Making buckskin leather.

[crappyice]

2 hours ago, Dinorocks said:

Yup!  I used that method on the this hide too.

That's the method I used which it think I would start with then finish under the tire!

[Dinorocks]

21 hours ago, crappyice said:

That's the method I used which it think I would start with then finish under the tire!

That is exactly what I did.  By rolling the damp skin in a dry towel, it helped pull out some of the moisture.

[biggamefish]

I did my hide in hard wood ash as I said. Hair came off pretty easily. I had to put some real elbow grease in a couple of spots. I now know I need the correct setup for making my life easy! Plus a few tools for scraping.

I only had the two skinning tools in the picture and I could not get the grain to come off. Some places it started but I couldn't get it to keep peeling. I was doing this on a flat workbench also.  Got to start somewhere.  I am going to put the tanning solution on and see where it ends up.

 

[mowin]

9 hours ago, biggamefish said:

I did my hide in hard wood ash as I said. Hair came off pretty easily. I had to put some real elbow grease in a couple of spots. I now know I need the correct setup for making my life easy! Plus a few tools for scraping.

I only had the two skinning tools in the picture and I could not get the grain to come off. Some places it started but I couldn't get it to keep peeling. I was doing this on a flat workbench also.  Got to start somewhere.  I am going to put the tanning solution on and see where it ends up.

 

That skerfing tool on the left brings back memories.  Used one to remove the hair when dad butchered hogs many many yrs ago. 

Good luck with the project. 

[Dinorocks]

Looks good Biggamefish!

[Dinorocks]

Below are a few photos of examples of different tans/leathers.

The creamy whitish leather is called buckskin and was tanned with egg yokes (grain off = buckskin).

I tanned the brown leather using the cambium layer of a white oak tree.  You can see the spots where the grain was removed and where it remained in one of the photos …not very eye-appealing.

The orange colored leather was tanned with chemicals (professionally tanned). 

As I mentioned early, lots of tanning dressing and methods.  If you remove the grain (and properly break the hide during the drying process), you will end up with extremely soft and plyable buckskin (suede).  If the grain is left on, you will end up with leather that has a pebblely surface (soft if properly broken), and if you do not break the hide properly during the drying process, you end up with very stiff leather or rawhide.  One of the hardest, most laborious and important step of the tanning process is breaking the hide.

And again, “breaking the hide” means pulling the internal leather fibers apart as the leather dries, so when it finally dries out, it will be very pliable.  Think about how stiff your untreated leather boots get after they dry out in front of the fireplace from being soaking wet.  Once the hide is completely dry and broken, if it gets damp, the leather will shrink and get very hard…all your work for nothing.  To solve the problem, the last step of the process is to smoke the dry, pliable leather.  Smoking coats the fibers and makes the leather waterproof and bug resistant.  I’ll show how I do this later.

[The_Real_TCIII]

In the movies a guy kills an elk and is wearing a beautiful coat the next morning lol

[Dinorocks]

I have been out of town for meetings all week so I wasn’t able to begin the breaking process in the comfort of my workshop (aka, trapping shed, greenhouse, chicken coop, butcher shop…).  I did, however, bring the hide with me to start the drying and breaking process. 

I stopped by my uncles man cave on my way to my meetings to show him the hide, explain the tanning, and begin the breaking process.  The thin areas of the hide dried and broke nicely.  The thick areas were still wet.  I used my fingers to pull the hide in different directions and well as rubbed the hide back and forth over the back of a bar stool.  If you have ever made anything with leather, you know that if the leather is pulled one way, it is extremely stretchy and if pulled another, not so stretchy…important to pull the hide in multiple directions to separate all the fibers. When using the leather to make something, you need to make sure that you orientate the leather properly based on the direction of maximum stretch or what you are making will eventually become lopsided.

After not being able to move my fingers anymore from all the pulling, I folded the hide up so the dry thin outer edges were in contact with the thick wetter sections and put it back in a baggie and into my cooler until next time.

