Chrome alum: where sold, how to use, what to replace

Furs and skins are necessary for the manufacture of warm clothes. Previously, in order to start sewing sheepskin coats, the skins were soaked in salt. How to make skins, using salt for this? In the modern world, chromic alum is used. This is a long but effective method. Tanning of the skin is necessary to make jackets and other clothes from it. This method can be mastered by everyone.

What is chromic alum?

Alums are double salts obtained by mixing hot equimolar aqueous solutions of metal sulfates. When cooling such a solution, alum crystals are obtained from it. To dye woolen things and yarn, they are etched with alum, also tanning of animal skin is made with the help of alum. They are also used in photo industry, in medicine (for cauterizing wounds with alga pencil), in the early twentieth century after shaving, the skin was burned with alum to stop blood from cutting. Alums are of different types: alumokalievye, alumoammonium, iron, potassium, chromium, iron-ammonium, alumorubidium, aluminatrium. From the names of chrome, it immediately becomes clear which chemicals were used for their production. But do not try to make them at home, the result may not meet expectations. You can buy ready-made chrome alum, which sells the finished skins or finished home-made products. It is unlikely that they will be found in large supermarkets, you need to look on the Internet or in the markets.

How to make skins using alum?

If you own an animal skins - rabbit, moose, snake, giraffe or elephant, and know the chromic alum where to buy, then this is an excuse to try yourself as a skin dresser. Everybody knows fairy tales about Nikita Kozhemyak from childhood. It is a healthy strong child, who has been engaged in the tanning of animal skins all his life. Is it necessary to have an undue power to properly process it? How to make skins at home? First you need to soak it in a solution of alum. This must be done to degrease and strengthen the material. Only use chromic alum for hides. These are chromium and chromium-potassium varieties. They have long been used for tanning. Chrome alum where to buy? You can go to the chemical store or photo store. Once the skin has become stiff, it must be removed from the solution, rinsed well and soaked again. Do not be afraid to ruin a thing, using alum is perfectly safe. Take care of your hands so as not to get salt burns you need to use durable rubber gloves when working. During the soaking, the skin should drift freely on the surface of the solution, this will mean that there is enough salt in the water. Measure how much solution is used now, just the same amount it will be needed for the next steps.

Rid of the skin from germs

Even if the animal was kept at home, its skin is still full of microbes that are harmful to humans and can cause rotting of stuff made from this hide. In order to get rid of these organisms, an antiseptic must be added to one of the otmochek. This solution will need fifty grams of table salt, milliliter of formalin or sulphidine (calculated per liter of water). You can add natural antiseptics - bark and leaves of oak, willow. It is necessary to soak for at least twelve hours.

After tanning - drying and stretching

Tanning animal skins or skin is a necessary process. This is done in order to give the material elasticity, softness and good appearance. In the process of drying after tanning, all the heroic strength will be needed. How to make skins, if there is no such force? Use a well-polished round log. This log needs to be fixed on both sides to make something like a horizontal bar. For this tanning, two people and cotton mittens are needed to avoid rubbing the calluses. Hang the skin on the underside of the log, from both sides firmly grasp the ends of the blade. Strongly pressing the skin on the log, with sharp movements, pull it then one way, then the other. Alternate this process with a mint. Knead the skin as if you are mixing the dough. You need to get a lot of money without sparing your energy. And then again on the log, and so several times, until you realize that the skin is flexible enough. After such manipulations, the product from this skin will turn out to be soft, light and warm.

Sour or rawhide leather

Such leather is used for making belts, bags, jackets. Of course, such products will be inferior as factory things, but if there is a skin, why not try to make a useful thing out of it? To begin with, necessarily tanning - soaking the skin in a solution of alum, is followed by the process of furrowing - stretching, minting skins on a log. When all the manipulations are finished, you need to shave the skin carefully. In the process of shaving, the upper thin layer of the skin - the epidermis - is removed. For shaving, use a sharp hunting knife. Hair cover will be easily removed if all the above prescribed actions are correctly performed.

Chrome alum: where are they sold?

In order for the animal skins to last you for many years, it must be properly processed. For this, chromium-potassium or chrome alum is necessarily needed. Where are these salts sold? You can start searching from agricultural markets. There, hunters can sell the dressed skins. Ask if they can sell alum. If not, ask them about chromic alum (where they are sold). You can go in search of alum and in the pharmacy. These salts are used for medical purposes, to stop bleeding, to burn the wound. Chemical reactors stores also have a chance to buy a variety of alums. Photoshop must have available alum. If they were not found, you can ask to be brought, or ordered via the Internet. The ads put forward proposals for the sale of alum. It is better to buy chrome alum from private traders, the price will be much more democratic. In fact, alum is a salt. In stores, the price may be greatly inflated - up to three hundred rubles per kilogram! Through the Internet on the ad there is an opportunity to purchase alum up to one hundred rubles per kilogram.

Can I make skins without alum?

Tanned leather is an ancient craft. How did you dress skins without salt? No way. Salt is still needed. How to replace chrome alum? These are decoctions of willow bark, bark and leaves of oak, Ledum. In addition to tannic properties, this broth has an antimicrobial effect. Even using alum, you have to once again soak the skin in an antiseptic, and when using a decoction this action is not useful. In order to make a decoction, take in equal proportions branches with foliage and oak and willow bark, Ledum. Put the plants in a metal container, put it on a fire, fill it with water so that the branches hide. After boiling, cook over low heat for at least half an hour. Cool the broth, strain well from leaves and other debris. Pour the table salt (fifty grams per liter of decoction). Stir well to make all the salt crystals completely dissolved. Place the hide in the solution. The process of tanning will take from twelve hours to four days. If the salt does not dissolve completely and the skin is put in the solution, it may stain.

How do you know if the skin is salted and ready for further dressing?

In the process of soaking in chrome alum or decoction of the bark, the skin on the inner side acquires a yellowish tinge. In this painting there is nothing terrible - a usual chemical reaction. After twelve hours, if the color has appeared, make a small incision on the test site of the skin. If soaking is completed, the skin will be thoroughly painted. If the color inside is different, then you need to wait for more. Just do not again be guided by the same cut, because at this point the coloring process will go faster. For each check, a new cut is needed, so do not check often. Even if the skin has lain in the solution, nothing bad will happen to it, it will not spoil.

How to achieve a factory result?

To skin or leather quality like factory products, you need to try hard, but still the result will not be ideal. To approximate the quality of a homemade item to factory products, you can do the following: Before you soak the skin or skin, it must be cleaned of all the films, pieces of meat, vessels and veins, to digest fat from it in decoction from the bark of oak and willow. Cook over low heat for about an hour. Next - salt soaking according to the scheme prescribed above. Soak for twelve hours, get it and rinse it in running water. Skin well, skim and stretch on a log. Put in salt solution again. Do these manipulations is at least three times, but the result will please. A fur coat, a jacket or a sheepskin coat from a skin of such manufacture will be easy as a fluff, soft, elastic and beautiful. The quality of tailoring, of course, will depend on the seamstress who creates the thing. All that could be done with the skin for its beauty, brilliance and quality has already been done. The main thing, do not forget about the safety of hands - salt very quickly corrodes the skin.