TAWING, the art of dressing skins in white, so as to render them fit for divers manufactures, particularly gloves, &c. All skins may be tawed; but those chiefly used for this purpose are lamb, sheep, kid, and goat skins. The method of tawing is this. The skins having been cleared of wool or hair by means of lime, are laid in a large vat of wood or stone, set on the ground, full of water, in which quicklime has been slaked; where they are allowed to lie a month or six weeks, according as the weather is more or less hot, or as the skins are required to be more or less soft and pliant. While they are in the vat, the water and lime are changed twice, and the skins arc taken out and put in again every day; and when they are taken out for the last time, they are laid all night to soak in a running water, that the greatest part of the lime may be removed; and in the morning are laid together by sixes one upon another, upon a wooden leg, and are scraped stoutly one after another, to get the flesh off from the fleshy side, with a cutting two-handled instrument called a knife; and then they cut off the legs and other superfluous parts about the extremes. They are afterwards laid in a vat or pit with a little water, where they are fulled with wooden pestles for the space of a quarter of an hour; and then the vat is filled up with water, with which they are rinsed.

In the next place, they are thrown on a clean pavement to drain, and afterwards cast into a fresh pit of water, out of which they rinse them well; and they are again laid on the wooden leg, six at a time, with the hair side outermost: after which they rub a kind of whetstone very briskly, to soften and fit them to receive four or five more preparations, given them on the leg both on the flesh side and hair side, with the knife, after the manner above mentioned. After this they are put into a pit of water and wheaten bran, and stirred about in it with wooden poles till the bran is perceived to stick to them, and then they are left. As they rise of themselves to the top of the water by a kind of fermentation, they are plunged down again to the bottom; and at the same time fire is set to the liquor, which bums as easily as if it were brandy, but goes out the moment the skins are all covered. They repeat this operation as often as the skins rise above the water; and when they have done with rising they take them out, lay them on the wooden leg, the fleshy side outwards, and pass the knife over them to scrape off the bran.

Having thus cleared them of the bran, they lay the skins in a large basket, and load them with huge stones to promote the draining; and when they are drained sufficiently, they give them their feeding, which is performed after the manner following. For 100 of large sheep-skins, and for smaller in proportion, they take eight pounds of alum and three of sea-salt, and melt the whole with water in a vessel over the fire, pouring the solution out, while yet lukewarm, into a kind of trough, in which are twenty pounds of the finest wheat-flour, with the yolks of eight dozen of eggs; of all which is formed a kind of paste, a little thicker than children’s pap. This, when prepared, is put into another vessel to be used in the following manner. They pour a quantity of hot water into the trough in which the paste was made, mixing two spoonfuls of the paste with it; to do which they use a wooden spoon that contains just as much as is required for a dozen of skins; and when the whole is well diluted, two dozen of the skins are plunged into it; but they take care that the water be not too hot, which would spoil the paste and burn the skins. After they have lain some time in the trough, they are taken out, one after another, with the hand, and are stretched out. This they do twice; and after they have given them all their paste, they put them into tubs, and there full them afresh with wooden pestles. They then put them into a vat, where they are suffered to lie for five or six days, or more; after which they take them out in fair weather, and hang them to dry on cords or racks; and the quicker they are dried the better; for if they are too long in drying the salt and alum within them are apt to make them rise in a grain, which is an essential fault in this kind of dressing.

When the skins are dry, they are made up into bundles, and just dipt in fair water, and taken out and drained: they are then thrown into an empty tub; and after having lain some time are taken out and trampled under foot. They then draw them over a flat iron instrument, the top of which is round like a battledore, and the bottom fixed into a wooden block, to stretch and open them; and having been opened, they are hung in the air upon cords to dry; and being dry, they are opened a second time, by passing them again over the same instrument. In the last place, they are laid on a table, pulled out, and laid smooth, and are then fit for sale.
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