At my hotel after work, I continued to break the hide and re-folded it, bagged, and refrigerated it when I was done each evening.  It seems counter productive to fold it the way I described, as all the areas that took so long to break and dry, will become moist again.  I’m actually using that to my advantage…. Is what is happening, is that some of the hard to remove moisture in the thick sections of the hide is moving into the already dry easier-to-break/dry sections of the hide …kind of like osmosis. 

Back in my workshop last evening, I resumed the breaking process using some of my tools.  One helpful tool is pulling the hide across a cable to stretch and dry the hide.  The problem with this method is doing it during the proper weather conditions.  Last evening it was damp outside so I wasn’t able to drive the moisture from the hide into the atmosphere (think of the osmosis analogy).  The most perfect conditions to break a hide is dry weather with a bit of wind…not too dry or windy as if the hide dries too fast, faster than it can be broken, it will get hard.

Because it was so humid outside, I brought the hide inside to use a couple other breaking methods…basically stretching the hide over a post, back of chair, or using the Susanne Somers thigh master technique.  I also like to use the edge of my vise to work small areas.  

As the hide is broke, the color will change from tawny yellowish color to creamy white.  Very satisfying to pull the hide and have it change color!  Another indicator I use is “feel”…once the hide is no longer cool to the touch, it is dry.

I have lots more breaking to do but I think I’m getting closer!  This afternoon I’ll forage for some specific wood to use for the smoking process.

Take care,

Dino

[OldBrian]

Dino,

Great job with this tutorial

brian

[biggamefish]

I am in the breaking in process right now. I have had to add a damp cloth to re-moisten the edges. ( my fault i let it dry to much before I started breaking it in).

  I did however make the cable pull for stretching the hide. I have to admit I saw this on mountain men (Tom oar does this.). It works really well. Those shows are definitely dramatized but you can pick up some good tricks from them.

  @Dinorocks have you ever sanded the skin to make it soft? Someone was telling me you can do this. I would think you are just making it thinner and easier to break through the leather.

  I am planing on trying to make mittens with mine. Still lots to do!!!

[Dinorocks]

Bigfishgame-when the leather is dry, I sometimes sand the neck area to make the leather thinner so it blends with the rest of the leather thickness (if I’m making certain things I want the thickness of the leather to be consistent).  I would think sanding your hide to help with the breaking process would work, you will probably need to rehydrate the hide a bit so you can separate the fibers easier as it dries.

I have been working on breaking my hide almost daily…just about finished and I’m very happy how it is turning out so far! …except for a little beaver blood that got on part of the hide.  That blood spot will turn the hide rust colored in that spot due to the iron in the blood (recall when I said not to use anything metal when you weigh it down in the bucking solution aka ash solution…it will stain the hide).  I’m contemplating drawing some patterns with the beaver blood on part of the hide…Just need to figure out some patterns to lay out on the hide so I know where I want to draw.

In the picts below, the yellower sections still have some moisture.  If I let it dry without breaking those sections, they will get stiff.  Im going to continually break those spots as they dry.

One photo shows the membrane side up (creamy white colored) and flipped in the other photo.

 

[OldBrian]

Looks Great! Nice job!

[biggamefish]

Man hide is beautiful, but it has 2 wierd holes in it.

[Dinorocks]

49 minutes ago, biggamefish said:

Man hide is beautiful, but it has 2 wierd holes in it.

Ha!  I didn’t sew them up…didn’t have what I needed when I was out of town for the week.  If there’s a hole in the hide, I typically sew it closed using a beading needle and artificial sinew before I start the breaking process.  Once the hide is broken, I re-sew the hole using long strands of sinew from the backstrap.

[crappyice]

3 hours ago, biggamefish said:

Man hide is beautiful, but it has 2 wierd holes in it.

Man hide!?! Like Hannibal Lector wearing Officer Pembry's face?!?