraternity, and if we will go on in blindly taking any and everything that is offered, the imposition will continue. If buyers scrutinize closely, the makers will be proportionately careful, thus making it harder for unscrupulous tradesmen to foist poor work upon the market, an evil which has existed and will increase as the industry advances. ”

“ The interchange of raw hides between various countries, and even between those where leather manufacture is an important industry, is somewhat remarkable, and only goes to prove that the concentration of a particular industry in one or two centres of the world gives these places a great advantage in regard to labour, organisation, and technical skill, even over those countries where the raw material is plentiful. ”

“ The same may be said with regard to the manufacture of leather. Our hides and skins either rot upon the fences, or are gathered up and sold mostly to men who ship them to other countries to be tanned and worked up into harness and boots and shoes, which are brought back for you to wear ”

“ Patent leathers must be creamed and rubbed with a chamois cloth or linen or flannel rag after all mud and dust have first been removed. This operation should be repeated daily. Some men maintain that patent leathers should be varnished as soon as they come home from the bootmaker, but I disagree with them. A varnished patent leather has always a cheap look, and the coat of veneer is only applied as a last resort, to hide the cracks. Russet boots and shoes are treated daily with the special cream sold for them, which can be obtained at any bootmaker's or shoe shop. ”

“ In addition to cattle hides, sheep, and goat skins, which are the main supply of raw material for leather, other kinds of hides and skins are utilised. Horse hides, which, in the United Kingdom, are graded according to size and quality in four or five selections and sold by the piece, are largely used on the Continent, and especially in Germany; nearly all of the British production being sold to that country. ”

“ The art of the leather manufacturer is principally directed to overcoming the tendency to putrefaction, securing suppleness in the material, rendering it impervious to and unalterable by water, and increasing the strength of the skin and its power to resist wear and tear.
Leather is made by three processes or with three classes of substances. Thus we have (1) tanned leather, in which the hides and skins are combined with tannin or tannic acid; (2) tawed leather, in which the skins are prepared with mineral salts ”

“ Their company was in existence in 1309, and they have a hall in the Vintry. The Leather-sellers have an active and flourishing guild, which is first mentioned in 1372, when their probi homines or bonz gentz petitioned for some regulations for the prevention of the sale of fraudulent leather. By the charter of{208} James I. they have the full oversight of "skins and felts called buff leather, shamoy leather, Spanish leather, and that of stags, bucks, calves, sheep, lambs, kids frized or grained, dressed in oil, allum, shoemack, or bark or rawed." ”

“ When we come to add to this the value of the leather for harness-making, for belting and the other purposes for which leather is used, we have over $2,000,000 taken annually from the people of this city for leather, and its fabrics. ”

“ And so to the kindly old McCarthy Peter and Nat entrusted their fortunes.
“I do believe we are going to like it at this factory, after all,” announced Peter to Nat. “Certainly we shall not want for excitement. There is the chance to invent a better patent leather varnish which will dry indoors; there is the chance to learn the mystery of making patent leather despite Tolman; and there is the daily liability of having to tear out into the yard and rescue the stock from a sudden shower. It is going to be great sport, Nat!” ”

“ Most of the skins of wild animals are dressed without removing the hair or fur, and this is quite a distinct trade from leather manufacture, the only exception being the dressing of closely cut and fine-haired calf skins for slippers and fancy articles.
Practically every country in the world contributes to the supply of hides and skins, but there are a few 6 countries which are far in advance of the others in the industries of cattle and sheep-raising. ”

“ I must here be understood to confine my approbation to the articles manufactured from leather tanned in a regular manner, and not that paltry brown-paper-like rubbish manufactured in pots and pans by indigent natives, who often work up a skin within the third or fourth day after its being stripped from some starved sheep, or goat; but which leather may always be distinguished by a narrow streak of white, that is, of raw hide, remaining in the middle of its thickness. ”

“ Leather substitutes, or so-called artificial leather, is well adapted for beginners in upholstery, and is inexpensive. It is manufactured in 50 and 54-inch widths, and costs from 60 cents to $1.75 per yard. Trade names of leather substitute are Marokene, Chase Leather, Hercules, Victor Leather, Pantasote, Mole Skin, Mule Skin, etc. The better varieties are very durable and very closely resemble leather. Genuine leather costs from 16 to 36 cents per square foot in the whole hide or full skin, and up to 75 cents per foot cut to size. ”

“ Various finishes are given to leather, such as seal grain, buff, glove grain, oil grain, satin calf, russet, plain shoe, etc.
Upper leathers are blacked by rubbing with a mixture of lampblack and oil or tallow, or with a solution of copperas and logwood.
No tanning process, no matter how good or thorough, can make firm, serviceable, [39] wear-resisting leather out of all portions of any hide, because nature made some parts of every hide porous, spongy, and lacking in fibrous strength. ”

