German-language YouTube video about Gerberei Martin tanning sole leather
Notes
- shows footage inside drums turning
- discussion of different cow breeds
- discussion of different tannins
- three-step process
- hung in tanning in pits
- intermediate tanning in drums
- about a week
- stacked in tanning pits
- about two years
- story about construction workers building a bypass bridge finding tanning pits still full of leather from 1943
- shovel out used liquor from the pits by hand
- croupons
- thickest hides from Irish oxen
- thick leather especially in demand in USA
- comparison to whiskey making
- initial drying machine
- have a water treatment plant
- laid in drying room upstairs
- Manfred, 78, father, works every day
- lived next door to tannery
- defects now visible
- e.g. from injuries
- when warm, may dry in three days
- in winter with fog, can take up to two weeks hanging
- huge leather rolling machine
- regions vary in hardness they want
- France very very hard
- USA England soft
- Germany in the middle
- have to go softer for sneaker generation
- big clicker press
- oversized sole die for American market
- sign in grandfather’s office: “If you want to sell something to me, you first have to walk on leather soles.”
- father wears really old, cracked, bespoke penny loafers
- grandson, Moritz, visits
- tenth generation now, eleventh coming
- measures thickness through ball-bearing rolling probe meter
- half soles: 6–8 euros
- croupons: depends on weight, 100–150 euros
- can recognize soles he tans by smell when fresh
- stacks in a CNC machine hopper for stamping
- big rocker stamp: “Reine Eichenlohe-Gruben-Gerbung” in green ink [“Pure Oak Bark Pit Tannage”]