Buckskin

[Macon McLeod O'Smoke]

Before anyone starts to worry, no I did not shoot Four-eyed Buck, skin him, and then tan his hide. Here is a picture that the wife snapped of me working on a deer hide. I am going to braintan it. At this point, I had already fleshed the hide, soaked it in a wood ash solution, and now removing the hair and grain Soon, I hope to turn this into the nice soft material known as buckskin.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Thank goodness..............:scared :scared :scared :cgun

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Buck,
I think you would have been the first to know if'n it where you.

MMS,
Keep us posted on the project.
CF

[Clancy]

Poor Bambi:(

[Nellie Blue]

Should have told Em not to look! :kiss

[Duzy Wales]

:re I know, I am the same way about killing animals....just me, I don't judge anyone who feels differently. I sure do love the way any hide feels when it is finished though! ;)

[Kid Sopris]

:re I sure do love the way any hide feels when it is finished though! ;)

I won't say it or ask. I will just go away!:sk

[Duzy Wales]

:fm OK KID, I WILL TAKE MY FOOT OUT OF MY MOUTH NOW....DIDN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW THAT SOUNDED! AND YOU ARE A :sk AT TIMES! :kiss

[Coffee Em]

KID!! Do you need a nice fresh one of these? :ris :nuhnuh

I know, poor Bambi, but brain-tanned leather is such neat stuff. When we lived in northern Ontario, and worked in El Husband's family's trading post, the local folks would bring in beautiful brain-tanned and beaded moccasins and mukluks and mittens for us to sell for them. I loved the smell of brain-tanned leather especially--intensely smoky, like a wood fire.

And hey, it's sorta like hunting. Look at the work Macon's puttin' in there--that's no casual use of a critter-based product by a loooong shot!

Cheers,
Coffee Em

[Macon McLeod O'Smoke]

This hide is actually the hide from the first deer a friend of mine killed. I also have the hide from his second deer he killed a couple of days later. I will be working that one tonight. In my father's freezer down in NC, there is a hide from an 8 point buck that a friend of his killed. After I get these two hides done, being my first two hides I have tanned, I will work that big buck hide. If the first two hides come out ok, I will be sending them to a lady in Florida who makes sporrans, those pouches that men wear with kilts. I will have her make my friend and me sporrans.

[Macon McLeod O'Smoke]

And hey, it's sorta like hunting. Look at the work Macon's puttin' in there--that's no casual use of a critter-based product by a loooong shot!

Cheers,
Coffee Em
Being my first hide, it took me a total of 5 hours over two days to get to that point you see in the picture. That does not include the 30 minutes or so of fleshing(removing excess meat and fat) the other side of the hide. The wife took a couple of little videos that show me just scrapping the daylights out of the hide to get all the grain off.

As for use of critter-based product, the book I have "Deerskins into Buckskins" by Matt Richards goes into how to make a scraper from leg and rib bones, how to make needles from bones and sinew thread to use to sew up holes in the hide. I didn't do any of that this time around, but this up coming hunting season I want to try doing that.