[Strawbale] Leather bales

[Chris Green]

John Swearingen wrote:
> Hi…
>
> I have friends down in the south of Brazil, in an area that was settled by
> German shoemakers over a hundred years ago, and still is a center for shoe
> manufacturing.  The leather is baled, and currently is warehoused.  It is a
> bit of a hazard, since it releases toxins if it gets wet or burns.  They
> were inquiring if it could be used for building projects?  What do you all
> think?
>
> John "LeatherMan" Swearingen
>   
Presumably they must be building up an excess supply of leather with no 
market for it for shoes,
etc., or they wouldn't be asking this question.

You can pass this on to them: I would recommend that these folks think 
about finding a way to laminate the leather and make panels from them, 
as such an architectural item could very well be a high value item.
Just imagine having a leather lined library, or interior doors with 
tanned leather panels.
I have seen leather topped desks, so this would just be turning the desk 
top into a wall panel.

Hmmm. Or flooring.....??

These panels could be done as "Cowboy Chic" designs, as shown in high 
end (American) Western/ Cowboy fashion magazines, or perhaps also taking 
design cues from Olde Books, perhaps with gold embossed details 
reminiscent of those books, the kind you now have to buy at Southeby's 
auctions, etc.
Or Art Deco.
I'd also recommend taking some design cues from Moroccan or Arabic art 
traditions, and from other traditions around the world. .

That's one use for them. To achieve this might require some head 
scratching and laboratory work, but it could very well be worth. If you 
can form panels by applying a lime wash to paper to make building 
products, perhaps lime might bind together the leather?
Or else it will eat it, I don't know.
Worth a try, I'd say, it the stuff is headed for the composting heap 
anyways.....

If the lime doesn't eat up the leather, then it might be possible to 
make a leather bale house or some such.
However, if there are higher uses for the leather which could bring more 
income into the community, then those options should be tried first.

Leather is a food source for a lot of creatures, moreso, I think, than 
straw is, because it contains a lot more nutrients, (even if it is 
treated with chrome sometimes....): It is meat, after al, so making 
leather bale houses might be problematic: the panels should last for a 
long time since many of Ye Olde Books have done so.

One of my favorite adventure books is entitled St. Brendan's Voyage, Tim 
Severin, author. This describes how a group of people (Severin among 
them) build a leather hulled boat and sailed from Ireland to North 
America, via the Orkney Islands and Iceland, to prove it was possible 
that St. Brendan could have voyaged to the New World long before 
Columbus. The leather they used was oxen leather, which is thicker, and 
it was treated with tannins from oak bark, just as in the far past. They 
did cross the Atlantic and proved such a feat was possible. I recommend 
this book.

That may seem to be off topic, but if leather can withstand an North 
Atlantic ocean voyage of several months, it should be capable of being 
used in building materials.

Also, tents and other types of shelters used to be made of 
leather....until someone figured out how to weave cloth, a much lighter 
material. There are places where shelters  are still made from leather 
or from untanned reindeer hides. So the use of leather is a kind of 
return to one of the original building materials.

So, that's my take on this question.

Cheers,

Chris Green.
(maker of driftwood chairs using a Leatherman knife...)