A candle should be the first thing you light with your match. Dripping hot wax on even damp wood will assist it in lighting. A larger tapered candle is good to carry in a backpack, just cut it into 4-5 inch lengths so it fits better. A candle will also burn longer than a match and won’t get too hot to hold like a lighter will. Also carrying a small piece of tin foil, just fold up a 12 x 12 inch piece into a small square. The tin foil can provide you a base for the candle to set on and if folded around the candle, it can reflect light and heat towards you and block the wind from blowing it out.

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, I decided to try my hand at making rawhide chews for my labrador who was constantly carrying pieces of rawhide around.

From my tanning experience, I knew natural skins contain glues, this is the same glue used for centuries in fine furniture building and is still processed today. By boiling small pieces of rawhide, I could remove  most of the glues and break down the protein fibers of the skin itself, thus making the rawhide more digestible. I also know that wild animal skins of deer, elk, moose, buffalo contain much less fat in the skin than beef skins. Look at a piece of rawhide, the dark pigment is primarily collagen, a good protein, while the lighter areas contain globules or fat cells. Unbleached rawhide of domestic animals have lighter color due to higher fat content primarily because of their diet. Drum makers prefer dark rawhide as it is stronger.

Ok, enough of the background, on to the recipe. Soak up some rawhide enough so you can cut it into 3-4 inch or 5-7 inch pieces. Don’t worry about making them square or cutting pretty shapes, your dog does not care! Prepare a pot of boiling water and add some beef or chicken bullion for flavoring. Don’t get carried away, one jar of favoring in a five gal pot is fine and it will make lots of chews. Place the rawhide in the pot, about 1/4 full, again don’t stuff it full. Allow the rawhide to cook, the pieces will begin to curl up in a roll. If you like that, fine, if not lay them out flat under a cookie sheet and weight them down to dry. This is much more work than you need to do. Allow the pieces to dry overnight. By this time your dog will be looking at you with hopeful eyes and a long drool hanging from his mouth. Just give him one of the newly cooked pieces, be sure it is not hot! He will instantly love you even more than you thought and will have it eaten in about 30 seconds. Don’t get carried away and continue to feed them to him. The dog is lying to you with his eyes!

Once you have plenty of pieces boiled up and dried, I keep my in a plastic bag or container. Now, you ask, where do I get pieces of rawhide? You can….go kill a deer, elk or moose, skin the animal, scrap all the hair, meat and fat off the hide, wash it clean, allow it to dry for a couple weeks and then cut it up into little pieces to feed your dog.  Or, you can go to craft materials in the shop online and order a few pounds of “ready to boil” rawhide.

Good luck, if you end up making some chewies, I would love your comments and even a photo of your dog eating them. Go to Pet Products to order a pound of prepared rawhide chews.

Joe

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 small child should be able place their hand in it without whining! Hot water will destroy the tissue in rawhide and you will have gelatin. Leave the bundle overnight, if you even think you might leave it longer than 12 hours, add some pinesol or a bit of bleach to the water, usually a cup of pinesol or a couple oz. of bleach. This is to keep bacteria from developing. If you don’t, the rawhide will stink after a couple of days. Doesn’t affect the rawhide much, but your friends will avoid you for a few days after working with this stinking rawhide. If the rawhide in not relaxed enough, soak longer but add the pinesol/bleach.
After relaxing the lace, rinse with warm water and begin your project.

Rawhide skins:
The larger and thicker the skin, the longer it will take to relax it. Please note, no skin will ever relax to its original state (i.e. When the skin was first removed from the animal and hair was removed) It will be close, but once processed into a dried skin, the fibers shrink and just cannot fully rejuvenate.

OK, lets start with deer and elk skins. Find an container large enough to get at least half of the skin submerged. A 32 gal plastic trash can works, or you can simple fill the tub up with water and lay the skin in it. It is preferable to remove rawhide before taking your wife takes her evening bath! As the skin relaxes, just keep pushing the skin under water. You may need to weight it down with something like a rock or brick.

