Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
hide tanning advice
bjrogg:
Trailwalker, that's looking real good so far. I love how you got the youngster right in there getting his hands dirty.
Ed awesome job as always
GlisGlis I agree. That was definitely one of my all time favorite posts on this site
Bjrogg
PS hopefully I'll finish my tanning job today or at least get it real close. Did two batches Lutan.
6 mink, 1 beaver, 1 coon, 5 red fox, 19 muskrats. I'll post when I get them all cleaned up and completely finished
BowEd:
Jeepers bjrogg your gonna get a bunch of projects out of all of those.I always liked my muskrat mounty style hat I made long ago.Lutan????Is that the method or the chemical?
bjrogg:
Ed I've always wanted one of those hats too. You made one yourself? I'd love to know how.
I might have spelled it wrong but lutan was a kit tan I bought from one of the taxidermy supplies companies. It is a Chemical tan kit and after working hide it's nice a soft. I think everything is going to come out great. Probably going to have to rehydrate beaver and stretch it after I'm done thinning it just a little more.
Bjrogg
BowEd:
bjrogg....First you take a string.Put it around your head just in the crotch of your ears and an inch above your eye brows.Put the string to the tension you like.Now take your fur and cut two 4" wide by half the length of your string.A little over to allow for both seams.You'll have to allow for flannel padding inside too so maybe the string should fit a little loose.Not tight at all.
Now cut a kinda egg shape circle from a hide for the top the same circumference length as your two strips.Look at a hat that fits you right and copy that.Hope I said that understanding enough.Now sew that round piece to your two 4" bands.You should end up with a 4" deep bowl kinds.A muskrat of good size fits perfect for that round top.You'll probably only get one strip per muskrat.You can sew on ear flaps connected to a band that goes around the back of the hat to the bottom edge of your hat.It might take 2 more rats to get the ear flaps and back piece.So a total of 5 rats to make a mounty style hat usually depending on the size of the rats.
Put some flannel interior into it and you've got a very very warm hat.You'll have to place the grain of the fur accordingly to give it a nice look.Usually the grain of the hair is flowing backwards.
It takes a while with a bit of hand sewing.About 4 hours worth I'd say.I use artificial sinew half thickness with a glovers needle.Whip stitch it around with a shade under 1/4" spaced stitching.
bjrogg:
Thanks Ed you make it sound easy lol. Sometimes I wish my wife sewed so I could just prepare the hide and she could sew them but if there's any buttons missing I'm the one who has to sew them on lol. I'm going to give it a whirl when I catch up on projects. Thanks again. I would like to have a good book about making things from tanned hides.
Bjrogg
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