Inside a modern leather tannery
Chrome tanning
The video below gives you a nice visit to the Heller Leder tannery in Germany. Notice the blue color of the hides when they come out of the barrel: it’s what we call the “wet blue” state of the hides. The color comes from the chromium salts used in the process of converting raw hides into usable leather. That’s why leather tanned this particular way is called “chrome tanned”.
Vegetable tanning
This is a slightly smaller tannery in Tuscany that uses the “vegetable tanning” method. The tanning ingredients used may differ (in chrome and vegetable tanning) but you'll notice that visually, the steps are almost identical.
Photo credit: the thumbnail image is from Ian at the style blog Squalor to Baller.
