<<< SKINNING: REMOVING THE SKIN
1) Cool off the body as soon as possible and hang it by the
head.
2) Using a stick hold open the body so that the air can freely circulate,
spread also the hind leg so that the air can freely circulate around.
3) REMEMBER to hang the deer by the head then cut the skin around the neck
near the head. Then cut the skin lengthwise under the neck down to the abdominal
cavity. Next you carve the inside of the legs in such a way that the 2 sides
meet together. Start at the top. Use your knife as little as possible. One
can remove or peel of the skin in big chunk size by just pressing his fist
between the flesh & the skin.
4) Keep on going toward the bottom till you get to the hind legs. This method
will give a clean job leaving hardly any hair on the skin.
SKINNING PART 2:
1) It is easier to skin any animal when the flesh is still warm, as soon as
it has been bled. First remove any scent glands that might taint the meat.
2) Some deer have them on their rear legs, just behind the knee. Felines and canines have a gland on either side of the anus.
3) It is wise to remove the testicles of male animals as they can also taint meat.
BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE HIDE: Cut firmly through the skin.
1) Make a ring cut around the rear legs just above the knee. Take care not to cut the securing rope.
2) Cut around the forelegs in the same place.
3) Cut down inside of the rear legs to the crotch, carefully cutting a circle around the genitals.
4) Extend the cut down the centre of the body to the neck. Do not cut into the stomach and digestive organs:
5) Lift skin and insert two fingers beneath, set knife between, sharp edge outward and draw it slowly down, cutting away from the body.
6) Cut down the inside of the forelegs. Cutting in this way, you avoid cutting prematurely into the gut cavity.
7) The fingers lift the skin as you go and the knife, sharp edge outwards, slips in and cuts along.
8) DON'T HURRY! Don't cut yourself. Don't damage the skin.
9) Taking care will pay dividends later when you want to use the skin. Now ease the skin of the rear legs, cut around the tail (you have already cut around the genital area.)
10) As soon as you can get your hand right down the back of the carcass use your fingers to separate flesh from skin.
11) Now peel the skin from the front legs. You will have a single piece of hide.
12) As you work your thumbs down the neck they become bloody at the point where the throat was cut. A strong twist of the head will separate it. Cut through remaining tissues.
HOW TO SKIN WILD ANIMAL:
1) As soon as the game is killed you hang it to a desired height
by the hind leg and make an incision with a sharp knife at knee height.
2) Then draw a straight line to the #anus# but don't press to hard so as not to open the animal right away.
3) You will slide the blade between the skin and the flesh while pulling fairly strongly with one hand with the help of your knife to cut the flesh that stick too much to the body, using your closed fist between the flesh and the skin is a good way to proceed.
4) You keep this line right down to the upper part of the ear MAKING SURE that you don't do any jerking movement.
5) Remove the excess fat and end by a cut on each ear, then pull the skin down to the nose which you cut then remove the skin completely.
6) As soon as the skin is removed, you will make a cut on the stomach up to the neck as to empty it completely from its intestine and of all the lower part.
7) Wash it with fresh water then cut the meat to preserve it as the food chapter tells you to.
8) As for the skin remove all excess fat and cover it with salt or #alum# powder or oak bark powder, then roll it and keep it in a cool place, not damp till the time for tanning 24 hours later.
WORKING ON YOUR OWN:
1) Lifting a large animal takes considerable effort. If on your own
you may have to skin and gut the animal on the ground.
2) To prevent the carcass from rolling, cut off the feet of hoofed animals and place them under it.
3) Lay the carcass down a natural slope, scoop an impression in the ground in which to place a collecting tin or other vessel so that the animal bleeds into it.
4) Follow the same pattern of incisions in the hide then skin the animal from one side to the backbone, spread out the hide and then roll the animal on to it to finish skinning the other half- this helps keeps the meat from rubbing on the ground.
SKINNING SMALL ANIMALS:
1) Rabbits and smaller animals can be skinned by making a small incision
over the stomach (be careful not to cut into the organs) Insert the thumbs
and pull outwards- the skin comes away easily.
