Tanbark

Workers peeling hemlock bark for the tannery in Prattsville, New York, United States.

Tanbark is the bark of certain species of tree. It is traditionally used for tanning hides into leather.^[1]

The words "tannin", "tanning", "tan," and "tawny" are derived from the Medieval Latin tannare, "to convert into leather."

Bark mills are horse- or oxen-driven or water powered edge mills^[2] and were used in earlier times to shred the tanbark to derive tannins for the leather industry. A "barker" was a person who stripped bark from trees to supply bark mills.

Tanbark around the world

Waterwheel at Combe House Hotel in Holford, Somerset, England. The overshot waterwheel was cast by Bridgwater ironfounder H Culverwell & Co in 1892 to replace an earlier wheel. It was used to grind oak bark for the tannery complex established here in the 1840s by James Hayman. When the tannery closed in 1900 the waterwheel was adapted to other uses such as grinding grain for grist, cutting chaff, chopping apples for the cider press and generating electricity. It also cracked stones in a nearby quarry. The gearing survives too.

In Europe, oak is a common source of tanbark. Quercitannic acid is the chief constituent found in oak barks.^[3] The bark is taken from young branches and twigs in oak coppices and can be up to 4 mm thick; it is grayish-brown on the outside and brownish-red on the inner surface.^[4]

In some areas of the United States, such as northern California, tanbark is often called "mulch," even by manufacturers and distributors. In these areas, the word "mulch" may refer to peat moss or to very fine tanbark. In California, Lithocarpus densiflorus (commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak) was used. In America, condensed tannins are also present in the bark of blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica).^[5] In New York, on the slopes of Mount Tremper, hemlock bark was a major source of tanbark during the 19th century.

Around the Mediterranean Sea, sumach (Rhus coriaria) leaves and bark are used.

In Africa and Australia, acacia (called "wattle") bark is used by tanners.

• 
  Tool to recover bark from oak branches
• 
  Recovery of bark from oak branches
• 
  Another view of the process
• 
  The bark of an oak tree
• 
  Young red oak bark

See also

• Barkdust

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tanbark.

Non-timber forest products
Animal products	Furs Honey Pine honey Wild game
Berries Tree fruit	Blueberry (wild) Breadfruit Cocoa bean Coconut Durian Gambooge Huckleberry Jackfruit Juniper berry Tamarind
Edible plants / roots	Betel Mushrooms chanterelles lingzhi matsutake morels Fiddlehead ferns Mahuwa flowers Sago palm queen Sassafras filé powder root beer Saw palmetto Wild ginseng
Nuts Spices	Allspice Areca nut Bay leaf Black pepper Brazil nut Cinnamon Clove Hazelnut Malva nut Nutmeg Pine nut Vanilla
Oil Waxes	Carnauba Chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus wightiana) Cocoa butter Eucalyptol Eucalyptus Japan wax Kokum Kusum Mahuwa Nagkesar Palm (kernel) Pongamia Phulwara Pilu Sal-seed (Shorea robusta) Sandalwood Shea butter Tea-seed Tea-tree Vateria indica
Resins	Benzoin Birch-tar Camphor Creosote Frankincense Gamboge Kauri Lacquer Mastic Myrrh Pine tar Pitch Rosin Turpentine Varnish
Sap / Gum / etc.	Birch syrup Chicle chewing gum Coconut sugar Date sugar Fruit syrup Gum arabic Gutta-percha Kino Latex Maple sugar Maple syrup Palm sugar Palm wine akpeteshie ogogoro Rubber Spruce gum
Other	Bamboo edible musical instruments, textiles Birch bark Birch beer Cork Ferns Forage Gambier Moss Natural dyes henna Peat Quinine Rattan Shellac Tanbark tannin Thatching Tendu leaves Willow bark
Related	Dehesa (Iberian agroforestry) Forest farming / gardening Honey hunting Indian forest produce Mushroom hunting Naval stores Permaforestry Resin extraction Rubber tapping Wildcrafting
Forestry portal Trees portal Category Commons WikiProject Forestry