Process of leather tanning at a tannery in Kanpur

The leather making process begins with carefully removing the hide from the flesh of the animal. The hides are then stored in temperature-controlled cool rooms and preserved in salt, and once ready for processing, are sorted by quality and weight. The next step is to soak the hides in large drums so as to remove any remaining dirt, salt, or other materials. The most common method of tanning is chromium-tanning, practiced about 90% of the time worldwide. Chromium-tanning is accomplished by putting the hides in large, rotating drums of water, and then adding the proper amount of chromium salt (a green powder). Continuous agitation of the hides allows for the tanning agent to be evenly distributed. When the tanning process is finished, the hides can officially be called leather. The leather, now the color blue (characteristic of chrome-tanned leather), is taken out of the drums and hung to drain. In order to remove any excess water, the leather is put through large rollers, called samming, and then put through more rollers that shave the leather down to a specified thickness. This ensures that the leather is even in thickness throughout. Next, the leather is put back into the rotating drums to be dyed and “fat-liquored”, natural and/or synthetic oils used to replace the natural greases removed from the hides during the previous processes. Fat-liquoring ensures that the leather fibers will be lubricated once dried. After drying, the leather is mechanically staked in order to soften it and make it suppler. The leather is then ready to be finished. Source: leathersustainability.weebly.com/ This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The collection comprises of 150, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, XDCAM and 4K. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadca