Chamois-dressed deerskin.

The leather comes from Austria, Hungary or the Czech Republic. At the Artner tannery, after the pelts have been limed and fleshed, the skins are milled in whale oil and hung out to dry over ventilated floors. The released fatty acids of the whale oil, together with the oxygen from the air, produce a tanning effect. This time-consuming process is repeated three times, with the last hanging process lasting six weeks. Only after this time will the excess whale oil be washed out with a soda wash and the pelts dried. The subsequent dressing process using blunt, rotating rollers smoothes and stretches the leather.
The next stages require a certain amount of instinct. Here, the pelt is guided by hand through rotating emery rollers. This is how the leather, first with a grain of 180 g/sqm and then of 240 g/sqm, acquires its fine velvety texture.

Coloured deerskin.

Soft deerskin is indisputably comfortable; many have come to appreciate this, including the Austrian military. Eska & Dutka are suppliers of gloves to the military (officers only!).
To make the light deerskin more rugged it is »painted« grey. Pure aniline dyes are applied with brushes to the polished finish of the skin. The inside (i.e. the side that will be next to the skin) retains its natural colour and texture.