The tanning of animal skins taken for food has been occurring since the dawn of man. The modern crafter although not primitive in some cases can still tan hides for various uses in his/her primitive crafting endeavors.
There are many ways to tan hides using natural materials and methods depending on the type of skin used and the leather, fur or rawhide desired.
The basic step of fleshing and removing the hair are needed to make Leather or Rawhide and must be accomplished before any tanning can take place.
Fleshing is the act of scraping the inside (critter side) of a hide to remove all or most of the membrane, fat, and gook left on the hide from skinning. Place the hide (critter side out) on a smooth cylindrical surface such as a pole or a 6” dia or larger piece of PVC pipe. Pinch the end between the pipe and your body to hold it steady. Take a drawknife, planer knife or similar blade type tool and scrape the hide until all the above mentioned stuff is removed. Cover as much area of the hide as possible out to the edges. Be careful not to cut the hide as that will only lead to problems later on. Once it has been fleshed it is time to remove the hair.
To make rawhide or leather the hair must be removed from the hide. The easiest way by far is to soak the hide in enough water to cover it and wait for Mother Nature to help out. This method has drawbacks however…the biggest being the smell of rotting flesh. YUCK!
The best method in my opinion is to soak the hide in a mixture of lye and water. The lye can be obtained by using hardwood ashes and leeching water through them or you can purchase “Red Devil” lye at the store. Make your mixture up and put your hide in to soak. I usually put in about ˝ cup to about 10-15 gal of water in a plastic trashcan. Weight the hide down with a brick and wait. The hair should start to slip in about a week…sometimes sooner. When you pull it out it will be slick and swollen. Remove the hair by scraping as before with your edged tool. If done properly the hair should come from the hide very easily. Leave the hair where the birds can get to it and they will make good use of it. After the hair removal soak the hide in a mixture of a cup of vinegar to enough water to cover. This will remove the swelling and return the hide to normal thickness. If you intend to “Brain Tan” or make buckskin you also need to remove the “grain” before the vinegar soak. This is the epidermal layer just under the hair. Please dispose of the waste mixture in a sensible manner.
Bark Tanning is the lengthy process by which animal skins are transformed into a medium to heavy weight leather through the use of “Tannins” that are leeched from natural materials. While walking in the woods, have you ever seen a tree stump full of a tea colored liquid? This liquid contains “tannin’s” that have leeched from the wood. Nearly all trees contain these Tannin’s however only some contain the amount needed to do what we want. Without going into this long and drawn out process on tannin’s…here’s what I did. Go to your Home store garden center and buy 2 or 3 bags of mulch. I used cypress bark, but Oak bark if you can get it would be ideal. If you are a bowyer like me…save ALL the sawdust and small wood shavings/chips and put them into a trash can with water in it. I keep this soup going all the time and just add water periodically.
It’s best to do this in the summer so the heat can help leech the goodies out of your bark. What we want from the mixture is liquid that looks like strong tea. The stronger the initial mix the better. DO NOT put the hide in the full strength mixture. This will case harden the hide and the tannin will not penetrate through the hide. Cut the full strength mixture about 50/50 with rainwater for the first week or so and gradually increase the strength over the approx 3-4 period it takes to complete the process. If the hide begins to stink, add more strength to the mix. To give it a boost, hard boil a box of cheap tea bags and add to the mix. It will cut the smell and boost the tanning process. Test the hide for completeness by cutting a piece off. If it shows a bright white core it’s not done. Give it more time in the soup. A brown or tan core is OK.
When you think it’s done you need to wring the hide to remove most of the moisture. Once the moisture has been removed to the best of your ability the hide must be oiled. Go to you local farm and ranch and purchase a pint of Neets foot oil. Apply to the hide and work it in until the hide is completely void of moisture. Blot the hide of excess oil and let it rest in a cool dry place for a week or so. If the hide remains oily you can wash it in dish soap to remove the excess oil. Be sure to work the hide until dry.
Now you have a durable leather suitable for most any craft project from Quivers to Moccasins.
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