tanning hides

[theshoer]

I have the opportunity to get some (as many as I want) cow hides from a local butcher.  I have never tanned a hide although I kind of have an idea of what is involved but need a lot more information. Does any body know a good source I can read so I can find out how hard it will be and what I will need to do it. thanks

[Shotgun Franklin]

Find the site for 'Backwoodsman' magazine. They can either refer you to some back copies or send you to a place to get the directions.

[Bugscuffle]

I strongly suspect that you'll tan one hide or one batch of hides and then go back to buying them already to work into leather products. It's worse than sausage making, twice as messy,10 times as stinky and a LOT more work.

[Shotgun Franklin]

http://www.backwoodsmanmag.com

Everyone I've known to tan their own only did about 1 hide a year. It's pretty labor/time intensive.   

[theshoer]

well maybe I will not do it after all, he told me it cost him 6 bucks a hide to dispose of so first ting I thought of was free leather

[Shotgun Franklin]

There is a market for rawhide but I don't know how you get from a hide to rawhide?

[buckskin billy]

my hide tanning experience mostly involves brain tanning deer hides, but i have done 3 buffalo hides and there size is similiar to a beef hide. similiar in size but not thickness.
you would want to bark  the hide to make leather that you would make holsters and sheathes and such. its not rocket science but it is along drawn out process. the deer hides i have bark tanned have taken as long as a month. a 5 or 600 pound cow hide could take several months.
6 bucks a hides seems ridiculously high, you should be able to find them cheaper but times are hard so who knows.
if your serious about tanning send me a pm and i can point you in the right dirrection

[Cliff Fendley]

Pop always tanned my hide with a hickory switch. It was quite effective.

[theshoer]

6 bucks a hides seems ridiculously high, you should be able to find them cheaper.

I am not paying 6 bucks a hide he will give them to me for FREE, otherwise he has to pay 6 bucks to get rid of them

[Trailrider]

So I tanned 'is 'ide when he died, Clyde, an' that's it 'angin' on the shed!

[Bugscuffle]

Rawhide is very easy. You just soak it in salt water until the hair slips. Don't leave it in too long after the hair begins to slip though or the hide will just rot. Take it out of the water, scrape off the hair. If it doesn't come out fairly easily, just soak it a little bit longer, but you should be able to scrape it off with a piece of wood shaped like a chef knife. Then just dry it in the sun. Turn it over every day so that it doesn't rot on the bottom side. It should dry out in about two to three days. Stay upwind of the soaking process.

There is a market for rawhide but I don't know how you get from a hide to rawhide?

[Don Nix]

I gotta disagree. ,Making rawhide maybe simple but its far from easy.You must have more experience with it than I have .
first off  deflesh the hide which is no easy feat and be careful that you dont cut a hole in the hide, then you can soak the hide in lime /water solution to make the hair slip. Then take the hide out and using a post or stump lay the hide over it and using an old butcher knife scrape off the hair. You can also just lay the hide in running water  for three days or so until the hide  starts to slip the hair. if you can imagine the wieght of a green(fresh) steer hide  just imagine the weight of a thoroughly wet  steer hide.
After the hair is slipped then the hide must be dried and stretched. You do this by building a frame  of 2x4s larger that the hide and then punching holes around the outer edge of the hide ,use some cord to lace the hide to the frame stretching it taut. then leave it to dry in the shade. once its dry you can buff the side clean and cut it to size. if your going to cut it into strips you just start in the center of the hide and start cutting a two inch strip in a circular pattern working from the center out  . What you wil have then is a loooong strip of rawhide ready to make lace from.
The simplest way to make rawhide is to just stretch it  for a few hours then spend many hours scraping the hide free of fat and hair and allowing it to dry. But if it drys in the hot sun it becomes a Flint and loses it suppleness.
As I said it may be simple but its far from easy  and it is nasty  work.
A half rotting slimey two hundred pound wet hide is not fun to rassle with.

[GunClick Rick]

http://www.braintan.com

[Bugscuffle]

Don Nix -

"The simplest way to make rawhide is to just stretch it  for a few hours then spend many hours scraping the hide free of fat and hair and allowing it to dry. But if it drys in the hot sun it becomes a Flint and loses it suppleness.
As I said it may be simple but its far from easy  and it is nasty  work.
A half rotting slimey two hundred pound wet hide is not fun to rassle with."

It doesn't take all that long to flesh out a hide, and if the "mess" you talk about is all that too much for you, then just knock off the big pieces with a skinning knife and then dry it and use an electric sander to take off the rest after it is dry. A 200 pound wet hide is much easier to work with if you cut it down into smaller pieces. After all just how often do you have a need for a piece of rawhide that is the size of a full hide?

[Don Nix]

The times that I have worked wet hides, and Ive been in the leather business for over thirty years as a Master saddler,I do indeed use larger pieces of rawhide.
To braid anything larger than a key fob  with eight strands or  more can use long rawhide strings. to braid a riata of 30' and more needs long strings .
To recover a saddle tree,make a lampshade,I can name a bunch of uses for rawhide.
A two inch strip of hide cut from the center of a hide will produce an incredible length of rawhide to be cut into smaller  strips and wound into tamales for braiding everything from quirts to addle horne .
But since I have such limited knowledge of leather  and rawhide I bow to your far superior knowledge and experience.
I have two 900lb steers to kill in the next month or so and ,I may just need the hides cured. You wanna do it.

[GunClick Rick]

"A half rotting slimey two hundred pound wet hide is not fun to rassle with"

Oh i don't know,after a half pint and a six pack of beer?