Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills

Hide stretching frame/process questions

(1/3) > >>

boxerboxer:
I've got two deer hides that I salted and stored, one several years old and one from last fall. I'd like to turn one into rawhide and the other to leather. Next step I imagine would be to soak them til pliable and then scrape off the hair.

I've got a bunch of buckthorn growing in my back yard and while most of it is too crooked and knotty for bows I think I could probably make a stretching frame from it. Would 2" diameter be sufficient or should I go thicker? I was thinking 6' long pieces with braces in each corner.

When it comes to scraping, what's the proper tool? Could I use a hatchet held sort of perpendicular to the hide? Do I need to buy/fab something?

Hawkdancer:
Not familiar with buckthorn, but I would think 3" would be a lot stronger, also 7' length.  Hides stretch a lot!  You can slip the hair with a solution of garden lime, first rinse the hide to get rid of the salt, then use about a coffee can to about 20 gallons of water, stir daily until the hair starts to slip.  Wash hide with pure soap, Ivory or Murphy's.  Be sure hide is fleshed.  Good luck!
Hawkdancer

Pappy:
Here is one of mine, it is ERC so not sure how buckthorn would compare , mine is about 2 inches and I make the frame 7 foot, nothing worse than start stretching the hide and the frame to small, just takes a little more string if the hide is small. you could use a hatchet head I guess but the tool I use has a one sided bevel , I will try and get a picture of it this weekend.
 Pappy

Pappy:
Never tried the wet scraping but I know that will work with out racking the hide, seen it done but I don't like the mess.
 Pappy

Pappy:
here is the tool I use to scrape the hair, notice the single edge, works really well.
 Pappy

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page