2) Free the legs and twist the head off. If you have no knife available to make the first incision snap off the lower part of a leg and use the shard edge of the break to cut the skin.
HOW TO SKIN AN ANIMAL:
1) This operation MUST be done with precision if one wants to keep
the fur and requires much experience so practice on rabbits but you MUST MAKE
SURE that there is no blood on the fur.
2) So in order to do avoid this don't hit the rabbit on the head since the blood would accumulate at this spot.
3) Your best way is to hang the rabbit with its head down & hit it on the nose which will cause an haemorrhage death.
4) Skin it right away while you hang it by the back legs on hooks at 30cm distance. The best tool is a skinning knife but if you don't have one then use a straight one but MAKE SURE it is real sharp and keep the sharpening stone near by since its blade becomes dull quickly in the skinning process.
5) After you have made the incisions (cuts) the way shown you then start to pull off the skin till you feel a resistance which is caused by the #membranes# or tissues which then MUST be cut off as you go along.
6) Keep on pulling & cutting along but hold firm on the rabbit. Animals are skinned most of the time all the same way and the skin of the head and of the legs is usually not removed but a cut is made around them and the rest of the skin is removed.
7) In order to do the first cut (incision) you start at the sternum and go down along one of the front leg. The second cut will go along the other leg.
8) The third cut will go from the hind leg to rejoin the other leg and the last cut will go into the middle. With a rabbit the skin comes off with one pull using only the occasional additional cut.
9) However on most other animal the skin only comes off bit by bit as if it was a sheath which was too narrow.
10) You MUST then pull it off gently and when it resists call the army by using your knife well sharpened. Go easy so as not to pierce the skin.
11) The last operation is to cut the skin around the neck and around the legs.
12) Once you have removed the skin you can remove most of the excessive flesh but using the back of your knife, the rest of the flesh will come off when you do the skinning operation.
13) The next operation is the skinning which is to remove all the rest of the fat or flesh that has clung to the skin or leather.
14) In order to remove these pieces of meat easily dip the skin in a solution of #borax# or salt.
15) You prepare this solution by dissolving 500 grams of ordinary salt into 8 litres of water. If you use #Borax# then use 30 gram of #Borax# for 4 litre of hot water and let it cool off before dipping the skin into it.
16) The use of a shaker similar to the old washing machine would speed things up and would also diminish the falling of hair.
17) It is recommended before you dip the skins to stretch them on a wooden rack while they are still fresh.
18) In order that the flesh is removed easily let the skin soak in the solution above during one night.
19) (In some cases you may have to let the skin soak a few days, but experience will tell.)
20) In the morning wash the skin off with clear soft water and let it dry off. When it is still a bit damp you rub it with salt while avoiding that the salt comes into contact with the fur. As soon as the salt has been absorbed make a second one.
21) Fold the skin lengthwise the fur on the outside and roll it and let it lay down slightly inclined so that the excess of water comes out.
22) The removal of the flesh will be done the day after. For this you place the skin with its fur under and place it over a round piece of wood and scrub or scratch the flesh off from the skin.
23) Normally one uses a special knife for this but a butcher knife would do fine as well to remove all remaining pieces of flesh or #cartilage#.
24) For a rabbit the round wood is a piece about 1.20 meter long and 20cm in diameter which has been split in half lengthwise so as to present a flat & round surface
25) MAKE SURE that the bark is off the wood as well. Hard wood is much better than spruce since spruce type usually stays sticky.
26) Make also sure that its surface is well smooth and does not have knots or bumps.
27) The skin is #racler# with care and uniformly on all its surface. In order that the skin tanning is well done then the #membrane# that covers the inside face MUST be eliminated completely.
28) From time to time you scrape the skin with the back of the knife in order to soften it.
29) As soon as the operation is finished, you wash it in a soapy water and rinse it carefully but quickly then you dry it by hanging it on a stretcher.
RABBIT SKINNING NEW METHOD: A) This method was invented to make skinning as quickly and as simply as possible. B) NO KNIFE is required to remove the skin. One uses only his hands to turn the skin upside down.
1) With the thumb and index, pull on the skin at the point of junction of the hind legs pushing or inserting your index between the thigh & the skin, then using your finger as a hook pull downward & rip the skin down to the groin.
2) Once you have cleaned remove the 2 thighs, grab the skin with both hands and pull downwards.
3) Once most of the animal body is cleaned remove remove the tail and skin which have remained between the thighs.
4) Now pull the skin downward again while using your finger by inserting it between the skin and the flesh in order to facilitate the clearing of the shoulders.
5) Once they are completely cleared remove pull on the skin of the legs which will cut itself off easily.
6) Before going any further, you MUST remove the shoulders from the body carcass so as to avoid getting them soiled with viscera, blood and shit.
7) Now remove the intestines #viscera. # It is recommended to make the first cut a bit on the side of the stomach rather than dead on centre, so as to avoid any perforation to the #viscera.#
8) Completely remove the stomach muscles by cutting along the "filet" up to the first ribs.
9) You also MUST break the pelvic bone with at the thigh junction in order to facilitate the cleaning operation.
10) #Degager the "filets"# by cutting along the back bone starting at the first ribs up to the neck. Proceed the same way by sliding your knife between the ribs & #"filets".#
11) Now that your #filets# have been removed from the thorax cage, it is not necessary to remove them completely, they will do so on their own with the next step.
12) With the knife point break the vertebras at the level of the first ribs then fold the back bone backward.
13) The body will break in two, the thorax cage containing the #viscera#, the head & the skin will come together in one piece.
14) You will recuperate all the rabbit meat but for the small muscles holding the sides.
ADVANTAGES OF SUCH METHOD:
1) The small side bones which are often a real nuisance in a meal
will not be there at all.
2) You avoid to touch or manipulate the #viscera#.
3) You don't cut the head thus avoid bloody mess.
4) Real time saving for the whole operation.
RABBIT SKINNING & WINTER TIPS: The Indians do it this way; they attach one hind leg to a tree then they make a cut from the #anus# inside the thighs down to the heels. Then they cut the skin around the leg and they would pull off the skin like a glove using the knife to cut the root of the ears, around the eyes, mouth and nose.
In winter if the snowshoes hurt your feet, skin a couple rabbit and put their skin directly under your feet then put your socks over them. This skin to skin contact gives you an impression of walking over jelly but it removes the pain of blisters.
CLEANING THE SKIN: Make cleaning and drying the skin easier by stretching it on a frame. Do not make the holes for the cords too close to the edge. Remove the fat & flesh by scraping the skin, using an edge of bone, flint or other rock or even wood. Take care not to cut the skin. Remove every trace of flesh. Ants and other insects may help you if you lay the skin on the ground. Keep watch that they do not start to consume the skin itself.
TO CURE FURS: Stretch the skin as tight as possible and leave it in the sun to dry out. All the moisture MUST be drawn from it so that it will not rot. Rubbing salt or wood ash into the skin will aid the process. Do not let the skin get wet or even damp, until the process is complete. Do not leave it where it will be exposed to rain or risk a covering with morning dew. Keep it absolutely dry. If little or no sun is available, force dry it over a fire, but keep the skin out of the flames and use only the heat and the smoke which will aid preservation. Keep it away from the steam from any cooking pots.
TANNING:
1) Skin the animal as soon as dead or as possible.
2) Rake the flesh side of the skin, remove all impurities such as blood, grease, nerves etc. Be careful for blood spots. Put the skin in clear water for a few hours to help it.
3) Place in a tanning solution a: 4 lb of salt + 2 lb of # alum# and 3 gallons of water well-mixed cold not warm nor hot. B: 1 gal of water + 1 oz of commercial sulphuric acid + 1 lb of salt.
4) Soften up the skin from time to time & MAKE SURE that it stays completely under water, if need be use a rock to help.
5) After 24 hours remove the skin, let it drip off on a rope with the skin flesh side outward.
