Lime! (No Not the Round Green Kind)

[omly]

I former student contacted me recently to ask about the use of lime for tanning, as she is tanning a goat skin to make a drum. Seriously, I love when students bring random chemistry questions from their lives to me. Finding out the answers is fascinating. In case you too were wondering about this, there is a great, short, and easy to read article on that here originally published in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry.

Comments

[mrpet.livejournal.com]

Drums use raw hide not tanned. I limed an entire moose hide (64 sqft) once. I didn't have a good source of Lye to slip the hair and I knew that slaked lime would also work. Liming a hide to slip the hair also changes the texture of the hide. It make it harder and thicker. Shoe leather starts with a lime process.

[omly.livejournal.com]

Neat, I will pass that knowledge along.

[yuggoth.livejournal.com]

Saved by the buoyancy of citrus.