Can't make tannin

[WillowArcane]

I have just finished making a batch of lye in a barrel, but when I attempted to put the wood in with water to make tannin nothing happens, the barrel doesn't seal.  What am I doing wrong?

[Hovdavic]

Leather making has the following steps:

• put water in a barrel (up to 50L)
• put lime/borax in the water to create the lime-water (I'm pretty sure Lime:water is a 1:1 ratio, so 50L water + 50 lime) I know you can use crushed borax instead of lime, but I've never done it. This gets created instantly.
• put your hides in this solution to soak. Different size hides require different amounts of lime water. For example, I usually stick 8 large hides in 50L of lime water. Each large hide requires 6L limewater so in the end I will get 8 soaked hides and 2L limewater left. (which I usually pour on the ground so I can make 50L more)
• Next remove the hides from the barrel and put them in the crafting grid with a knife off to the side. This will create scraped hides. 
• These scraped hides then go into a weak tannin solution which is created by placing 1 oak log/10 L water in a barrel. (I usually do this at the same time that I soak the hides in lime) So, 50L water, 5 Oak logs for example. Now hit seal barrel to create the solution over time. Once you have the solution prepared, put the scraped hides in the barrel of weka tannin and hit seal.
• When they are done soaking you will have prepared hides. These need to soak in a strong tannin solution which is created by soaking Oak logs in a weak tannin solution. 

So for leather making I usually have 3 barrels going: 1 with the Limewater, and 2 making weak tannin. When one of the weak tannin barrels is ready I create strong tannin with it. This way, I can be creating the tannin while my hides are soaking in the Limewater. 

It sounds like what you were doing wrong, is that you were trying to soak the oak logs in limewater, they need to soak in regular water, or weak tannin depending on if you want weak or strong (both are needed)

It sound like a lot, but once you do a couple of times it's really not that bad. The most challenging part can be finding the limestone or borax! 

Good luck!

[OfFPiR]

You can only put oak wood in the barrel, not just any wood.

[WillowArcane]

Oops, I mistakenly tried to put in ten logs thinking it was 1:1 rather than just one log, its fine now