the method of dressing skins after they have been tanned, to render them fit for the purposes of the shoemaker, coach and harness maker, &c. The skins, after coming from the tanner's yard, and having many fleshy fibres on them, are soaked by the currier for some time in water. He then stretches them on a smooth wooden horse, and with a paring knife scrapes off all superfluous matter. He then soaks them again. He next puts them wet on a hurdle, and treads or beats them with a mallet, in order to render them soft and pliant. He then applies grease, such as train or other oil; and afterwards spreads them on large tables, and fastens them at the ends. Then, with the help of an instrument called a pommel (which is a thick piece of wood, the under side of which is full of furrows crossing each other), he folds, squares, and moves them forwards and backwards several times, under the teeth of this instrument, which breaks their too great stiffness. This is what is properly called currying. The order and number of these operations is varied by different curriers, but the material part of them is always the same. After the skins are curried there may be occasion to colour them. The colours are black, white, red, yellow, and green: the other colours are given by the skinners, who differ from curriers in this, that they apply their colours on the flesh side, whereas the curriers do so on the hair side. In order to whiten skins, they are rubbed with lumps of chalk or white lead, and afterwards with pumice-stone. When a skin is to be made black, the currier, after having oiled and dried it, passes over it a brush dipped in a solution of sulphate of iron; and after his first wetting, he gives it another in water prepared with lamp-black, vinegar, and gum-arabic. These different dyes gradually turn the skin black, and the operations are repeated till it be of a shining black. The grain and wrinkles, which contribute to the suppleness of calves' and cows' leather, are made by the reiterated folds given to the skin in every direction, and by the care taken to scrape off all hard particles. See TANNING.