Chapter 5 Leather
ROY THOMSON
Consultant in Leather Science and Conservation, Oundle, Peterborough PE8 4EJ, UK
1 INTRODUCTION
It has been suggested that the hides and skins of animals, killed for food were
used for clothing, shelter and other purposes by our hominid ancestors some
2 million years ago, long before the evolution of Homo sapiens. The fact that
Neanderthal Man not only survived during the last ice age, about 100,000
years ago, but expanded during that period into the bleak tundra regions of
Northern Europe and Central Asia indicates that the dressing of skins for
the production of warm, protective clothing and tent coverings had been
developed to a high order. Evidence of the arrival of Cro Magnon Man in
Europe 35,000–40,000 years ago, includes the discovery of many types of skin-
workingtools such as scrapers, burnishers, knives and awls made from bone
or stone. Many are of such delicate construction that it can be surmised that the
art of producing soft, flexible leathers had been completely mastered. Indeed the
types and range of leather-working tools uncovered suggest that in some
regions, 20,000 years ago, leather-making techniques were at least as advanced
as those employed during the nineteenth century by Native Americans and
peoples from Central Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, that the production
of leather has been described as “man’s first manufacturing process”.
2 The Nature and Properties of Leather
The skin of an animal can be transformed into a variety of products having a
wide range of characteristics. Leather and other skin-based materials can be
hard or soft, flexible or rigid, stiff or supple, thick or thin, limp or springy. A
leather ideal for glove-making for instance would not be suitable at all for
shoe soling. The properties of any particular material will depend both on the