School: Cnoc an Chláraigh, Séipéal na Carraige (roll number 14002)
- Location:
- Knockaclarig, Co. Cork
- Teacher: David Ó Ceallacháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0356, Page 481
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- Tanning
All boots worn by the people long ago, were strong brógs but the people liked to have a pair of shoes with light uppers for Sunday, and dancers wanted them for dancing. There were a number of famous dancers in this parish twenty years ago.
The people made light leather for the uppers of these shoes themselves. They killed a dog a skinned him. Lime was sprinkled on the hair of the skin and the skin buried to exclude the air. The action of the lime separated the hair from the skin.
When the hair was removed oak bark was boiled in water. Alum was mixed with this water and the skin steeped in it for eight or nine days. It was then taken out, stretched and nailed to a timber frame or to the back of the door and dried in the sun and wind.
One side of it was tn coated with copperas water. The leather was then fit for the shoemaker.
