intended for leggings and gaiters a flesh finish is given. The skins are
soaked, stretched, shaved and sumached. They are then rinsed, drained,
sammed and stained. A brown stain mixed with linseed jelly is usual.
This is spread evenly over the flesh and glassed in. The skins are dried
out, restained if necessary, and staked to raise a nap. Basils for
gaiters are dyed in paddle and fluffed over the emery wheel.
Skivers are split in the limed state and sometimes immediately
degreased. They are next puered at 85° F. for about 3 hours in a paddle,
and scudded. They are drenched at a low temperature (68°-70° F.), but
often 2 or 3 days. They are again scudded and then rinsed and sent to
tan. The skivers are tanned in a few days by sumach liquors working the
goods up from mellow to fresh as usual. The liquors are warmed. Care
must be taken that the goods do not tear. A great variety of finish is
possible, but the "paste grain skiver" for fancy goods and the plain
finish for hat leathers are sufficiently typical. For paste grains they
are soaked and "cleared" for dyeing by immersion in very weak sulphuric
acid, excess of which is carefully washed out with water. Paddle-dyeing
follows, and is preferred to drum dyeing as the skins are so liable to
tear. After being struck out they are "pasted," by spreading on to the
flesh a glue jelly, using first the hand, then a stiff brush and finally
a cloth. The goods are then dried out. They are then seasoned, partly
dried and printed cross-grain. They are next grained two ways lightly;
shank to shank, and across, lightly tooth-rolled and glazed. They are
regrained two ways as before, dried out, and finally softened with a
graining board. They are sometimes sized on the grain to fix the pattern
and give a gloss. For hat leathers the skins are first soaked, sumached
and struck out. If for white or cream finishes they are now
lead-bleached. This consists of pigment dyeing with lead sulphate. They
are immersed alternately in lead acetate and in sulphuric acid solutions
until precipitation is sufficient. They are then dyed to shade. If for
browns it is common to mordant with titanium and use basic dyestuffs,
paddling afterwards in sumach to fix the dye. After dyeing the goods are
struck out again, starched, and dried out on boards. They are again
starched and rolled to give the plain finish.
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