6) Repeat over again the number 4,5,6 Take the skin off for good, rinse it and wash it in water containing 1/2 cup of soda a laver# rub, #chiffonner# twist it dry as best as you can.
7) Let it dry in the air but NOT in the sun for 24 hours. Stick it to a board, stretch it and nail it down using small nails to help you in this chore and the hair side under.
When the skin is dry, rub it, #chiffoner#, and make it white using talc powder. The best skin season runs from October to March.
HOW TO PREPARE THE SKIN (TANNING): After having rolled them with salt inside in contact with the fatty part you wait 24 hours before soaking them in a tanning bath. After this period you put them for 24 hours in cold water then you stretch them on a board, the fur inside and the naked parts open toward free air. Then you will scrape with a knife all the fat and grease so as to make the skin as clean as possible. Then prepare a tanning solution made like so: 1 pound #alum# and 1 pound of coarse salt in 1 gallon of warm water. You soak the skins for 48 hours.
Several times during this time you will stir the whole thing up. At the end of 48 hours you will tend stretch them again on the boards, stretch them as much as possible and let them dry partially in a shadowy place NEVER in direct sunlight. When the skins are 1/2 dry, you MUST stretch them once more so as to maintain the maximum pliancy and to prevent the leather to harden. You then put them back in a new batch of solution as described above. You then draw them out to make them dry completely as shown before on boards, (fur on the board) then before all the oil runs out of the skin, powder them with wood's ashes mixed with saw dust well dry.
When the skins are impregnated of these substances you spread a thick sheet of paper between each skin and you roll them together before putting them under a weight of some sort. After a while you beat them with a small stick, once this done you comb the skin in #sens du poil# till they get back to normal shape.
ABC OF TANNING: There are as many procedures of tanning as there are tanners and each one thinks he has the best one. So here is one of them. The advantage is that it does not require the uses of DANGEROUS chemical giving toxic vapours. However the uses of rubber gloves are strongly recommended since the products attack your skin.
Use a big container either of wood, glass or plastic but not of metal since the chemical ingredients would attack the metal. Next you dissolve 2.5 kg of salt into 40 litres of water which you remove from the water as soon as it starts to boil. MAKE SURE that your water is not alkaloid (hard water) the use of rain water is best. Next you dissolve 1 kg of #alum# in boiling water and pour this solution into the first solution while mixing it with a stick, not with your hand. The solution thus obtained will be used either cold or hot. Dip the skin into this solution delicately with a stick twice a day. In order that the skin is totally tanned MAKE SURE that the solution gets well into the folds of the skin. The bigger the skin the longer the tanning time. A rabbit skin would require 2 days and a sheep 5 to 6 days.
Tanning permits a skin which if it was not treated would rot quickly. It transforms a skin into a nice fur or leather which is SOFT, SUPPLE, WITHOUT BAD ODOUR In the old days the tanning was done while using tannic acid from diverse plants or trees nowadays most tanner use alum.
To get a skin worth a professional you MUST use patience until the skin is supple. After having made the skin soaked into the solution for many days cut a small piece and check if the colour is well uniformed all over the skin. If it is uniformed then it is OK. But if there is a difference between this piece from the side and the middle of the skin then let it soak again one or two more days. Don't do the usual beginner error which is to remove the skin before it is uniformly and entirely tanned.
After the tanning is done, remove the skin from the solution and rinse it down very well using a hose or in a bucket till the water is clear and that all the fat and impurity are off. Now place the skin on a support with its fur on the outside. Avoid to place the fur in the sun. Place it in a cool place with a breeze so that it dries well. After many days when the skin and the hair are still lightly damp, roll it down while placing the sides facing one another and let it dry for one night.
If the skin has dried too quickly before it was rolled just damp the interior side with a sponge and roll it as said. Work the skin while stretching the skin on a smooth wood bar and twisting it with your hands. Do this #petrissage# as long as it is necessary until the skin is real supple.
The Indian women used to bite softly the skins for days, but then again they had time during the winter and their skins were a marvel of softness. In order to help you along using your finger tips while massaging the skin softly use #huile de pied de boeuf# or corn or cotton seed oil along your work which will penetrate the leather & make it supple.