Here’s an idea I use to relax a rawhide completely, but I am warning you, get permission first or wait until the wife is gone. After the skin is relaxed enough in the tub or plastic container, fill the wash machine with warm water. Fill the machine first and leave the lid open, check the temperature to be sure it is not hot. Add some detergent, any brand will work. Place the skin in the water and allow it to agitate. Again leave the lid open so the machine will not drain and spin at this time. Allow the skin to work itself soft. This is the best way to fully relax rawhide. It does not ruin the machine or the hide. Just don’t use hot water!

Once the skin is soft enough, close the lid and let the wash machine go through its cycles on a cold rinse. If your machine is not big enough, go to the local Laundromat and use the commercial machine. People will look at you funny, tell them it is a new type of material used to deflect bullets and is being considered for use by the military.

On large rawhide skins like cow or buffalo, you will need a large container. If your neighbor has a swimming pool, that will work just fine, just use necessary precautions. Actually, you can use a large plastic trash can, just keep pushing the hide down until is fully submerged. This may take a few hours. The thicker the hide, the longer it will take to fully relax.

Some ideas on working with rawhide. Look for fleshing cuts on the back side of the skin when laying out your pattern. These thin areas can break through when the rawhide is drying. Also brands can be a problem. Darker rawhide is stronger than light, lighter spots usually have a higher fat content and can be weaker. A thought for drum makers. I have cut my pattern out while the rawhide is dry then soak just that piece. If you do decide to soak the whole skin, and either have scraps left over or find you do not have time to work with the rawhide right away, just place it in a plastic bag and freeze. Thaw out in water or room temperature to use again. Do not take out and forget it, it will begin to spoil after a couple of days. Or you can just hang and dry it out again, but you will have to go through the soaking process again.

Dry rawhide will last for a very long time, in humid climates you may have to watch for mold or bugs, not in Wyoming though, drier than a popcorn fart around here.

Which ever project you are making, consider what type of rawhide will work best for you. We have made drums, lampshades, rawhide containers, laced furniture and snowshoes, and braided rawhide. Each project requires careful thought as to just how much do I relax the skin.

Have fun with your rawhide and if you have any questions or need some tips, just email me at awd@dteworld.com

Joe Brandl

Problems we may encounter when receiving buffalo hides are:

1. Meat and fat left on hide around hump
2. Tail is not split out completely
3. Hide is not salted properly along edges
4. On large bulls, neck area is thick and not dried out
5. Hide has been air dried and has grease burned
6. Hair is completely matted with manure
7. Hide was unsalted and frozen, then shipped
8. Hide is shipped wet and in plastic bag
9. Hides are salted, wet and folded with hair on the outside
10. Hides are nicked and cut around hump and butt area

Buffalo have a short time frame to produce a perfect hide. In most areas of the U.S., December 15 to January 15 is the best time to have a buffalo hide tanned hair on. There are exceptions of course! When considering on having your hide tanned, remember the cost of tanning an excellent winter robe is the same as tanning a poorly haired robe from an animal killed in April.

Any skin should be completely fleshed of all meat, fat and any connective tissue before salting or drying.

Why do you need to salt a hide?

Bacteria action is stopped when the moisture content is reduced to below 15%. It is important that this process is carried out as soon as possible. Even though some of the bacteria is killed by drying, other bacteria and the spores deposited by bacteria only become dormant and will be activated upon rehydration. Bacteria indiscriminately attacks the hide substance by secreting enzymes. They in turn redigest the broken down protein. This is especially important to control when tanning to prevent skin degrading and hair slippage. Once the protein that hold the hair follicle is destroyed, hair slippage is irreversible. Although drying a skin as quickly as possible is important, drying by direct heat or exposure to the sun can cause gelatinization and case hardening. The water soluble glues and fats become insoluble. This is seen when hides get a hard yellow appearance on the flesh side Salting not only dehydrates the skin but it combines with the proteins and separated the fiber. This makes rehydration much easier.

