Eel leather

The so-called eel leather is the tanned skin of snake-shaped fish, eels (freshwater eels ), eel-like (conger eels) and hagfish , it can often be recognized by the characteristic longitudinal stripe in the middle of the back. This leather is light, extremely tough and supple.

Eel leather has been used since ancient times. The Spartans and Romans used it for whips (Anguilla, Flagrum ) and as a belt. In parts of England, taxes were paid with eel leather in the Middle Ages . It is also mentioned in Shakespeare ( H4 B III, 2, 351; John I, 141). In Scandinavia , eel leather was used for ski bindings and gloves in prehistoric times . It was also used for door hinges and diaphragms (di osmosis ), as well as a ribbon, cord.

The Eskimos and Native Americans introduced fish leather ago.

Today, a large part of eel leather comes from the skin of the hagfish, which is not taxonomically related to real eels; It is often described as conger marketed leather. These stocks are severely threatened by overfishing . Freshwater and conger eel leather is rarely used.

The tear resistance and elongation at break of this leather can be significantly higher than that of ordinary cowhide .

Eel leather is used today for shoes, boots, belts, book covers, wallets, handbags etc., as well as in sport and fly fishing .

Web links

Christoph Käppeler: Radio report about eel leather and the only German manufacturer on hr4 , "Osthessen am Mittag" on February 7, 2001, on christoph-kaeppeler.de, accessed on April 11, 2017.
Eel on leder-info.de, accessed on 11 April 2017th

Individual evidence

↑ Anthony Rich: Illustrated Dictionary of Roman Antiquities. Didot, 1862, p. 34, limited preview in the Google book search.
^ ^A ^b Richard Schweid: Consider the Eel. University of North Carolina Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8078-2693-6 , p. 68.
^ William Smith: A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Taylor and Walton, 1842, p. 424.
^ Clarissa Dickson Wright: A History of English Food. Random House, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4481-0745-2 .
↑ Linda M. Hurcombe: Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory. Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-53792-6 .
↑ Richard Schweid: Eel. Reaction Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-86189-423-6 , pp. 148 ff.
↑ Jonathan CH King, Birgit Pauksztat, Robert Storrie: Arctic Clothing. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7735-3008-9 .
^ Gene Helfman, Bruce Collette: Fishes. JHU Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4214-0222-2 , p. 122.
↑ Wilfried Westheide, Reinhard Rieger (Ed.): Special Zoology. Part 2: Vertebrate or skull animals, 2nd edition, Spectrum, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8274-2039-8 , p. 192.
^ Gene Helfman, Bruce B. Collette, Douglas E. Facey, Brian W. Bowen: The Diversity of Fishes. Second Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-2494-2 , p. 237.
↑ Aalleder on materialarchiv.ch, accessed on April 11, 2017.
↑ Susquehanna Fishing Magazine. March 2010, p. 6.
↑ John Waltman: 100 Weird Ways to Catch Fish. Stackpole Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8117-5063-9 .

[1] Anthony Rich: Illustrated Dictionary of Roman Antiquities. Didot, 1862, p. 34, limited preview in the Google book search.

[Schweid-2] A ^b Richard Schweid: Consider the Eel. University of North Carolina Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8078-2693-6 , p. 68.

[3] William Smith: A dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Taylor and Walton, 1842, p. 424.

[4] Clarissa Dickson Wright: A History of English Food. Random House, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4481-0745-2 .

[5] Linda M. Hurcombe: Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory. Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-0-415-53792-6 .

[6] Richard Schweid: Eel. Reaction Books, 2009, ISBN 978-1-86189-423-6 , pp. 148 ff.

[7] Jonathan CH King, Birgit Pauksztat, Robert Storrie: Arctic Clothing. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7735-3008-9 .

[8] Gene Helfman, Bruce Collette: Fishes. JHU Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4214-0222-2 , p. 122.

[9] Wilfried Westheide, Reinhard Rieger (Ed.): Special Zoology. Part 2: Vertebrate or skull animals, 2nd edition, Spectrum, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8274-2039-8 , p. 192.

[10] Gene Helfman, Bruce B. Collette, Douglas E. Facey, Brian W. Bowen: The Diversity of Fishes. Second Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4051-2494-2 , p. 237.

[11] Aalleder on materialarchiv.ch, accessed on April 11, 2017.

[12] Susquehanna Fishing Magazine. March 2010, p. 6.

[13] John Waltman: 100 Weird Ways to Catch Fish. Stackpole Books, 2005, ISBN 978-0-8117-5063-9 .