In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious commerce and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. The ancients used leather for water skins, bags, harnesses, boats, armor, quivers, scabbards, boots, and sandals. Around 2500 BC, the Sumerians began using leather, affixed by copper studs, on chariot wheels. Tanners would take an animal skin and soak it in water. Subsequently they’d thump and scour the skin to remove flesh and fat.
Next, either they soaked the skin in urine to loosen hair fibers or they let the skin putrefy for several months, after which they dipped the skin in a salt solution. After the hair fibers were loosened, the tanners would scrape them off with a knife. Once the hair was removed, tanners would bate the substance by thumping dung into the skin or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. They’d also take cedar oil, alum, or tannin and stretch the skin as it lost moisture and absorbed the tanning agent. Left Over leather would be turned into paste. Tanners would put bits of hides in a vat of water and let them deteriorate for months. The mixture would then be placed over a fire to boil off the water to produce hide glue.
My Personal Story
I wasn’t born into a nudist family and consequently I was taught that one must not go around without their clothes on. Being nude in front of others was okay just in particular situations (Doctor’s office, locker rooms, school showers, or other areas where shifting clothing was adequate) and only for the short time it was mandatory. One simply didn’t walk around nude in mixed company.
As a kid I went to a summer camp that was run by my Father and once a week we had “Scrub”. Usually we wore out bathing suits when we swam in the lake, but on “Scrub Day” we took soap to the lake and left our suits in the cottages. As this is the only way we could really wash, and since it was an all boys’ camp, the required http://wnude.com/nudist-teens.html was acceptable. Because teen nudist sex swim I didn’t like visiting the lake in any way. As far as I was concerned being being nude with the other boys was not the difficulty being at the lake was.