Fish Oil Free Odorless Chamois Leather Making using Tung Oil - A Short Communication Renganath Rao Ramesh, Bindia Sahub and Muthukumaran Ponnuvela

Abstract

Traditionally, chamois leather is made predominantly using fish oil. The significance of fish oil is mainly attributed to the presence of highly unsaturated chains that are susceptible to oxidation and polymerisation, leading to the generation of aldehydes and free radicals, which can stabilise collagen during the oil tanning process. 
Due to the pungent smell of fish oil, Tung oil has been tried as a replacement for the oil tanning of sheep and goat skin in this research work. The potassium and ammonium persulphate have been used as inorganic catalysts to accelerate the oxidation process, reducing the process time from 10-15 to 4-5 days. The characteristic properties of experimental leathers, such as tensile, tear and water absorption, were better than those of fish oil-tanned leathers. Therefore, these results suggest that tung oil can be an alternative to fish oil in chamois leather production.