Hide, given
to time.
No chrome, no drum in an afternoon — raw hides lie in oak-bark liquors for months until the tannin strikes clean through. Leather that ages instead of wearing out.
Raw hide,
struck through.
Chrome tanning takes a day; a pit takes the better part of a year. The hide lies in ever-stronger oak-bark liquors while the tannin creeps in from both faces toward the core. Only when it strikes clean through is it leather. Scroll, and let it strike.
Bark, water, and patience.
Soak & lime
Salted hides are soaked back to soft, then limed to loosen the hair and open the fibre. Scudded clean, they are ready to take the tan.
The bate
A gentle bate relaxes the limed hide and brings it to a silky, receptive state. Rushed here, the leather stays hard and dead.
The pits
Down into the suspenders, then the handlers, then layered between oak bark in the deep pits — from weak liquor to strong, month after month, until the tan strikes through.
Dry & curry
Drawn out, slowly dried, then curried and stuffed with oils and tallow by hand. Fed well, the leather comes up firm, full, and alive.
Leather that ages well.
Bridle, sole, harness and case leather — bark-tanned and curried by hand.
Pits, bark, and long years.
We tan the slow way — hides suspended and layered in oak and mimosa bark liquors, pit-tanned over months until the tan strikes through, then curried and fed by hand. Nothing is drummed, nothing is chromed, nothing is hurried. We tan small lots, and we finish every hide by hand.
Ask the yard.
Tell us the use — bridle, sole, bag or belt — and the weight, and we will suggest a hide and a price.