March 30th, 2010
I will discuss making your own simple survival kits for the car, backpack, fishing bag, or one to carry on your person while in the outdoors. Let me begin with the basic need to be able to start a fire. I have always stressed to people attending my outdoor programs to have a candle of some sort in your kit. Size may vary as to the size of your survival kit. In a small kit, I carry those small birthday candles. Here's the kicker though, buy the ones that are trick candles, you know, the ones that keep relighting when
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Tags: how to make a survival kit, survival kits
Posted in Survival techniques | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
After some extensive research on the pros and cons of beef rawhide dog chews, I have discovered that most vets do not recommend them. Domestic beef hides contain high amounts of fat and this will cause excessive swelling once the rawhide is re-hydrated in the stomach and intestines of the animal. Although thousands of rawhide chewies are sold each day and there are few cases of this occurring, it does happen.
In my tannery, I have boxes and boxes of scrap rawhide left over from making lampshades and rawhide baskets, drums, etc. After throwing this away for a number of years,
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Tags: how to make rawhide dog chews, rawhide dog chews, using deer hide for dog chews
Posted in How To Make Cool Things | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Working with rawhide.
You just received this hard stiff piece of rawhide and are wondering how in the heck do I get this soft enough to use. I have received many calls from clients asking how to best rehydrate the rawhide. Finally I decided to just write it down and put it on our web site.
Rawhide Lace:
The best way I have found to relax rawhide lace is to place the entire bundle in lukewarm water, let me repeat t hat, LUKEWARM WATER! A smallRead the rest of this entry »
Tags: rawhide, relaxing rawhide, soaking rawhide, working with rawhide
Posted in Working with Tanned Skins, Leather and Rawhide | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Preparing Buffalo Hides for Tanning
Problems we may encounter when receiving buffalo hides are:
- Meat and fat left on hide around hump
- Tail is not split out completely
- Hide is not salted properly along edges
- On large bulls, neck area is thick and not dried out
- Hide has been air dried and has grease burned
- Hair is completely matted with manure
- Hide was unsalted and frozen, then shipped
- Hide is shipped wet and in plastic bag
- Hides are salted, wet and folded with hair on the outside
- Hides are nicked and cut around hump and butt area
Buffalo have aRead the rest of this entry »
Tags: brain tanning buffalo hides, fleshing buffalo hide, preparing buffalo hides for tanning, salting buffalo hides
Posted in Tanning Information | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Preparing Beef/Cow Hides for Tanning
We encounter more problems with beef cow hides than any other hair on skins. After 18 years I finally have concluded that the critical time for ensuring a good tan on a beef hide begins at the butcher.
Most adult cowhides are thick and therefore require some time to cool out. This is where the problems begin. Butchers are more concerned with the carcass than the hide. Cuts and skinning marks are caused by the skinners simply because they want to protect theRead the rest of this entry »
Tags: freezing cow hides, how to flesh and salt cowhides, how to skin a cow, how to tan cow hides, shipping a cow hide for tanning, tanning beef hides, tanning cow hide
Posted in Tanning Information | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Preparing Hides for Tanning
Curing
The purpose of curing a raw skin is to take away the environment for bacteria and provide a means of storage prior to tanning. More hides are ruined from poor handling before tanning could ever take place. The moment the animal quits breathing, oxygen is no longer being carried to the cells of the body. Decomposition begins immediately. You have to slow this natural process.
Any skin should be completely fleshed of all meat, fat and any connective tissue before salting orRead the rest of this entry »
Tags: buffalo, free advice on tanning, how to cape a deer, how to prepare hides for tanning, how to salt a raw skin, how to skin a deer, prepping buffalo hides, tanning
Posted in Tanning Information | No Comments »
