Once the hide has been prepared, there are three methods that can be used to turn it into leather. A hide can be made into leather by tanning, chamoising, or tawing, and while these processes all differ, they are called "tanning". Tanning gets its name from the tannins that are present in all vegetable matter, and these tannins are used to tan raw hides. This is also why tanned leather is sometimes more specifically referred to as vegetable tanned leather.
Commerical tanning practices place the hides in rotating barrels full of water and tannins for several days. There are also many variations of tanning, each tailored to the specific products the leather being treated will eventually become. Boots, for example, have a slightly different tanning process than wallets.
It usually takes approximately 3 weeks for the tanning material to completely penetrate. The hide is then wrung and is set out to smooth and dry.
Leather can be dried in 5 methods depending on the tanning factories equipment.
One of the most common is air drying where hides are hung and the air circulates around the hide. Related to this is drying by tumbling or air circulating through screens. Two last methods require more sophisticated equipment. In vacuum drying, the leather is spread out with the grain side down on a smooth surface and heat is applied. A vacuum hood is placed over the surface and a vacuum is applied to help in drying the leather. High frequency drying involves the use of a high frequency electromagnetic field to dry the leather.
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