The Origins of Leather Making
Leather has been part of human life for thousands of years. From hand-painted drumheads to finely bound books and everyday items like shoes and footballs, leather tells a long story of creativity, survival, and innovation.
Leather making is one of humanity’s oldest crafts, dating back more than 7,000 years. Early humans quickly learned that untreated animal skins would rot, so they developed simple preservation methods. Fresh hides were sun-dried, smoked, or salted, then softened by rubbing or pounding them with animal fats and even brains. These techniques made skins flexible and usable for clothing, shelter, and tools.
By around 400 BCE, major advancements emerged. The Egyptians and Hebrews developed vegetable tanning, a process that used natural tannins from plants to preserve hides more permanently. This breakthrough transformed leather into a durable material suitable for long-term use.
During the Middle Ages, Arab craftsmen preserved and refined leather-making knowledge. Their innovations led to famous luxury leathers such as morocco and cordovan (named after Córdoba, Spain), which were prized throughout Europe. By the 15th century, leather tanning had spread widely across Europe again, supporting trades such as bookbinding—like the beautifully tooled leather-covered Bible bound in Nuremberg in 1478.
The 19th century marked a turning point. Power-driven machines were introduced to handle tasks like splitting, fleshing, and dehairing hides. Toward the end of the century, chemical tanning methods appeared, using materials such as oak, sumac, hemlock bark, and chrome salts.
Modern Leather Making
Today, leather production is a highly organized industrial process, though many traditional techniques are still used—especially in famous tanneries like those in Fès, Morocco.
Modern leather making happens in three main phases:
-
Preparation
-
Tanning
-
Processing and finishing
Preparing the Hide
Once an animal hide is removed, it must be preserved quickly. Without treatment, a hide can begin decomposing within hours. To prevent this, hides are air-dried, salted, or pickled with acids and salts before being shipped to a tannery.
At the tannery, hides are soaked to restore softness and shape. Hair is removed through liming, where hides are immersed in lime and water. Machines then remove hair, flesh, and tissue. The hide is washed, delimed, and bated, an enzymatic process that improves softness and color.
The Tanning Process
The word tanning comes from tannin, an acid that bonds leather fibers together and replaces water within the hide.
-
Vegetable tanning is the oldest method and is still used today. Plant extracts from bark, roots, leaves, and seed husks are made into tanning liquids. Hides soak in increasingly strong solutions for weeks or even months, producing firm, water-resistant leather.
-
Mineral tanning uses mineral salts and is much faster, often taking only hours or days. Chromium salts are the most common, though aluminum and zirconium salts are also used. This method creates soft, flexible leather and is widely used for light leather goods.
-
Oil tanning is one of the oldest techniques and uses fish oil or similar fats worked into dried hides. This method produces chamois leather, which remains soft even after repeated wetting and drying.
Modern tanneries also use synthetic tanning agents (syntans) derived from phenols and hydrocarbons to achieve specific leather qualities.
Finishing the Leather
After tanning, the leather is dried and dyed using methods such as drum dyeing, spraying, brushing, or staining. Oils and greases are added to improve softness, strength, and water resistance.
The leather is then carefully dried to specific moisture levels, stretched, softened, and surface-coated. These finishing steps improve durability and protect the leather from cracking, abrasion, heat, cold, and moisture.
Leather in Everyday Life
Once finished, leather can be transformed into countless products. These include:
-
Shoes and boots
-
Jackets and other apparel
-
Belts and bags
-
Upholstery and suede goods
-
Saddles and gloves
-
Luggage and purses
-
Sports equipment, such as American footballs, traditionally made from cowhide
Leather is also used in industrial items like machine belts and buffing wheels.
A Living Tradition
From ancient drumheads and medieval books to modern fashion and sports gear, leather making is a craft that bridges past and present. While technology has transformed the process, leather remains a material shaped by tradition, skill, and human ingenuity—still as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago.