SC - Deerhide help (kinda-sorta on topic)

[UlfR]

On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Philippa Alderton wrote:

> As far as useful, non-edible parts, of course there's the hide- I'll get
> into that in a bit, after you get it off. The legs, from the knees down are
> saveable- many folks fold them, dry them, and use them as coat hooks, or a
> gun rack under the trophy. The best part to get, though, of the parts that

You can also make rattles from the hoves. Just put the legs in a bucket
of boiling water, wait 5-15 minutes and pull them off using pliers and a
twisting motion. Make a hole in the point and string them up. The small
ones make neat "cord-ends" instead of the plastic stuff you find on many
garments. Crack jokes about KGB while working.

> side up, and salt the bloody blue blazes out of it- an inch or so of salt is

Why not simply freeze it? Much easier to work that way, in my
experience.

> for braintanning and a lot of links, or Tandy Leather has kits for sale at:
> 
> http://www.tandyleather.com/products.asp?dept=21&pagenumber=2

I would strongly suggest http://www.braintan.com instead. You need no
special tools apart from a scraper, which can be adopted from stuff
found in the hardware store. Use a standard plastic bucket and a score
or so of egg yolks for the "braining", and a log or plastic pipe to
scrape against. Insane people^W^W Fanatics have done the scraping
standing in the shower when the weather was inclement.

Basic process:

	1. Put the hide in a (strong) alkaline bath. It can stay there
   	   for several weeks/months without anything bad happening. 
	   Nothing rots at pH 13 or so.

	2. Scrape off the hair, epidermis, and membranes from the hide.
	
	3. Brain the hide in some suitable fat emulsion. Anything from
	   animals brains or marrow to Hellmans Mayo will do. I tend to
	   use either the brains or egg yolks. A dozen or a bit more for
	   a roe-deer, more for larger animals. Wring it frequently.
	
	4. Work it soft.

I've got some instructions up on
http://www.algonet.se/~parlei/psg/crafts.html#13.1, and there is plenty
of info on http://www.braintan.com.

> With deer hides, take the hair off unless you want the thing shedding for
> the next 10 years, until all the hair falls our. Deer hair is a hollow fiber
> which tends to shed, unlike the hair of most NA mammals.

I am currently experimenting with a raindeer hide. Rought scrape of the
flesh side, liberal amounts of linseed oil/turpentine mix and let dry. A
friend claims that his have kept from shedding for ten years (he has
added a layer of marine varnish after the linseed oil). As me in a few
years.

/UlfR

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                      parlei at algonet.se
Never try to outstubborn a cat.  
		-- Lazarus Long (R.A. Heinlein)