Comprehension: Tanning in Nigeria Today II

          Once again the skins are washed in water and then go to be pickled. Carried out in salt water and acid in the same drums as were used for the previous process, pickling cleans and sterilizes the skins, thus preparing them for the actual tanning.

          As soon as the pickling is complete, the skins are further prepared for tanning by the application of a pre-tanning agent of vegetable origin. For, if this process is omitted and bagarua* is applied immediately after the pickling, it will merely stick to the surface instead of penetrating the skin. This final pre-tanning process takes about an hour. Then, the drums have been halted, the bagarua is added and the drums are further rotated for an additional two hours. After that, the bagarua is washed away through a lattice door on the side of each drum.

          No sooner is the draining complete than the skins proceed to the next stage. This is known as “fat-liquoring”, which means the application of oil. This is done in the same drums and takes approximately another hour.

          After that, the skins are taken from the drums and carried to the “setting-out machine”. There, the moisture is squeezed out of each skin and it is straightened by being passed between big rollers. Afterwards, the skins go to the drying shed to be slowly dried. Whenever the weather is very dry, the floor of the shed is kept moist; for it is imperative for the drying to be gradual, otherwise the quality of the end-product is adversely affected.

          Finally, the skins are taken to the baling store where they are first graded before being baled for export.

• A powder made by crushing the pith in the seed pods of the bagarua tree. It has long been used in tanning in Nigeria.