Tijdens de laatste bijeenkomst van Bosbeweging leerden we vishuid looien. Daar moest natuurlijk wat handigs mee worden gemaakt. Het resultaat zijn slofjes van wol uit het Groene Hart met zolen van vishuid. De huid is oersterk en waterdicht, dus naar verwachting kunnen de sloffen nog een tijdje mee en blijven mijn voeten droog bij wandelingetjes door een natte badkamer of na geknoei in de keuken.
Use it all, tan a hide
During the last session of Bosbeweging we learned how to tan a fish hide.
I was amazed at the strength of the material. You need a sharp needle to punch a hole through it and it is impossible to pull it apart by hand.
I was also amazed about the fact that, even though we eat quite a lot of fish, we hardly use everything of the animal. Have you ever seen anyone walking around in a fish skin jacket? Would be smart, as the material is water proof, lightweight and thin. It may be a great wind and rain block over a woollen sweater. And this product is being regarded as waste!
Pre-punched holes
“But…isn’t it very smelly?” you may ask.
The answer is: nope! So long as you use a fresh skin and process it right away, there’s hardly any smell. Hang it outside in the wind for a few days and you don’t smell anything anymore.
Slippers with fish leather
This is the first time I tanned a hide and I did make some beginners’ mistakes, but even then I got a pretty strong piece of fish leather to process. With wool from our region I made a pair of slippers, and for soles I used the fish leather. There is enough the material left to make another pair of slippers for my daughter. What a wonderful result as a first experiment!
In theme: fish bones for needles.
End result!
Recipe for tanning fish hide:
There’s two ways of tanning: with bark and with a mixture of egg yolk and oil. The fastest is with egg yolk/oil. The skin will become white. With bark it takes about 2 weeks and the skin will become dark brown and a little stronger.
First of all, you need fish hide of course. You can get these at a fish shop or auction. Salmon is nice and big. They can be kept frozen until you use them.
Scrape off the gray layer of fat on the inside of the skin. Carefully scrape off the scales on the outside like how you would if you prepped it for cooking.
The skin should be slightly damp (like a towel tumbled dry) when you start the tanning. The skin shouldn’t become warmer than 28*C or the enzymes in the skin will break down.
Oil/egg tanning:
- Use 1 egg yolk per skin and add lukewarm water. Mix with your hands, it gets a little foamy. Add 1-2 tablespoons oil, the solution should feel just a little oily on your hands.
- Add the slightly damp fish skin and squeeze it, turn it, pull it so that the oil and egg yolk gets nicely into the skin. Once done you squeeze out the most liquid and hang it to dry a bit.
Now the process is similar again for both the bark and egg tanned skins:
When the skin is slightly damp (like when it comes out of a tumble dryer), you start scraping the *inside* of the skin against an edge, for instance a sharp slate fixed between your knees. Now and then also massage and pull the skin in your hands. Keep doing this until the skin gets dry.
The idea is that you keep make sure the skin becomes nice and soft and flexible while moving it while it dries up. The tailside of the fish might get dry sooner than the rest of the skin, that’s okay, if really dry and not yet flexible you could add a little water. If you need to go do something else, you can keep the moist skin in a closed glass jar or plastic bag.
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