Raw skins should never be salted below freezing. A skin salted at 0 degrees F. will only have 20% penetration. Do not salt a skin and then store in the freezer, it does the hide no good. It takes approximately 12 hours at room temperature for salt to penetrate the average skin. Buffalo hides from large bulls can have a thickness of one to two inches in the neck and shoulder area. No matter how much salt you use, it will require several days or even weeks for these areas to completely dry out. Bacteria can cause hair slippage in these thick areas while drying. Once the hide is off the animal, you can thin the thickest areas with a sharp knife before salting. The salt will only penetrate from the flesh side. After 24 hours the salt should be shaken off and the skin re-salted with clean salt. Only then can the skin be stored in a cool, dry area.

For skins that are very thick (older bulls) or to be stored in the summer months or skins that are extremely bloody, the following soak solution is recommended. For each gallon of water add three pounds of salt and a bactericide/fungicide (Pinesol). Leave the skin in this solution for at least 24 hours, drain, salt, and dry.

Hides stored during the summer months can be infected with hide weevils. You will notice small gray larvae cases or actual larvae on the flesh side. They like warm wet and fatty hides. Storing hides folded hair in will help you see them on the flesh side. Another element that is common with buffalo hides is Red Heat Mold. Hides that are stored damp and in a warm area can be infected with a rust red mold. This mold will cause hair slippage and can damage the epidermis of leather hides. Drying the hide completely or spraying them on the flesh side with a bactericide will help avoid this.

Remember if you hang your hide over a rack to dry, REMEMBER TO FOLD IT HAIR SIDE IN BEFORE IT DRYS STIFF. It is a pain in the butt to try and ship a hide that is dried flat. Folding it dry will crack the skin and cause damage! We discourage receiving hides this way as they are hard to get into our rehydrating tanks!

Tanning Buffalo Hides into Leather
Turning your buffalo hides into leather requires less hand work than tanning for hair on. Why? Leather is produced with special equipment, thus reducing labor time. Therefore, the cost per square foot is less. Most buffalo hides are split down the back when tanned for leather. Most tanning equipment is only 72 inches wide. Any hides wider than that have to be cut. The other option is to trim the belly. This will give you a smaller hide but, a larger leather surface to work with. We offer leather tanning in one color, SMOKE. If you just want buffalo leather and it does not matter if you get your hide back., we can get buffalo leather, split down the back, in several different colors. Please note, you may believe your hide is perfect, but until the hair is removed, scars, cuts, rubs, boils, brands, cannot be seen. We do not tan leather at our facility, this is done by another tannery. Sometimes hides get damaged by the machinery. If your hide is damaged we will make every effort to replace it with a quality skin. Also, sometimes ID markings on hides become distorted and we cannot determine whose hide it is. Again, we try to return to you a quality hide and we inform you of any replacement. THIS IS ONLY FOR LEATHER TANNING!

Our Hair-on Tanning Method
All buffalo hides processed for hair-on are tanned by us here in Dubois. We use a syn tan. This produces a soft durable leather. All hides are machine and hand combed. If your hide is in the shedding stage, the long golden on the shoulders hair is not attached to the skin and will probably be combed out! Matted hair tends to pull out. We trim all the edges of your hide to ensure a uniform appearance. Faces and ears are trimmed off unless otherwise instructed. (Extra costs may be added to tan entire head) Large cut holes are sewn free of charge. We measure the square footage by multiplying length X width. ALL OF OUR HIDES HAVE A FREE LIFETIME CLEANING AND RECONDITIONING POLICY. This should be done at least every two years under normal conditions. We also can recondition any other hides you may have. Call for prices.

Handling & Shipping
Make clean straight cuts! Stay in the center of the hide when cutting. Keep tail intact, skin to just behind the ears and down to knee on legs. Do not cut scrotum in half, go around it.
Once hide is removed follow the next instructions:

1. Remove all flesh and fat, The better job you do, the better results you can expect.
2. Lay skins flat and salt thoroughly, using a fine or medium grade salt, livestock or hay salt works fine. We recommend 50 lbs. per elk, 25 lb/deer, 100 lbs/moose, buffalo, cow and horse. Salt is an inexpensive investment. Use plenty of it.
3. Allow skins to dehydrate, not puddle. After a couple of days hang on a rack or incline to drain fluids. Shake off loose salt and re-salt with clean salt. Allow to dry (not hard). Flip hide over and allow hair side to dry. Leave hide with hair side up………then
4. Fold skins carefully, hair side in.
5. If skins do not dry in humid weather, a fan to circulate the air is helpful.

