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).

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.

tanning in a bath of sumach and quebracho tannins.