Leather is a material that people began to process one of the first. Initially, animal skins were made only in the roughest way. Gradually, such clothes became more attractive and comfortable. Even later woven products did not replace people with fur coats, shoes, belts. In ancient times, only small workshops were mainly engaged in the manufacture of leather products. Today, such clothes, shoes and accessories are made in an industrial way. Today, tanneries are very well developed both throughout the world and in Russia. At the same time, our country is one of the largest consumers of such material in the world.
Definition of leather production
Compared to other materials used to make clothes, shoes and accessories, leather has simply unique properties. The skin of an animal is a very complex biological system that simply ideally protects it from adverse environmental factors. And the same properties are, of course, possessed by clothes and shoes made from such material. They also protect their owner well from moisture, low temperatures, etc.
Tannery refers to the process of dressing animal skins to a state suitable for the manufacture of clothing, shoes and accessories. Plants of this specialization are today equipped with the most modern equipment and produce their products using innovative technologies.
The use of animal skins in antiquity
The history of leather production has more than one millennium. The skins of animals killed well protected from the weather of a primitive man. Such clothes made the life of cavemen more comfortable, but, unfortunately, did not last long. Under the influence of moisture and temperature changes, the skins very quickly deteriorated. Over time, people have learned to extend such material to life by making it. Unfortunately, it is still unknown when exactly the first leather products processed in this way appeared.
But still, scientists managed to find out that such clothes and shoes were quite popular in Ancient Egypt as far back as the 5th century. BC. In this country, once the skins were previously dried in a stretched form. Further, fat was carefully rubbed into their surface. At the next stage, the skins were kneaded until softened. From the resulting durable and fairly attractive material, then they did:
- clothes and shoes;
- belts for various purposes;
- shelves, cases;
- parchment;
- boats;
- temporary dwellings.
Later, methods of artistic processing of the skin were also invented. In the Valley of the Kings in Egypt were found, for example, embroidered clothes of priests from this material, decorated with gold sandals, various expensive household items with engraving.
In the Renaissance, among other things, such a method of decorating the skin as exquisite embossing was invented. Then the masters came up with the technique of gilding such material. Even later, French artists began to decorate the skin with beautiful applications.
In Russia, dressed skins have also been popular since ancient times. In the old days, such workshops in our country worked everywhere. For example, archaeologists in Novgorod on the Slavic Hill opened a leather workshop of the XII century. In the ancient structure excavated by them, scientists discovered a tub for soaking hides, preparing leather, shoes.
When did they begin to process it industrially?
In Europe, artisanal skin was made until the middle of the 18th century. The first factory of this specialization was opened in France, in Alsace in 1749. Massively large and medium-sized production of leather clothes, shoes and accessories in Europe began to open only at the beginning of the XIX century.
In Russia, tanneries or, as they were called then, “yards”, existed already from the 17th century. For example, a similar enterprise was opened in Moscow on the orders of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1668. Skins at this tanning factory were made in huge pits lined with bricks. At that time, skin dressing technologies were developed in Russia that survived until the beginning of the 20th century.
In the XIX century. The “yards” of Russia produced the best leather in the world, which is very popular in Europe, America and Asia. This material was imported abroad in those days simply in huge quantities. After the revolution and the creation of the USSR, natural leather products in our country, unfortunately, became a big deficit. Afford such clothes and shoes could only well-off people.
Leather in Russia today
Immediately after the perestroika, a leather boom literally swept over our country. Products from this material, traditionally very popular in Russia, began to import numerous “shuttles” into the markets and into the newly opened boutiques. Similar products in our country in subsequent years did not become less in demand. Today, Russia is almost the main producer and consumer of leather products in the world.
Manufacturing these days: varieties of material
Each skin is a truly unique material. Its properties depend on the type of animal from which it was obtained, its age, features of keeping and feeding, and used dressing techniques. In Russia, at the moment, all the technologies of leather production GOST 3123-78 are regulated. Therefore, products of this type in our country are produced quite high quality. There are currently many types of leathers in Russia and the world:
- saddlery - a rough skin of cattle, pigs and horses, used for the manufacture of belts;
- yuft - material of combined tanning made from thinner skins of pigs, cattle or horses;
- props - soft, strong skin with a glossy front surface, obtained from the skins of calves up to 6 months;
- outgrowth - also quite soft skin made from the skins of calves up to 1 g;
- half-leather - an even thicker and slightly coarser material made from cattle skins under the age of one and a half years;
- cowhide and goby - skin produced from the skins of young heifers and gobies older than one and a half years;
- Chevro and goat - a material with a peculiar beautiful fine-grained pattern obtained by tanning goat skins;
- Chevret - tanned sheep skin (less durable than goatskin);
- pigskin - material with a rough coarse-grained surface, having through holes from the bristles;
- suede - skins of deer, elk, sheep, wild goats, processed by fat tanning;
- velor - a material produced from a bowel, a chevro, a goat, a chevret or pigskin.
Also distinguish such types of leather products as light nubuck, husky, lacquer material.
Core Processing Technologies
Thus, modern industry produces, in this way, just a huge amount. The varieties discussed above are produced by tanning or fatliquoring. It is these skins that are currently the most common on the market. But sometimes animal skins can be processed using other technologies. In addition to tanned, currently distinguish skin:
In the leather industry in Russia, as well as throughout the world, all three of these skinning techniques can be used.
Tanning and oiling
The skin of any animal consists of three layers, which in the process of dressing are either transformed or removed. Outside, such material covers the epithelium. The middle layer of the skin is considered the main. It is formed by collagenous protein molecules. The lower fat layer of the skin has a loose structure. It is he who during the dressing process is removed to a certain thickness.
The middle collagen layer in fresh skin remains mobile. That is why such a material is flexible and elastic. After a certain period of time, the fibers of the middle layer begin to dry and stick together in a continuous mass. As a result, the skin becomes tough and brittle. To prevent this from happening, during the production process, special substances are introduced into the middle layer of this material - tanning agents or fats, which do not allow the fibers to lose elasticity and stick together.
What is raw material
Currently, in the leather industry, animal skins are processed primarily by tanning. But sometimes, an ancient technique for making rawhide can be used these days . Such material is considered to be better than tanned, and it is usually made using this technology:
- the skin is washed and flesh (remove the fat layer);
- remove hair from the skin by scraping;
- thoroughly knead the skin with your hands, stretching it along the board or steel corner, as well as twisting in different directions, until softened.
The skin thus made subsequently becomes slightly slippery when wet. To prevent this from happening, at the final stage it is fattened or impregnated with special substances.
Raw skin
This technology is rarely used today in the leather industry. Such material is also called goley. Raw skin is made by a fairly simple technique. In this case, only the hair and the lower fat layer are removed from the skin of the animal. After drying, such skin is horny. Use this material in our time for the manufacture of whips for racehorses, membranes of some musical instruments, parts of looms.
The main centers of leather production in Russia and the world
In our country, enterprises of this specialization work in many regions. For example, leather and leather products are produced by such plants as:
- Volgograd leather.
- Yaroslavsky.
- Taganrog.
- Bogorodsky.
- Tver.
- Rybinsk, etc.
Of course, this branch of light industry is well developed in our time and in many other countries of the world. The main centers for the production of leather raw materials on the planet, in addition to Russia, today are:
- Bangladesh (Hazaribah market town).
- China.
- India.
- Southern Europe.
The total number of workers engaged in the pure manufacture of leather, then going to the production of clothes, shoes and accessories, in the world is currently equal to 500 thousand people.