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how do ya make rawhide?

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recurve shooter:
hi guys. between the two camps i hunt i should be able to make off with a few deer skins this year. id like to turn them into raw hide, as i assume it would be much easyer to do than tanning them. my question is, how the heck do i do it? im tierd of haveing nothing to trade, so i plan to steal all the tendons and hides i can this year. thanks for the help!  ;D

nugget:
It can be done a couple different ways. I wet scrape the flesh off of the inside of the hide then either wet scrape the hair or stretch and dry then scrape the hair. Once that is done and it ihas been stretched and dried properly it is rawhide.

recurve shooter:
ok, well there aint nuthin to that. its just how i grew up drying coon hides.

thanks for the fast replie by the way. it took ya like 6 minutes.  ;D

so ya just scrape the hair off like you do the fat and tissues on the flesh side?

Hillbilly:
I flesh it good, then stretch it and let it dry and scrape the hair off. You need a sharp scraper. You can also soak the hide in an alkali solution (garden lime or hardwood ashes) for a couple days then wet-scrape it off. It comes off really easily then.

Stringman:
I have a 30 gal plastic barrel that works great for that. The first time I did it I just put the hide in clean water. The second time I added several gallons of sifted hardwood ash. It seems to work quicker with the ash added. Took about 3 days and the hair started slipping. Once the hair is slipping just use a scraper and remove the hair. Careful that you don't slice the hide. It really is kinda "dumb work." It doesn't take a lot of brain power, but it might give you sore wrists by the time you're done! After it has been fleshed and de-haired stretch and tack it down to a big piece of plywood (or tie it to a willow frame.)

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