tanning

[Hammerhead]

what kind of tanning is the best if you wanna keep the fur on the skin.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Tandy Leather sells a tanning product that works well with hides where you want to leave the fur on. I have had 4 deer hides commercially tanned with the fur on, and use them for throws, in my lodge when camping. In the city where I live, its amazing how many people who see those hides have NO clue what animal fur they represent.

We truly live in the age of plastics, and most adults and their children think all materials are man-made from synthetic products. When confronted with REAL FURS, and REAL leather products, they simply have No idea from where they come. One city woman told her son that the Beaver hide that adorned my friend's possible bag was from an Extinct Animal. I couldn't stand listening to her, and asked her where she learned that Beaver are extinct? She honestly believe that the history lessons where the beaver trade of the 1820s and '30s ended because the Beaver "Played out" meant that the animals were trapped to Extinction by those big, bad Mountain Men. I suggested that she walk over a slight rise to our West, about 200 feet, and then go down to the bank of the small lake there, to look at the tree at the shoreline that had been girded( and would die the next Spring) by beavers living in the lake. I also told her where she could stop on a bridge over the northern arm of the lake, walk to the railing, and see a Beaver lodge in the lake about 35 feet South of the Bridge. I thought she was going to Faint! :shocked2: :nono: :idunno: :rotf: :hmm: :thumbsup:

 

[gmarc]

Paul

Folks like that are....well....maybe 4 hot meals away from a nervous breakdown.

Thank goodness you didn't make the thing out of a Dodo bird.

 

[gmarc]

R

You can keep the haitr from slipping by trating the flesh side of the hide with salt and alum.

 

[MSW]

i read somewhere that there are now more beavers in the US than there were when the nasty, mean, rotten, imperialistic, running- dog capitalist, oppressor- of- the- masses (hey! wait a minute! i am one of the 'masses,' and i've got a union card to prove it!) filthy capitalist exploiter
:barf:
white anglo saxon protestant [insert expletive here] males

got to the (now) USofA.

how can this lady not know what a deer hide looks like? has she never seen a deer?! how can you be so completely berift of any connection with the natural world around you?

these people think that eggs come from little hexagonal impressions in the carton, that milk comes from a plastic jug, and that ground beef , well, let's not go there.

Is there a parton saint of the terminally self- involved? Perhaps, Saint Jude?

... pray for us now in the time of our need ...


i know i shouldn't post when i'm sleep- deprived, but DANG!!

makes me remember why i shoot flint and occasionally just walk around in the woods!

 

[paulvallandigham]

The lady I am describing showed up on a cold windy March day at a forest preserve, where my local BP club was encamped, and doing a shooting demonstration. She was wearing high heels, Dark nylons, a suit, with a small fur Wrap around here neck, dragging along a small boy. She was from a large Urban area located in N. Illinois, apparently visiting the Univ. of Illinois, and drove out-a considerable distance-- from the twin cities to attend the district's Maple Sugar Days festival. We were part of the attractions. Her son was all excited about my elkskin pants, my friends Beaver pelt possibles bag, my leather bag, our powder horns, and anything else we were wearing that was " unusual" to him. I assured the woman that we not only had Beaver living here in Central Illinois, and even inside the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, but that there were beaver living in all the rivers, steams, and creeks in "Crook" county, Illinois, as well. She simply did not see them, because they are Nocturnal in their behavior. The only evidence most people ever see of beaver is the stumps of trees they have cut down and dragged off into the nearby waters. Of course,I SEE the drag marks, the tell tale 5-7 inch wide drag trail from the water up the bank where the beaver came out of the water, and its footprints in the shallow water when it entered and exited. But, then, I know what I am looking for, and recognize it when I see it. Most folks don't have this information.

 

[Wayne Combs]

Sadly there are many,many more like her out there, probably products of TV, and a liberal educational system.
Speaks volumes for home schooling, and no TV. I better shut up now, before I start sounding political. :2

Wayne

 

[paulvallandigham]

I had the same light-weight history teaching in school when I grew up in the Chicago suburbs. I knew differently, because my family was involved in my education, and took us to zoos, and on vacations around the country so that we got a chance to experience a lot of different things growing up.

As much as I respect home schooling, it is only as good as the parents are well educated, and Trained to be TEACHERS. I know lots of highly educated people who simply have NO skills for teaching. I am not pleased with how our college Education departments Train teachers.

I don't blame TV, today, either. There are plenty of wonderful channels with great varieties of information available on Cable, and Satellite systems. A few years ago, in its hayday, the History Channel was showing American History programs that were as close as you could come to sitting in a College History Classroom, only better. More recently, that channel's offering have degenerated to " monsterquest" and similar programs, that visit fantasies, but offer no concrete facts. Its the equivalent of telling kids " boogey-man " stories as FACT! UGH!

If parents choose the right programs for their children to watch, the kids will have a wider exposure to information than they could possibly obtain at home, or even in their local schools, without these programs. Like may kids of my generation, I also benefited from years of family subscriptions to National Geographic magazine. Its still a terrific resource. I did a term paper on Afghanistan, back in 6th Grade History class, based on reading an article on the country(?)in National Geographic Mag, circa 1959.

I believe that we need to continue to teach and learn these skills, like tanning hides, and take the opportunity to educate as many people as possible about these skills. There are scout programs, and 4-H programs all over this country- even in cities, where this kind of information is appreciated, and will supplement the education the children get no matter where they attend school.

My club was asked to do demonstrations all over the area, not because we were shooting, but because we offered a wide variety of demonstrations to our audiences. One year, a member who was a Trapper, brought some beaver hides he had stretched out on willow limbs, leaning against his Tipi to dry. He served BBQ beaver to members, and visitors, alike, free, just so they could taste the beaver meat. We got more comments, and compliments from visitors that year than ever before, with both club members and visitors expressing surprise at how much like beef pot roast the beaver was. On a coldk, raw March day, the hot sandwich was welcome- altho everyone was a bit squeamish about eating "beaver!?" the first time it was offered. :rotf: He had trapped all 5 beavers out of a farmer's drainage ditch near Redmon( Edgar Co.), Illinois.

 

[Elnathan]

what kind of tanning is the best if you wanna keep the fur on the skin.

I don't know about the best way, but the way I did mine was to use this recipe:

2 gallons water
2 cups road salt (non-iodized)
2 cups aluminum sulphate (Alum)

Leave the hide(s) in for a week, stirring once a day to ensure good coverage.

Since I was tawing a calfskin, I used triple the recipe or something like that, but the same proportions. I also found that the hide would not soften until I rubbed in a solution of neatsfoot oil and ivory soap.

 

[Wayne Combs]

Paul,

Very seldom watch History Channel anymore due to what they have become. More actual history shown on History International and the Military Channel, although most have aired on the old History Channel.

I had a couple of very good history/social studies teachers early on in school, can't say much for my high school history teacher or college history, too much Civil War.

Speaking of programs for the young'uns, this week end is the youth shoot down at Friendship, need to run down later and see what kind of turn out we had.

YMHOS,
Wayne

 

[Hammerhead]

thank you elnathan i will try this as soon as i find me a fresh roadkill since all huntin seasons are out. :hatsoff: