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Moccasin leather?

the hawken shop
L & R
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I won't make moccasins out of anything but bison hide unless the feller really has his heart set on something else. That stuff is almost indestructible and is very easy to work with. The Hide House in Napa, CA (https://hidehouse.com/products/index.html?Category=SB) has a great selection and that's where I get all mine from. If you sign up for wholesale pricing (all that means is that you give them your email address) you can get it for $5.95/sq ft. That is a steal compared to most places for 9 oz. bison leather!

Darren
 
I'm not a leather expert, but its smooth on one side.
I've made botas, marketwallet, shoepac soles, and serveral fringed medicine neck pouches from it also.
I actually like this hide better than german tan bucksin because the german is rittled with scars and blemishes. My shoepac moccs on the bottom are made of german tan and have weird spots, the soles on them are Willow Buckskin as all my other gear that is of buckskins. Sorry for the bad quality pic:D
20190424_093711.jpg
 
dhaverstick said:
I won't make moccasins out of anything but bison hide unless the feller really has his heart set on something else. That stuff is almost indestructible and is very easy to work with. The Hide House in Napa, CA (https://hidehouse.com/products/index.html?Category=SB) has a great selection and that's where I get all mine from. If you sign up for wholesale pricing (all that means is that you give them your email address) you can get it for $5.95/sq ft. That is a steal compared to most places for 9 oz. bison leather!

Darren
Click to expand...

Great Tip! Thank you.

Just as note for those who do 18th century persona's and may discount using Bison Hide, as I did for quite a few years. Then I found out that Mountain Bison and Mountain Elk were still found in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1740's. Further, hunters found "regular" Bison aplenty just on the other/western side of the Blue Ridge/Appalachian Mountains in the 1760's and right up to the AWI. I imagine Bison were also found in other areas at the time on the west side of the Appalachian Mountains as well.

LOTS of Bison available in the early years of settling Kentucky, so much so they described making socks/stockings from Buffalo "Wool."

Now what I don't know is if Eastern Woodlands moccasins were made from bison as well or if they added an extra sole of bison hide to the bottom of their moccasins? This doesn't mean they didn't do it, it is just that's outside my field of study. I wasn't making that early of a style of moccasins back when I made them.

Gus
 
238B8729-235B-455E-A2E6-180E60822830.jpeg
CAE40085-7171-4656-96D5-C56A7B1F3A26.jpeg
8F76D758-3EB5-4609-912A-562B5C2115CA.jpeg
Crazy crows willow is a nice color that resembles brain tan, but it’s still a
modern tan. It’s not as soft and doesn’t breath like brain tan. The smooth side of buckskin is still very rough because the epidermis is scripted off with the hair. Modern tanning slips the hair off leaving the epidermis. Even if you slip the hair you have to break up the epidermis to get it to soften. Should you buy it or make it brain tan makes an expensive pair of moccs. Crazy crows willow on flesh side will look better then golden tan. You should think extra sole out of a thicker skin for any deer skin mocc.
Here’s photos of the smooth sides of brain tan
 
Artificer said:
Just as note for those who do 18th century persona's and may discount using Bison Hide, as I did for quite a few years. Then I found out that Mountain Bison and Mountain Elk were still found in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the 1740's.
Gus
Click to expand...

Eastern Wood Bison, a subspecies (of sorts). I have seen ( and photographed) a few period powder horns made of Bison horn, from around Ft. Pitt.

Don't know about moccasins, but "it stands to reason" - HAHAHAHA! Not going down THAT road!

Richard/Grumpa
 
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Every year I shoot a couple groundhogs that destroy my wife's garden. I have been told g'hog hide is the toughest stuff there is for mocs. Anybody here have experience with this. Wondering if I should start saving the hides. Some of these g'hogs are pretty big and one should provide more than enough for one moc.
 
Not sure how to use the quote tab yet. Concerning the ground hog question from Rifleman1776. Unless you plan on tanning them yourself, I'm not sure you can find a commercial tannery who will turn those skins into leather. The two fur tanneries I use for garment furs are Tubari in New Jersey I think, could be north Carolina. Also, my favorite is Moyle in Idaho. If you got those groundhogs tanned hair on you'd have some warm mocs! Just a thought. I've also read that if you slip the hair and make rawhide that it's a wonderful banjo or drum head, great lacing etc. Good rawhide is always useful! It would be a shame to throw them out. Are you aware how to trapper stretch them for sending out or preserving until you get to them? There's probably a thread here somewhere covering this. Skinning and freezing works ok if you are going to process them yourself, better in fact as you don't have to re-hydrate them.
 
AmandaP said:
Not sure how to use the quote tab yet.
Click to expand...
The quote button doesn't seem to work, but the reply button does what I expected the quote button to do. I also discovered that if you're using a compliant browser, you can highlight text in a post and a pop-up appears giving you a quote/reply option; that makes it easier to selectively quote (again, use the reply option).
 
Rifleman1776 said:
Every year I shoot a couple groundhogs that destroy my wife's garden. I have been told g'hog hide is the toughest stuff there is for mocs. Anybody here have experience with this. Wondering if I should start saving the hides. Some of these g'hogs are pretty big and one should provide more than enough for one moc.
Click to expand...
Groundhog, marmot, mountain beaver(burrowing rodent exclusive to Olympic Penninsula, I "think"), all make strong lacing, good banjo heads.
I've only alum tanned, but results seemed strong.
I bet abig hide would make a good moccasin.(?)
Dave
 
Grumpa said:
Don't know about moccasins, but "it stands to reason" - HAHAHAHA! Not going down THAT road!
Richard/Grumpa
Click to expand...

Great info about Bison around Fort Pitt in the early days.

Never (as yet) having made the standard eastern woodlands moccasins with the seam up the top front, I don't know if Buffalo Hide is too thick to make them in that style?

Gus
 
AmandaP said:
Skinning and freezing works ok if you are going to process them yourself, better in fact as you don't have to re-hydrate them.
Click to expand...

When we were Raccoon hunting back in the late 60's/early 70's, the Fur Buyers would accept either stretched and dried or frozen hides. Most of the Hunters I knew froze them, as you didn't make enough money more to pay for the stretching racks and fool around with it. There was only a dollar difference in the price back then.

Gus
 

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