SHAMMY, or Casmors Leather, a kind °Heather, dressed either in oil or tanned; and much esteemed for its softness, plian cy. and being capable of bearing soap without hurt. The true shammy is pre pared of the skin of the chamois-goat. See CAPRA.
The true chamois leather is counter feited with common goat, kid, and even sheep-skin : the practice of which makes a particular profession, called by the French chamoisure. The last is the least esteemed, yet so popular, and such vast quantities prepared, especially about Or leans, Marseilles, and Thoulouse, that it may not be amiss to give the method of preparation.
" The manner of chamoising, or of pre paring sheep, gnat, or kid-skins, in oil, in imitation of chamois." The skins be ing washed, drained, and smeared over with quick lime, on the fleshy side, are folded in two, lengthwise, the vino] out wards, and laid on heaps, and so left to ferment eight days; or, if they had been left to dry after flat ing, for fifteen days. Then they are washed out, drained, and halfdried, laid on a wooden leg or horse, the wool stripped off with a round staff for the purpose, and laid in a weak pit, the lime whereof had been used before, and had lost the greatest part of its force. After twenty four hours they are taken out, and left to drain twenty-four more ; then put in another strong pit. This done, they are taken out, drained, and put in again by turns; which begins to dispose them to take oil : and this practice they continue for six weeks in summer, or three months in winter: at the end where of they are washed out, laid on the wood en leg, and the surface of the skin on the wool side peeled off, to render them the softer : then made into parcels, steeped a night in the river : in winter, more ; stretched six or seven over one another on the wooden leg; and the knife passed strongly on the flesh side, to take off any thing superfluous, and render the skin smooth. Then they are stretched as be fore in the river, and the same operation repeated on the wool side ; then thrown into a tub of water with bran in it, which is brewed among the skins till the greatest part sticks to them ; and then separated into distinct tube, till they swell and rise of themselves above the water. By this
means the remains of the lime are clear ed out : they are then wrung out, hung up to dry on ropes, and sent to the mill, with the quantity of oil necessary to scour them : the beat oil is that of stockfish. Here they are first thrown in bundles in to the river for twelve hours, then laid in the mill trough, and fulled without oil till they be well softened ; then oiled with the hand, one by one, and thus form ed into parcels of four skins each, which are milled and dried on cords a second time, then a third; then oiled again and dried.
This process is repeated as often as necessity requires ; when done, if there be any moisture remaining, they are dried in a stove, and made up into parcels wrapped up in wool ; after some time they are opened to the air, but wrapped up again as before, till such time as the oil seems to have lost all its force, which it ordinarily does in twenty-four hours.
The skins are then returned from the mill to the chamoiser to be scoured ; which is done by putting them into a lixivium of wood-ashes, working and beating them in it with poles, and leav ing them to steep till the ley has had its effect ; then wrung out, steeped in an other lixivium, wrung again, and this re peated till all the grease and oil be purg ed out. They are then half dried, and passed over a sharp-edged iron instru ment, placed perpendicular in a block, which opens, softens, and makes them pliable ; lastly, they are thoroughly dried, and passed over the same instrument again, which finishes the preparation, and leaves them in the form of shammy.
Kid and goat skins are chamoised in the same manner as those of sheep, ex cepting that the hair is taken off without the use of any lime ; and that when brought from the mill they undergo a par ticular preparation called ramalling, the most delicate and difficult of all the others. It consists in this, that as soon as brought from the mill they are steeped in a fit lixivium, taken out, stretched on a round wooden leg, and the hair scraped off with the knife ; this makes them smooth, and, in working, cast a fine nap. The difficulty is in scraping them evenly.