Leathercraft

By Edward Thatcher

This antique text contains one of a series of pamphlets known as the 'Merit Badge Library', written with the intention of providing American boy scouts with the information required to attain certain merit badges. The pamphlets cover all kinds of hobbies, activities, and vocations. They are prepared by experts and frequently revised and brought up-to-date. Although designed for the eyes of boy scouts, the information contained herein is relatively detailed and constitutes a great starting point for anyone with an interest in leatherworking as a hobby - a great addition to any collection of leathercraft literature. This text has been picked for modern republication due to its timeless educational value, and we are proud to republish it here complete with a new introduction to the subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473356573

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INTRODUCTION

This is one of a series of pamphlets known as the Merit Badge Library. The pamphlets cover all kinds of hobbies, activities, and vocations, and are prepared by experts and frequently revised and brought up-to-date.

These pamphlets do not attempt to give complete information on every requirement, so you will need to use your own initiative in digging out further information to meet some of the requirements. The pamphlet, however, does tell you how you can secure added information from books on the subject, or from your Counselors and other experts.

Your Merit Badge Counselor is appointed by your Local Council Committee on Scout Advancement. Talk with him before you begin to work on the requirements. He will get you started right. When you and your Counselor are satisfied that you are fully prepared, the Board of Review of your Local Council (or, in larger communities, the District Board of Review) then makes a final check-up—not an examination—to make sure that you have complied with all the requirements. After this, you will receive your Merit Badge at the Court of Honor ceremony. If there is no Committee on Scout Advancement in your community, an Examining Committee of at least three members supervises the Merit Badge requirements.

In meeting the requirements, do more than merely follow the requirements technically. Show that you have a real knowledge of the subject. As you know, this knowledge should be practical rather than just book-learning, and a Scout is ready at any examination to answer questions on previous tests given him, and to show that he is putting the Scout Oath and Law into daily practice.

To increase the value of these pamphlets to you, there is vocational information in connection with many of the subjects. If you have any suggestions on the treatment of any of the Merit Badge subjects, write to the Editorial Service, Boy Scouts of America, 2 Park Avenue, New York 16, N. Y.

LEATHERCRAFT

I

REQUIREMENT No. 1—Know the source and method of preparation of the best grades of leather for craftwork; tell what type of leather is best for each kind of leathercraft (such as tooling, stamping, moccasins, bookmarks, novelties, etc.)

The tanning industry is one of the oldest and most firmly established. Man learned long ago that the hides, skins and furs of the animals would keep him warm in winter and would keep out the wet. The Esquimaux and the Indians are pioneers in the tanning industry, for all skins must be cured in some way or they will dry up or rot and fall to pieces.

The tepees of the Indians and the far northern posts of early fur traders have now become a great modern industry involving millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of men, all over the world. Back and forth goes the great industrial and commercial shuttle, bringing millions of hides to the United States from Russia, Korea, Argentine and other nations, sending them through the American plants and out into the world again as shoes, harness, belts, trunks and bags. One-half of its hides are produced by the United States.

The tanning plants are the great mid-way houses for skins and hides, which come to them green, green-salted, dried or dry-salted. They may come from a country butcher or a farmer or from the slaughtering houses.

The big tanneries consist of many separate buildings; mills, leaching houses, beamhouses, the bark piles, conveyors to deliver the bark to the leaches, and alive with dust, the tanneries themselves, wet and strong-odored with acids, with their vast vats,—these are all part of the plant. Every sort of skin or hide must be treated differently, according to its own nature, its condition, and its future use. The process must be watched with eagle eyes. Putrefaction must be guarded against at every step; the acid baths must last so long and no longer, or the skins will be burned. Finally the hides or skins (large skins, such as those of cattle