Basil undergoes the same processes as most kinds of leather: there are two distinct stages:
![](../imgs/puce_pleine.gif)
The “wet work”:
![](../imgs/puce_vide.gif) |
cleaning the raw hides: this process is known as travail de rivière or river-work in French because tanners used to bathe their hides in the water of the rivers on the banks of which they saw fit to set up shop (soaking in a lime and sulphur bath, dewoolling/liming, fleshing). |
![](../imgs/puce_vide.gif) |
rinsing the skins and preparing them for tanning (deliming, curing, bating, pickling). Some suppliers send the fellmonger hides that are ready-pickled, i.e. ready for tanning, with all impurities removed such hair, flesh, fat etc. |
![](../imgs/puce_vide.gif) |
tanning in a bath of sumach and quebracho tannins. |