1. Be sure to count your hides accurately! Enclose a packing list with each order. Include your name, shipping address and phone number for a safe return.
2. UPS is suggested for shipping parcels under 150 lbs. Use a cardboard box or burlap bag. Do not ship in plastic! No exceptions!!! DO NOT SHIP FROZEN HIDES!!!!!
3. For larger shipments, use common carrier. In State shipping is inexpensive for multiple hides
4. When calling your shipper, be sure to inform them you are sending green salted hides for the lowest rates.
5. Ship all orders prepaid. Return shipping is COD

We reserve the right to reject items, prior to finishing, which have major hair slippage or defects to the point where skin value is lost. We will call you if any problems occur.

Any additional skinning or fleshing on our premises is done at a rate of $20.00 per hour. Each hide is punched with your three digit receiving number and marked with a plastic tag upon arriving at our tannery. Cuts, rubs and other marks are noted on the receiving ticket.

Conditions of acceptance: In view of the many factors which have a definite effect on the final results of tanning (such as primness, general conditions of each specimen, climatic conditions, lack of knowledge) we assume no responsibility nor guarantee the results of any tanned hide.

All tanning is done at owner’s risk, due to the fact that we have no control over the handling prior to receiving shipment.

We believe our tanning is the best around and take great pride in our work. We have tanned buffalo robes available for sale also. Many items created with buffalo can be produced for you with your hide or ours. We are always in the market to purchase raw buffalo hides.

Stop by and visit our tannery and store.

Sincerely,
Joe Brandl

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 the meat. In those instances that meat processors have a hoist system to remove the hide, very little damage is done to the skin by way of knives. However, when a skin is removed from the carcass, it is usually laid in a pile off to the side until the skinners have time to drag it outside or to the hide pit. In a matter of less than 1 hour, you can have heat damage to the skin which results in hair or epidermis slip during the tanning process. To make matters worse, even if the customer has informed the processor that they want the hide tanned, it will eventually be rolled or folded up, hair side out, placed in a cardboard box and slid in the freezer.

Here is what just happened………..the warm hide around 90 degrees is thrown on the floor in a heap; the heat from the skin never has a chance to decrease much. Worse yet, if it is summer, the outside temperature may be even higher and there is no cooling of the skin. The neck and back are the thickest and thus contain heat longer and are more prone to heat and bacteria damage. The tail is seldom split open, leaving the bone intact. If the processor has a basement or salt pit, the hide may be dragged to it until someone has time to salt it, even then it is “salt packed”, which is fine for skins being processed into leather but bad for hair on tanning. Or, the hide is finally folded up, usually hair out, because we don’t want the bloody thing to get all over the floor or person dragging it around. This of course seals the heat and skin fluids within the hide and does not allow for cooling. Then, this hot bloody, manure covered skin is slid in the cooler or freezer and allowed to freeze. Of course the skin is covered with hair, which God put there to keep the animal from freezing. This hair, no matter how thin, will do its job and delay freezing. Eventually the skin will freeze, but the inside of the roll of folded hide will take about 4-5 hours to freeze solid, Meanwhile, bacteria is having a hey day! It breaks down the membrane surrounding each hair follicle and the thin layer of epidermis, cause eventual slippage.

You could do worse, by salting the skin and then trying to freeze it. Wonder why, we put salt on our sidewalks in the winter, KEEPS THINGS FROM FREEZING BY CREATING HEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now you have a really bloody and runny hide that may never freeze and bacteria can live quite well in a saline solution.

You reply, “I don’t have the time to flesh and salt this skin, so what do I do?????”

