beamhouse operations
The processes in leather manufacture that take
place following curing and preceding the actual
tannage of the skin. These processes include some
or all of the following: SOAKING (1) ,LIMING , UNHAIRING ,SCUDDING , FLESHING ,DELIMING , BATING (or PUERING ),DRENCHING , and PICKLING , not
necessarily always in the order given. The skin
may also be split before tanning. The principal
objectives of beamhouse operations are to rid the
stock of substances not wanted in the finished
leather, notably the class of proteins known as
keratin, and to put the skins into the proper
chemical and physical condition for subsequent
processing. To produce satisfactory leather,
beamhouse operations must be carried out in such a
manner that no damage is done to the fibrous
(collagen) part of the skin that is converted into
leather, nor to its internal structure.
The term derives from the "beam," a convex wooden
slab sloping upward from the floor, over which the
raw stock is placed for trimming, fleshing,
unhairing, or scudding by hand. (248 , 363 )
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