Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

and dried to remove unwanted flesh that
would putrefy and spoil the skin. After drying
the skin is manipulated to soften the handling.
Sometimes the skins are oil or alum dressed on
the flesh side, for example Eames’s 1946 Slink
Skin seat illustrated in Miller (1990).
Shark and ray skin
The skins of sharks and rays of the class
Chondrichthyes have had various uses in furniture
making and are often confused. Both types
of skin are covered with raised horny ‘pellicles’
(dermal denticles). These contain osteodentin, a
material resembling the dentin of teeth but having
the mineralized tissue organized into a
structure of tightly packed tubes. In shark skins
these are quite small and sharp, and have made
sharkskin useful as an abrasive for finishing
woodwork. Ray skins, particularly the various
stingray species of the family Dasyatidae, are
covered with light coloured rounded polygons
packed tightly together. These have been used
to cover Japanese sword hilts with the pellicles
left intact. In Europe, sting ray skins were
ground down flat, and often dyed from the
flesh side to produce a beautiful pearl-patterned
material which was used to cover boxes
and cases for high quality instruments. This
‘shagreen’ (also known as Galuchat after a
French craftsman who excelled in its use) was
used to cover furniture, particularly in French
Art Deco style pieces such as those by Jacques
Emile Ruhlman.
Identification of leather and skin
products
It may be possible to identify the type and
maturity of the skin by examining various gross
features including grain surface patterns and
grouping and sizes of hair or feather follicles, or
scale patterns (Haines 1981, 1985; Munn, 1989;
Waterer, 1968). Also, different tanning and finishing
techniques give leather its variety in
appearance (Kühn, 1986). Under magnification,
further identification can be made by examining
cross-sections of the internal structure since
skins vary in total thickness, in dimensions of
fibre bundles, in weave patterns and in the
ratios of grain to corium. Imitation leather such
as polyvinyl-chloride can be identified macroscopically
or in cross-section (Haines, 1981;
Thorp, 1990). Methods of analysis are available
to determine tanning method used, fat and
Upholstery materials and structures 105
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e) (f)
Figure 3.6 Simple woven structures of rush/reed/cane:
(a) binder cane; (b) rush; (c) 4-way cane; (d) spline; (e)
6-way cane; (f ) cordage
moisture contents and acidity (Haines, 1985;
Hallebeek, 1984; O’Flaherty et al., 1965).
For further information on skins parchment
and leathers see Calnan and Haines (1991),
Fogle (1985), Reed (1972), Sharphouse (1983),
Stambolov (1969), Thomas et al. (1983),
Thomson (1981a, 1981b, 1985), Waterer (1968,
1972), and occasional papers published by the
Leather Conservation Centre in the UK and by
Leather Conservation News in the USA.
3.2.2 Simple structures – interworked
materials (including rush and cane)
These materials are used in the production of
simple upholstery systems which include flat