OK, first of all, be there when the animal is skinned, pull the hide over to an area either inside or outside and open it up completely with the hair side down, If outside, try to find a shady spot. Let it cool for at least 30 minutes or until it is cool to the touch. If you cannot flesh the excess meat and fat from the skin, please do not salt it, this only shrinks the meat and fat and makes it quite difficult to remove and you end up cutting the hide trying to flesh it. Also, the salt dries out the meat and fat and never reaches the skin itself.

Bacteria become dormant or die at 15% moisture or less.

Once the hide has cooled and you have decide to freeze it until you can figure out what to do with the skin, fold the skin in half, hair to hair side, then fold again, and again until it can fit in a cardboard box, if possible, try not to place in a plastic garbage bag, these just hold in the heat longer. Freeze as soon as possible and place on a wooden pallet also, This allow the cold air to reach the bottom of the hide. Now understand, this is not the best way to handle a fresh hide, but it is better then doing nothing for a couple of hours.

When the skin is ready to flesh or salt, you must soak the hide in a salt solution, using at least 50lbs of fine or medium grained salt in a 50 gal plastic barrel. Use warm but not hot water to mix the salt in, (it dissolves better), Once the salt is mixed, you can add some Pinesole or other disinfectant, about 1 or 2 cups will work. Place the frozen skin in the solution, it will float, so if you can force it under the surface, all the better. Now, don’t go off for a couple days and forget about it. You will need to pull the skin apart as it thaws out, allowing it to thaw more evenly.

Why do this instead of just letting it unthaw on the shop floor, Well, because it thaws the same way it froze, the outside will thaw first and the inside last. Once thawed, the bacteria become active and begin to break down the skin. The salt helps to cure the skin and the disinfectant killed bacteria.

Once the skin is completely thawed, dump the bloody water and place the skin on a rack of some type to drain, or just hoist it up by the tail above the ground and allow the fluids to drain. Once drained, proceed to remove any meat or fat over 1/4 inch in thickness from the skin, The better job you do, the better the tanning results. Lay the fleshed skin, hair side down on a pallet or two and salt with at least 100lbs of stock salt, fine or medium. NO ROCK SALT! If you can incline the skin, all the better. The fluids will run off quicker and the skin will dry faster. I recommend laying a 2×6 on edge and laying wooded pallets along the edge of the 2×6, you may need to nail or screw them to keep from falling over. Cement blocks work well for this also as a high center point. If in a humid climate, run a fan over the skin to increase evaporation of fluids. It will take about 7 to 10 days for a large cow skin to dry. Once the salt is dry to the touch and fluids have ceased to drain, flip the skin over and let the hair side dry. DO NOT LET IT DRY STIFF.

The skin should still be pliable and able to fold. It should be laying there with the hair up, right? OK, now fold it in half long-ways, neck to tail, fold the belly area over again to decrease the width, or fit the container you plan on putting it in. Roll or fold from the neck to the tail and place in cardboard box, Please do not put in plastic bag first.

Almost forgot, the 100 lbs. of salt you placed on the skin should have dumped off when you flipped the skin over to allow the hair side to dry. Don’t ship salt with the hide, it is expensive and I don’t need it. There will be some of course that remains on the skin, leave it!

Now the hide will continue to dry while in the box, leave the lid open to allow for evaporation. The longer you wait to ship, the lighter the skin as moisture evaporates. You can wait for a couple months if you want. Always ship before Wednesday, thus the skin does not sit in a heated UPS warehouse over the weekend. There should not be any fluids leaking from the box, you have dried the skin out, right!!!

If you choose to ship the skin to any other tannery or us (most do not accept frozen skins) understand that you are taking a risk in spoilage from thawing in route. If you just do not want to hassle with fleshing and salting, follow the instructions at the processor about cooling the skin and get immediately to a tannery or taxidermist. It helps to notify them in advance of you intentions and the day you plan on butchering the animal. Please do not take the bloody skin to them unannounced at 5:00 p.m. and expect a happy camper.
Best to try and have the animal skinned in the cooler mornings.

Best of luck and if you are still confused, call me!

Joe

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 or drying. Do not just throw some salt on a hide before fleshing it!!!

