In the West of England, much heavy leather is still manufactured from South American hides, which are tanned with a large proportion of valonia; and which consequently are heavily bloomed. No attempt is made to remove this bloom, which would too much lessen the weight and firmness, but the goods, after a light oiling to preserve the colour, are hung up and partially dried, and are then laid in pile to temper. The grain side is now wet with soap and water, with which a little oil is often mixed, and the bloom is “struck in” with the pin or machine; a somewhat blunt pin being used, or a blunt tool in the striking machine; which is held at such an angle as to smooth and compress the grain without taking too much hold on it. After a little further drying, the striking is generally repeated, the goods are washed over with water, and rolled “on.” They are now coloured with a mixture of pigment colour, generally containing a large proportion of whitening, or sometimes of French chalk coloured with ochres, chrome-yellow and orange, or whatever may suit the tint preferred by the tanner, or best imitate the colour of a clean-scoured tannage, and usually mixed with size and oil, or sometimes with oil and tan liquor. This mixture is well rubbed in, and smoothed over with a cloth, and then polished by brushing, when the goods are “rolled off,” rapidly dried, and again brushed. If the work has been well done, it is not easy to distinguish from clean scouring, and is much cheaper. [Illustration: FIG. 42.--Brushing Machine.] A method intermediate between this and the first described, and which was formerly much used in London, was to proceed as above, but using more water and holding the pin in the first striking so as to scour out as much bloom as possible, and assisting this by the free use of water and the brush. Instead of using an opaque pigment-colour, the goods were generally coloured either between striking and the first rolling, or between the two rollings, with a transparent colour, such as dissolved annatto, or a mixture of aniline dyes, so as to conceal the traces of bloom, and to render slight damages to the grain less conspicuous.