Leather Workshop

     Leather processing is one of the most ancient crafts known since the Old Stone Age.
   Leather is the one of the first materials people started to process and use. Lots of facts about leather craft in Ancient Egypt can be learnt from the paintings on the walls of tombs. The ways to process and style leather are mentioned in Old Russian chronicles. As far back as the Late Old Age primitive clothes made from simple animal skins were replaced with ones from leather and fur. In the meantime, first styling techniques like embroidery, painting and appliqué appeared. Even the discovery of weaving did not push the leather out of use. It was still needed to make belts, bags, shoes, elements of armour. Right up to the 20th c. the indigenous population of the Far North just cut paws from skins, cleaned them and put them on without any processing. Meanwhile, in the areas with a warm climate skins rotted away too soon. So, people had to process them to preserve. 

     Furthermore, it is necessary to mention that leather was used much in printing. For a good while books were written on the parchment which is basically a frame-dried veal skin. Moreover, leather was used to make book binding.
     Different nations had a plenty of different traditional ways to process leather. But it is possible to narrow them down to three basic types that give essentially different products.
Rawhide is minimally processed untanned skin. It had a very narrow sphere of application.
Buckskin is processed without tanning. Since the ancient times it has been a main material for clothes and shoes making.  
     Tanned skin is made by means of tanning it with oil, vegetable or artificial chemical agents. It has also been known for ages but not so widespread. Whereas, nowadays this type of leather is commonly used. Some historical records state that tanning appeared even earlier than pottery. As far back as in the 4th millennium B.C. in Ancient India the so-called Morocco leather was produced by making a skin bag and filling it with water-dissolved tanning agents.