Bacteria action is stopped when the moisture content is reduced to below 15%. It is important that this process is carried out as soon as possible. Even though some of the bacteria is killed by drying, other bacteria and the spores deposited by bacteria only become dormant and will be activated upon rehydration. Bacteria indiscriminately attacks the hide substance by secreting enzymes. They in turn redigest the broken down protein. This is especially important to control when tanning to prevent skin degrading and hair slippage. Once the protein that hold the hair follicle is destroyed, hair slippage is irreversible. Although drying a skin as quickly as possible is important, drying by direct heat or exposure to the sun can cause gelatinization and case hardening. The water soluble glues and fats become insoluble. This is seen when hides get a hard yellow appearance on the flesh side Fur skins are most often stretched on wire or wood frames and air dried, but the most common method for curing is by salting. Salting not only dehydrates the skin but it combines with the proteins and separated the fiber. This makes rehydration much easier. It is important to use a bactericide in the rehydration process such as Pinesol

Raw skins should never be salted below freezing. A skin salted at 0 degrees F. will only have 20% penetration. It takes approximately 12 hours at room temperature for salt to penetrate the average skin. After 24 hours the salt should be shaken off and the skin re-salted with clean salt. Only then can the skin be stored in a cool, dry area.

For skins that are to be stored in the summer months or skins that are extremely bloody, the following soak solution is recommended. For each gallon of water add three pounds of salt and a bactericide/fungicide (Pinesol). Leave the skin in this solution for at least twelve hours, drain, salt, and dry.

HANDLING & SHIPPING INSTRUCTIONS

*** Before you go hunting or kill any animal, decide what you are going to do with the hide or cape. Make proper cuts as per your decision. If hide is to be tanned, be sure to make a clean cut up the center of the hide. Keep tail intact, skin to just behind the ears and down to knee on legs. If cape is to be saved, the first cut should be behind brisket and around shoulders. LEAVE PLENTY OF BACK SKIN! Do this before field dressing is started. Once hide or cape is removed follow the next instructions:

1. Remove all flesh and fat, (turn ears, split lips, and split nostrils, if for taxidermy or take cape to a qualified taxidermist. The better job you do, the better results you can expect.
2. Lay skins flat and salt thoroughly, using a FINE grade salt. livestock or hay salt works fine. We recommend 50 lbs per elk, 25 lb/deer, 100 lbs/moose, buffalo, cow and horse. Salt is an inexpensive investment. Use plenty of it.
3. Allow skins to dehydrate, not puddle. After a couple of days hang on a rack or incline to drain fluids. Shake off loose salt and re-salt with clean salt if a cape. Allow to dry (not hard). Flip hide over and allow hair side to dry. Leave hide with hair side up………then
4. Fold skins carefully, hair side in.
5. If skins do not dry in humid weather, a fan to circulate the air is helpful.
6. Before the skins get hard, fold and store in a cool place or place in cardboard box until ready to make a shipment.

– Be sure to count your hides accurately! Enclose a packing list with each order. Include your name, address and phone number for a safe return.
- UPS is suggested for shipping parcels under 150 lbs. Use a cardboard box or burlap bag. Do not ship in plastic! No exceptions!!!
- For larger shipments, use common carrier.
- When calling your shipper, be sure to inform them you are sending GREEN SALTED HIDES for the lowest rates.
- Ship all orders PREPAID.

We reserve the right to reject items, prior to finishing, which have major hair slippage or defects to the point where skin value is lost. We will call you if any problems occur.

Any additional skinning or fleshing on our premises is done at a rate of $65.00 per hour unless prior arrangements have been made.

Conditions of acceptance: In view of the many factors which have a definite effect on the final results of fur dressing (such as primeness, general conditions of each specimen, climatic conditions, lack of facilities, and sportsman’s lack of knowledge in the field) we assume no responsibility nor guarantee the results of any dressed specimen.

ALL TANNING IS DONE AT OWNER’S RISK, due to the fact that we have no control over the handling prior to receiving shipment. We believe our tanning is the best around and take great pride in our work. We have tanned hides and furs available for sale also.
Stop by and visit our tannery and store.

Sincerely,
Joe  Brandl