A tanner is basically a person who takes raw animal skins and from them produces leather. This is done to make the skins stronger and more resistant to rotting. Leather good were an essential part of medieval life used in a wide variety of products such as saddles, armor, shoes, liquid sacks (mmm wine skins), scabbards, book covers and so on. In some cases the tanners produced some of the finished goods personally.
Tanners in medieval England tended to work with the skins of cattle (according to one source, those who focused on using sheep, goat or deer pelts are called tawers. Wiki says that this is an entirely different method of preparing skins, though seems to agree on which skins are used) as they were a readily available byproduct of the slaughterhouses. These skins would arrive at the tannery complete with blood and filth, hooves and horns still attached (as the butchers had no use for these bits).
The first step then was to remove the hard parts and wash the skins. Some times this was done in the local stream. Yum. As a side note, the outer portion of the horns were sometimes sold to other craftsmen for making drinking vessels or other goods.
The next step in the process (still not tanning) is to remove the remaining fat, hair and flesh from the skins. There were a few methods for this. The hides were sometimes soaked in a lime or a urine solution. Alternatively, skins could be left in a warm damp place to lightly rot. Once these methods reached the desired stage, the skins would then be scraped clean with a double-edged sharper knife.
After this, the skin needed to be rewashed and "opened." Again, there are a few methods to do this. The hides could be immersed in dog dung or bird droppings. It could also be treated in a solution of barley or rye and stale been or urine (Wiki mentions using brains in solution, but then connects it to a different process, known as "buckskinning"). While seasoning the skins, the various materials are worked into the skins (in some instances with bare feet over a period of hours). After this, the hides are washed again. These processes de-lime the skins and make them softer.
Only at this time does the actual process of tanning begin. The hides are submerged in a solution of crushed oak bark and water. They must be in constant motion to ensure the color spreads evenly through the skin (tie-dye was apparently not in vogue). Then the hides were placed in a pit, layered with ground bark and soaked in a weak tanning solution. Hides could be left in this state for up to eighteen months (!!!!), depending on thickness and intended use.
After tanning, the skins would be rinsed and smoothed before being slowly dried under controlled conditions. Then it would need to be stretched, shaved and made supple (for big operations, usually by a currier) before being sold as a finished product. Simple huh?
Establishing a business like this took a fair amount of capital. The tannery would need a fair sized footprint for the processing of skins, the pits for the curing process and some space for drying. Start up costs would also be an issue since the skins take a fair amount of time for the whole process. Tanneries generated supporting industries and were themselves a result of the boom in butchering. All of their materials, from the tree bark to the piss, needed to be gotten somewhere. See? Mel Brooks' Piss Boy came from somewhere. Who knew Mel was such a history buff?
How much of the before and after of this process is done by the tanner would depend primarily on local economic conditions (and if anyone else wants the work). In small communities, tanning would be one of many hats a man might wear, while in cities it would be a full time job. He may not have been the most popular guy in town (the stench of piss and shit will do that to a guy), but lots of folks were buying what he was selling.
Sources:
http://anthrojournal.com/issue/october-2011/article/the-tanning-industry-of-medieval-britain
http://ossamenta.dreamwidth.org/tag/tanning+essay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanning
Very complex kind of work! Quite interesting!
ReplyDeleteKeep improving our knowledge. =]