Waterproofing rawhide

[Tarbicus]

Came across a quote here: http://www.historylink102.com/greece3/clothing.htm

After being scraped, only rawhide remained. Oils were applied to soften the rawhide. The rawhide was then soaked in water and oak bark for weeks to waterproof the leather. It was then cut and formed into sandals and other materials.

Anyone know any more, or come across it before?

[Robert Vermaat]

If I soak rawhide in water for more than 3-4 hours or so, it becomes really weak and begin to stink really foul!!!

[Tarbicus]

I'm sure it was pretty rank! I'm thinking there must be something in the oak bark that gets super-saturated into the rawhide and leaves it waterproof, hence the weeks of soaking. If it worked it would answer a lot of questions, and assuage a lot of doubts about its practicality as a scutum layer (amongst other things), given the usual way of waterproofing is encaustic paint or beeswax, which somehow don't feel quite satisfactory enough.

[Robert Vermaat]

Maybe the rawhide was thicker, and maybe what I used was already treated somehow? I really don't know how they make these dog chewies.

[Martin Moser]

Came across a quote here: http://www.historylink102.com/greece3/clothing.htm

After being scraped, only rawhide remained. Oils were applied to soften the rawhide. The rawhide was then soaked in water and oak bark for weeks to waterproof the leather. It was then cut and formed into sandals and other materials.

Anyone know any more, or come across it before?

To me this sounds like a incomplete and amateurish description of vegetable tanning if anything. Otherwise one would have to assume that Greeks wore shoes made of rawhide ... come on :roll:

[Tarbicus]

Which was why I was asking if anyone knew more about the subject - you never know until you ask :roll: . A more educated piece on bark tanning: http://www.braintan.com/barktan/1basics.htm

So the rawhide would simply be turned into tanned leather using this process, which explains the shoe connection in a roundabout way.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Oak bark is full of tannic acid. This would for sure bark tan the rawhide making leather.

I know several guys who bark tan deer hides every fall by using this method. Stinking isnt the word for it! hock:

[Memmia]

Oak bark also contains terpenes which would also waterproof the leather.

[Martin Moser]

Oak bark also contains terpenes which would also waterproof the leather.

I very much doubt that - otherwise all oak bark (vegetable) tanned leather would be waterproof. To my knowledge vegetable tanned leather just simply isn't waterproof without further treatment.

[Memmia]

Oak bark also contains terpenes which would also waterproof the leather.

I very much doubt that - otherwise all oak bark (vegetable) tanned leather would be waterproof. To my knowledge vegetable tanned leather just simply isn't waterproof without further treatment.

Hi Martin,

Theoretically it should work (from a biological point of view), but as you stated from experience, it doesn't ! wink:
Just out of curiosity, what does the process smell like ?

P.S. Jim, nice link (braintan)

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Memmia,

I can speak from experience that tanning of any method smells. The last hide I tanned was a moose hide that we soaked in a lye solution for 2 weeks to get the hair to slip. Imagine a skin soaking in water laden with wood ashes sealed in a plastic barrel :!: Then you cook brains with liver to make a paste to smear into this.

[Tarbicus]

I can speak from experience that tanning of any method smells. The last hide I tanned was a moose hide that we soaked in a lye solution for 2 weeks to get the hair to slip. Imagine a skin soaking in water laden with wood ashes sealed in a plastic barrel :!: Then you cook brains with liver to make a paste to smear into this.

Some people just get the best things to do.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

:wink: It was all in the quest of having the most authentic kit..............needless to say I am willing to compromise now LOL

[M. Demetrius]

Yo, Paulus, did the same thing, and promised myself I'd just buy leather from now on. Scraping the slimy bits of flesh off the inside layer of deerhide, scraping the remaining hair off, getting all of that all over my hands from fingers to elbows...well, I'm a city boy, and that's not my style of entertainment.

Even with chlorine bleach washing my hands, it was like three days before I couldn't smell the decomposing deer icky. Then after all that, there's the softening process (I can't believe the ancients often CHEWED THE HIDES to make them softer. Yow! ) hock:

Yep, leather at regular price is better than that process, says I.

[Memmia]

Then you cook brains with liver to make a paste to smear into this.

MMMMMMmmm!!!!!!!!

Fois gras anyone ?

That all sounds pretty rancid, I think I can guess what the smell is like now.

I bet it's a smell that stays in your nostrils for weeks, like raw chicken that has been left in a dustbin for 5 days in hot weather, but on a bigger scale hock: