Chapter XXXV: Section VI: Combination Tannages

The formation of leather being due to the adsorption of colloidogenic substances at the interface of the tanning liquor and the hide gel, there is the obvious possibility that several such substances may be used simultaneously, and that the resulting leather may be due to the combined effect of these substances. Indeed, the average vegetable tannage consists of such a combination tannage, each tanning material contributing its own individual tannin and characteristic astringent non-tannins. There is evidently also the possibility that the different _types_ of tannage discussed above might be used either simultaneously or successively, and that a leather might be obtained which combines to some extent the qualities of each of the types in combination. It is such a case that is generally called a "combination tannage." There are many conceivable combinations, and in this section will be chiefly discussed a few which have demonstrated some commercial possibilities. Some of these have already received notice in the preceding sections. The manufacture of curried dressing leathers is a combination of vegetable and fat tannages. The manufacture of waterproof chrome uppers illustrates a combination of chrome and fat tannages. The use of "syntans" in conjunction with vegetable tanning materials is also a combination tannage. The case of chamois leather is possibly a combination of aldehyde tannage with fatty acid tannage. Two-bath chrome leather is a combination of chrome, sulphur and fat tannage. Formaldehyde and vegetable tannage is also a known possibility. It is clear that there are possibilities of endless complexity, and that what normally may appear as a simple tannage is in reality a very complex combination tannage. From this standpoint one might instructively consider the successive adsorptions involved in a goatskin tanned first with syntans, then with oak bark, "retanned" in sumac, mordanted with chrome, dyed with coal-tar dyestuffs and finally oiled with linseed oil. It will be easily seen that in a very strict sense nearly all tannages are combinations.

Usually, however, the term "combination tannage" is confined to those cases where the main tanning agents not only differ in type, but where none are in predominant quantity. A typical case is that of "semichrome leather," in which a vegetable tannage is succeeded by a chrome tannage. E.I. tanned sheep and goat skins are rather heavily "stripped" of their vegetable tannage and heavy oiling, by drumming with warm soda solutions, and after washing with water are chromed with the one-bath process; they are neutralized, dyed, fat liquored and finished for glacé upper leather.

In a precisely similar way kips and split hides which have received vegetable tannage are stripped and retanned in chrome and finished as for box calf, of which they are a good imitation. Such vegetable-chrome combination tannages possess many of the properties of chrome leather.

To chrome the pelt first and afterwards to subject it to vegetable tannage is also an obvious possibility, but has not yet been made a commercial success in this country, but has been increasingly used in the U.S.A. during the War.

Another typical case of combination tannage is the dongola leather produced by the use of gambier and of alum and salt. This is a vegetable-alum combination, and yields a good quality leather for light uppers, gloves, etc. Goatskins for "glazed dongola" are paddled tanned in gambier liquors, and alum and salt are subsequently added. They are tanned in 24 hours, well washed, and are fat liquored without ageing. The E.I. tanned skins may also be stripped with soda, and retanned in alum and salt, using flour also if desired. Dull dongola are first tawed and then retanned in gambier liquor. "Suède" and "velvet calf" are also tawed and retanned with gambier.

Yet another case of combination tannage is that of sheepskins for glacé uppers, which are first tawed thoroughly with alum, salt and flour and dried out for sorting, and are then retanned in chrome by the one-bath process, and finished as usual. Closely related to this is the method of "pickling" in alum and salt and then chrome tanning.

Another case is the combined one-bath, two-bath method of chrome tanning. The goods are chromed by a one-bath liquor containing dichromate (say 2 per cent.), and then pass into a reducing bath. There is not much advantage in such procedure, however.

From a strictly commercial point of view the "dongola" and "semichrome" leathers have proved the most successful combination tannages, but there seem to be possibilities in combinations of the vegetable tannins with synthetic tanning materials.

Many other substances are known to tan, _e.g._ iron salts, cerium salts, sulphur, quinones, fatty acids, the halogens, etc., etc.; hence there is always the possibility that new useful combination tannages may be discovered.

REFERENCES.

Bennett, "Manufacture of Leather," pp. 243, 374-5.

Procter, "Principles of Leather Manufacture," p. 236.