Field Trip to Baker's Leather Tannery
Field Trip to Baker's Leather Tannery
We were lucky enough to visit our local Devon tannery and show one of our clients the magic of the tannery whilst they were visiting from Tokyo.
A massive thank you to Andrew at J&FJ Baker & Co for taking so much time to show us around and explain the entire process from raw hide to the finest world renowned and highly sought after oak bark tanned leather.
What an incredible privilege.
The buildings are ancient, as a point of reference, the 'New' Tan Yard is over 120 years old, a lot of the machinery used is also ancient, as are the time honoured techniques of oak bark tanning. This could not be further removed from the automated industrial processes used by modern tanneries to mass produce much of the world's leather.
Sustainable tanning, the old fashioned and chemical free way, with oak bark takes time - over a year to transform each raw hide into the finished article. It is a truly labour intensive, traditional and small scale operation. The leather is hand crafted in small batches, by highly skilled and experienced artisanal tanners. Due to the gentle tannage and full grain nature of this leather preserving all of the natural characteristics, no two hides are the same.
The oak bark is a waste product of the timber industry. It dries for three years before being crushed in a machine powered by a water wheel.
The only other ingredient is time.
Each hide is suspended in the oak bark and water tan liquor for around 12 months. It is this very slow and natural process which not only leaves all the character of the hide intact, but also preserves the fibres and produces the strongest leather with the highest tensile strength.
The leather is then dried. Baker's even have an ingenious way to turn the waste fat and unusable leather trimmings into energy to assist the drying process.
The bridle leather we use is hand dyed and then finished with dubbin or tallow to help keep the leather supple. Whilst the Russia Kip is finished with a distinctive cross grain and dressed with birch oil. Some clients even have their own signature finishes.
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