Hello,
I recently acquired some chinchilla pelts which had been in storage at an estate since the 1950's. They are extremely low-grade with poor veiling and very poor color (staining plus lots of brown). Their quality is not the issue here, it's their "story" which intrigues me.
The skins were stored "between wax paper sheets in a box" and were apparently home-tanned.
The skins are stained a very deep orange upon rehydration. They smell kind of musty and the smell doesn't come out. They feel gritty and over-degreased. They are difficult to rehydrate and have no stretch, but.... they also have no dry rot! The skins hold up well under rehydration!
So, I rehydrated one skin, and found it to be somewhat poorly fleshed. I re-fleshed areas of the skin, and the skin peeled off in layers. In these newly exposed areas, the skin felt slimy but this wiped off. The tanning agent appears to be a creamy orange "paste tan" maybe? One of those oil-and-tan all in one shot type things? It is not an alum tan or a DP; it did NOT wash out.
I was able to rub about 85% of the stain off, the rest I was able to dye out.
I then re-oiled the skin with Protal, and it looks really good, especially for something originally home-tanned in the 50's! The head got some stretch back!
The question is : what is this tanning agent? What would it have been called in the 1950's, and how available was it to middle-income women?
Thanks for any advice or insight.
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It sounds like it was somehow tanned using Gluteraldehyde. The "orange" effect is typical of this tannage at a low PH. It is a good tan but highly toxic and since it always gave off this orange cast color to the skins - we used to refer to it as the "golden fleece" tannage! It is a very durable tannage - and used with chrome - it made an excellent sheepskin tan for use in Hospitals for treating bedsores. It could be sterilized using boiling water. Obviously it is intended for applications where the skin is to dyed. The orange color always caused a problem where the natural colors were wanted.
Thank you Bruce. That is very interesting info. I wonder where this lady would have acquired this chemical in the 50's.
One last detail I forgot to add, above: The skins are stiff as a board. They have absolutely no softness to them at all. They become soft only after the re-oiling procedure. I thought they were raw skins when I first got them, due to this intense stiffness.
Should I re-tan using Lutan (or EZ-100 if I had some) or should I leave well enough alone?
2% Gluteraldehyde is the sterilant of choice in bird-breeding setups (well, it was when I was breeding birds) - you just have to have a special container and good ventilation.
I had a feeling it would come back "highly toxic" - I was playing with the raw pelt, bare-handed. Whoops. Guess the rest of the batch, I'll play with "gloved". I'm still waiting to keel over, hehe.
Anyway, the "before and after" results are in: after the dye/brightener, re-oiling, hand breaking, etc - the skins look like they could be 2002 lowgrades, not 1952 lowgrades. Amazing.
Bruce,
Thank you for your extremely enlightening and candid, fact-filled e-mail. It is this open sharing of information which keeps the industry so refreshed and progressive. I'm going to have to digest the e-mail a few times before formulating a reply. As usual, your expertise is welcomed, and top-shelf, bar-none!