Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

desencalar

English translation:

delime

Added to glossary by Claudia Orozco
Jun 11, 2003 21:17
21 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Spanish term

desencalar

Spanish to English Art/Literary Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting leathercraft
Procesos de curtiembre

Proposed translations

+1
40 mins
Selected

delime

is confirmed. Here's your process:
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Tanning your own leather

Removing the hair
Remove large chunks of fat/flesh from the flesh side of the hide (if the hide has dried out somewhat, do this after soaking for a couple of hours as part of step 2).
Soak the hide in cold water, changing the water frequently, for a period of about 2 days. This is to wash out blood, soluble proteins, etc.
While soaking the hides, prepare your unhairing solution:
Take about 2 cups of builder's lime (slaked lime = hydrated lime = Ca(OH)2) for every 5 gallons of unhairing solution (you'll want about 10 gallons for the average deer hide - maybe more for an elk).
Mix the lime with hot water (lime is caustic - exercise appropriate precautions)
and set it aside to cool for a day or two.
DO NOT PUT THEN HIDES INTO THIS SOLUTION WHILE IT IS HOT. It is inadvisable to unhair the hides using lime if the ambient temperature is much over 75F.
After the soaking, place the hide in the lime solution in some sort of tub. Stir as frequently as possible (at least twice daily), and drain the skin over a horse every day or two, returning it to the lime solution.
When the hair at the neck can be rubbed off easily, it is ready to unhair. The hair can be rubbed off with a gloved hand, or scraped with a blunt edge. Depending on the state of the hide when the process was started, the species, thickness, ambient temperature, etc. it will take 1-3 weeks for the hair to loosen. Draping it over a cylindrical 'beam' can facilitate the unhairing process.
Once the hair is removed, the hide should be thoroughly fleshed to remove any residual fat, flesh, and connective tissue.
Wash the hide thoroughly to remove residual lime. Change the water frequently, for about 2 days. To be double sure, you can 'delime' the hide after washing in a weakly acidic solution (eg. very dilute vinegar). In the Middle Ages, deliming would have been achieved by soaking in a fermenting vat of bran after thorough washing.
Your hide is basically ready for tanning at this point.
Peer comment(s):

agree Michael Powers (PhD) : Yes, I found a tanning glossary - "desencalado" is "deliming" elimination of lime through amonia sulfate and other reagents. Mike :)
29 mins
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Muchas gracias, la nota sobre el proceso me qyudo bastante"
27 mins

descale, delime

descale, delime
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