“ There, it is no uncommon thing for eight or ten months to be employed in tanning a stock of leather, and some of the heaviest leather, it is said, takes fourteen and eighteen months. Such deliberation undoubtedly insures a fine quality of leather, but it may be questioned whether there is not a great loss of weight—a loss of interest on capital, and in consequence an unnecessary enhancement of price, which does not suit the American market. ”

“ Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander Pope) —is not a method of preparing hides and 6 skins from fresh-slaughtered animals, but a complex of processes for treating leather already tanned. These processes include smoothing the leather, paring it down to even thickness overall, especially working fatty matter into it for pliancy and water resistance, and giving it whatever surface dressing, color, and finish its intended use calls for. Prominent among such uses in the eighteenth century were shoe uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery, trunkmaking, and bookbinding. ”

“ Calfskins you know all about too; they run light in weight anyway and, you remember, only need to be trimmed down to uniform thickness before [Pg 207] tanning and dyeing. Patent calf is a heavy, air-tight leather which has been known to crack,” whispered McCarthy with a wink, “but if it doesn’t it wears well. Our best patent leather, though, is made from kid——”
“Which in reality is goat,” interrupted Peter.
“True enough. So it is. Well, patent kid, as we call it, is not only light weight and elastic, but it is also porous. In fact, it is the only patent leather made that is not air-tight. ”

“ This chrome-tanned leather, which, we are proud to say was made commercially possible in America, is cheaper, more durable, easier to manufacture, holds its shape better, and, in every other respect, is superior to bark-tanned leather of former years. ”

“ It is somewhat remarkable, in view of the good demand that exists for the leather, especially in England and Germany, that no firm outside Russia has thought it worth while to produce the genuine article. The tannage would be particularly serviceable for bookbinding leather, as the oil of the birch has both insecticidal and antiseptic properties. ”

“ If light leathers are being considered, it is ready for immediate leaching, i.e. to be infused with water in preparation of a liquor. If heavy leathers are in process of manufacture, he would be a very wasteful tanner who would extract his material raw. It must be borne in mind that when an infusion is made with fresh tanning material, the liquor begins to deposit decomposition products after standing a day or two, and the object of the heavy-leather tanner is to get this material deposited in the leather, to fill the pores, produce weight and make a firm, tough product. ”

“ Currying of the Lighter Leathers.—The duty of the currier is not solely directed towards heavier leathers; he is also entrusted with the dressing and fitting of the lighter leathers for the shoemaker, coachbuilder, saddler, &c. He has to pare the leather down and reduce inequalities in thickness, to impregnate it with fatty matter in order to render it soft and pliable, and to give it such a surface dressing, colour and finish as will please the eye and suit the purposes of its consumers. ”

“ Germany was not the only country prepared to employ substitutes. When the National Army in the United States was organized the Wall Street Journal predicted that on account of the large consumption of leather for military purposes, the civilian population would be obliged to have thinner soles and probably to use leather substitutes:
"Price fixing on leather is still 'in the air.' It is not an easy proposition, in view of the complexity of grades and the variations in quality. ”

“ The ‘grain leather’ of commerce is leather that has been made from the hides of neat cattle, split so thin by the splitting-machine as to be suitable for the same uses as are goat, calf, and various other skins which it is made to imitate. ”

“ The shoemaker usually buys his leather from the manufacturer; and procures his tools, tacks, and various other articles of a similar nature, at the finding stores. In some cases, the shoemaker with little or no capital, gets his materials from the leather-cutter, who makes it a business to supply them ready cut to the proper size and shape. There are, however, but few leather-cutters in our country; but, in England, this branch of trade is one of considerable importance, and is frequently connected with that of the leather-dresser. ”

“ In the near future it is to be hoped that some recognised public body, such as one of the great City Companies interested in leather, may be induced to establish a standard, and to test such leathers as are submitted to them, hall-marking those that come up to the standard. ”

“ They can manufacture sheep-skins by this process, into leather, in six or eight days, which not only resembles calf-skin, but for boots and shoes it is preferred by those who have worn them, on account of its being more durable, and softer than calf manufactured in the old way. By this method of tanning, there is a great saving. One hundred sheep-skins can be tanned for 37 to 50 cents, while to bark tan them would incur an expense of at least $6.
Patent leather is manufactured out of sheep-skins, which is said to be more durable and less liable to crack than that made of bark-tanned leather. ”

“ When a calf-skin is tanned and dressed, that is, softened by the application of some lubricating substance, shaven or cleaned, and then blacked, it is said to be finished. To make it patent leather, it requires another process; to wit, that of varnishing. While all patent leathers are finished skins, it is quite clear that all finished skins are not patent leather. ”

“ When a shipment arrives the skins are sorted: the cowhides and those to be tanned in chrome coming here, and the heavy skins and those to be tanned in oak or hemlock being sent on to Elmwood, where all the sole leather is made. The hides vary in weight, ranging from twenty-five to sixty pounds. There are skins of steers, horses, buffaloes, walrus, bulls, and oxen. The strongest and most perfect ones are made into belting to run the machinery of factories. Leather for this purpose, as you can easily see, must be of equal strength in every part to withstand the great strain put upon it. ”