The Magic Ingredients That Turn Skin Into Leather, Barks, Roots and Leaves for Natural Hide Tanning

Barks, Roots, Fruits, Nuts and Leaves are used for their tannic acid to tan skins. Tannin converts hides permanently into leather. Oak, hemlock, fir, mangrove, wattle, eucalyptus, acorn caps, sumac, pine, spruce, willow and many more have been used all around the world for this process that seems almost magical in it's ability to transform fragile, rot prone skin into a material with much loved unique properties. Natural Leather Tanning relies heavily on these tradtional materials. The full article and list can be read at Http://www.skillcult.com/blog/tanning...

My Playlist of Tanning Videos:    • Home Tanning Skills, Skins and Hides ...  

Full Bark Tanning Process in This Video Series:    • Axe Strops From Scratch Series  

Support on   / skillcult   has been critical in keeping me experimenting and making content. If you want to help me help others, this is probably the best way to do it. Thank you Patrons for supporting the mission!

Buy less, but buy it through my links! Shopping through my affiliate links generates revenue for me, at no extra cost to you, click links here, or go to my Amazon Store page: http://skillcult.com/amazon-store/ But seriously, buy less, do more.

Standard gear I recommend. I either use or have used all of it.

Council Tool Boys Axe: https://amzn.to/3z0muqI
Bahco Farmer's File: https://amzn.to/3Hbdhij
King two sided sharpening stone: https://amzn.to/32EX1XC
Silky f180 saw: https://amzn.to/3yZzM71
ARS 10 foot long reach pruner: https://amzn.to/3esETmM
Victorinox grafting/floral knife: https://amzn.to/3Jki1E9
Wiebe 12” fleshing tool: https://amzn.to/3sB0qSl
Atlas Elbow Gloves: https://amzn.to/3FwB5g6

BOOKS:
The Axe Book, by Dudley Cook: https://amzn.to/32kx7sN
Bushcraft, by Mors Kochanski: https://amzn.to/32q2rpT

Subscribe to my channel for more insightful Self Reliance related content: http://www.youtube.com/skillcult/subs... Click the bell icon to be notified of new content. Subscribing doesn’t mean that much on it’s own.

Blog and website: www.skillcult.com/blog

Instagram and Facebook @SkillCult


Tanning with tannic acid from plants is called vegetable tanning.
The collagen protein in the skin is converted into leather when the tannic acid combines with it permanently. Leather is not longer skin, it is a compound material of tannin and skin. It resists heat better than raw skin, and is remarkably resistant to rotting. Tannic acid is common in the plant world and many different barks, roots, leaves, nuts, fruits and pods are used to convert cattle, deer, elk, buffalo, rabbit, squirrel, goat and sheep skins into leather. Both skins with the hair on and with the hair removed can be vegetable tanned.