To clean a dull fur fill a plastic bag with oat meal flour or saw dust, place the fur into the bag and shake the bag well till this dry cleaning is done. It works wonders but don't tell the dry cleaner he will go berserk. Next brush the fur till it swells smooth down the sides of the leather skin using rough sand paper rolled into a small piece of wood. The method is the same whether it is a fur or ordinary leather but if you desire to remove the hairs then do it, before the tanning operation is done.
HAIR REMOVING EASIEST METHOD: In order to this the easiest method is to let the skin soak during 5 days or more, if the weather is cool into a solution of 500 gram of #chaux# hydrated mixed with 3 litre of rain water into a wood container (not metal). Stir it from time to time with a stick and MAKE SURE that this solution does not come into contact with your skin or clothes since this solution is #caustique# and risk to burn you. So use rubber glove. Once the hairs start to peel off, rinse the skin well with soft water and lay it down on a piece of wood having the ex-hairy surface facing up. #racler# the skin using the back of your knife to remove the rest of the hair.
RAW LEATHER HAS MANY USES: Raw leather is a leather that has not been tanned usually without its fur and which has been treated by drying and extension. This leather is used to make sandals soles, shoe laces, tam-tam head etc. It has this specific property to retract when drying which makes it very good to hold tightly any object to which it is attached. To obtain this raw leather first ask the animal to remove its jacket or do it for him and #echarner le# as we have seen above from all its flesh but do not wash it.
Eliminate the hair according to the method above or using ashes from hard wood mixed with water which makes a kind of acid which will help you remove the hair. In order to do this method spread a damp paste of these ashes on the hairy side of the skin and roll the skin with its hair inside. Using a weight maintain the rolled skin in a solution of ashes and water. Don't forget to wear rubber gloves while doing this. Let the skin soak into the solution till the hairs come off easily #racler# the skin with the back of your knife to remove the hair.
SHEEP CAUTION: If you are using a SHEEP skin then the removal of the fat is very important because the skin will spoil otherwise. So for that skin you will do a first washing without any detergent product and rinse it many times using rain water then make a fast wash using a soft soapy product then you twist the water off and put in on a frame to dry.
SKIN DRYING FRAME: It is made of 4 thick branches made into a rectangle and strongly held together by criss-crossed leather tongs. Its dimension MUST be much bigger than the skin that you want to dry in order to stretch this skin to its maximum.
Using a nail or a punch you make regular series of holes all around the skin. Don't make the holes too close to one another otherwise the skin will rip apart. For ex. On a sheep skin one would punch holes every 5-6 inch. Next you attach the skin to the frame using these holes and a leather tong or a fine rope or salmon fish line going alternatively from the skin to the frame till all the skin is extended. See pix to help. Stretch the skin regularly on its sides, bottom and top so that the skin is well flat.
As soon as the skin is dried you can then #teinter# then you make it supple on all its surface using a small wooden hammer to pound it down. Lay the skin over a thick coat of newspaper or on a hard surface but smooth and you hammer it down with short and oblique (slanted blows).
RAWHIDE PREPARATION: Rawhide is prepared more easily. You can dry the green skin in the shade at odd moments scraping the flesh side as clean as possible with any dull instrument such as a piece of rock or bone flattened on one side. The skin may be conveniently held by stretching across the knee that portion that is being worked. Or like many of us you may prefer to leave it tacked or pegged to some smooth surface where hungry birds will in all probability aid your efforts.
If you want the rawhide to be soft, you will probably have to wet the flesh side. Allow it to dry and then re-scrape the skin, doing this as many times as may be necessary until the hide is satisfactory pliable. Care MUST be taken not to dampen the other side if retention of hair or fur is desired. If this is too long, it may be clipped. If you want the hair off entirely, that can be easily enough accomplished when the pelt is first secured by wetting the coat until it starts to slip, whereupon you can scrape if off in great clumps.
INDIAN LEATHER TREATMENT: The Amerindians OJIBWAY'S and others were tanning the leather according to a process which is still used all over the world today. They knew that the bark of some trees such as the oak, the Canadian Spruce, #Sumach# and #epinette# produce a substance particularly good to protect & make the skin supple.
We now know this to be tannin. In order to extract this tannin the Indians would boil several pieces of bark into water and would then soak the skins into this solution 2 to 3 days for a small piece and for many weeks with a bigger piece such as Bison, Buffalo. When the tanning was done they would rinse the skins into the next river, then they would beat, twist and bite the skins till they became supple. Next they would smear them with animal fat in their case bear fat which would increase its suppleness. Even today the tanning done with Oak bark is very well appreciated. The only draw back that this may have, is that the natural vegetal tanning gives a dark colour to the skin, but who cares when it is home made by the best artist around which is you of course.
SKIN SMOKING: This method was more specifically used in the case of deer skins. The skin was removed from its hair with the use of the ashes water noted above then they would rub the skin with the brain of the animal then they would stretch it on a frame to dry up by smoking. This method would then prevent the skins from moulding later on even when damp. To boot it gives a golden colour and smells real nice especially if the wood used is from a fruit tree. This smoking method can be used for most skins of average weight including cow and horses but especially good for deer skins. The smoked leather is well sought for by leather artists.
To smoke a skin as the Indians first dig a hole about 60 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep. Burn enough wood so as to obtain a thick layer of ashes and coals. Next using 4 thin but strong Green branches (don't use dry wood) construct a kind of support linked at the top by leather tong and onto which you will then spread the skin which has been previously skinned. (see above) MAKE SURE that the skin will not get burned by being too low and too close to the embers. Spread some Green wood, onto the fire and watch it over till the leather obtains the desired colour. In order to obtain an equal colouring move the skin from time to time. You simply do this by moving the frame around the fire.
SANDALS HOME MADE: Very easy to do. First draw on a piece of cardboard your foot print adding about 1 cm. all around it. Next cut into a piece of leather the sole according to your pattern and affix lacing to the sole thus cut. Then they will be either nails with rivets or staples or simply laced using small holes perforated in the sole outside part. Note: That the feet are not similar, so MAKE SURE you cut the pattern for each foot individually and not of the same pattern.
MAKING YOUR OWN MOCCASIN: They have many
forms and were used traditionally by Indians of North America. Their style
would vary from regions to tribes but they all had several common points.
The upper part was made from tanned leather usually smoked to increase its
resistance and the sole was made from soft supple leather.
The Apache style is made from 3 pieces. Using a heavy leather which is tanned
and oiled(Oil makes it better waterproof.) And then you cut the pattern on
some kind of paper MAKING SURE that each foot has its own pattern being different
one another.
#Batissez les morceaux du patron# and try it out before reporting it on the leather.
The pattern is made from the left foot you can reverse it to make it for a right foot but then it is still better to have a pattern for each foot. Since the leather is a thick one, it will then be necessary before sewing it to pierce holes using a nail or a punch (#alene) or one of those #griffe a trous# sold in leather and art craft stores. The stitches will be done at the #point de sellier# and the thread will be strongly pulled after each stitches so that it penetrates well into the leather. The stitching as well as being decorative will also be solid and resistant.
MAKE SURE that the holes pierced into the sole be slightly more spaced off that those of the #empeigne et du contrefort#. This difference permits you to compensate or make up for the superiority of the perimeter of the sole and gives a #effet de fronde#. Now all you have to do is to make shoe laces as shown above using the same leather as of the moccasins and then you slide them into the slits made into the #contrefort# of the shoe.
DRAWING:
1) Put your foot on a cardboard, a Kraft paper and draw your footsy with a
pen held vertically then draw the pattern of the sole by adding 3 cm to the
heel and to the tip and 2.5 cm to the sides and proceed, behold to do the
same for the next footsie.
2) Next you make the pattern of the #empeigne# by adding 0.5 cm to the largest widest part of the foot (lineAB). And add 10 cm. to the distance held between your big toe #et le haut du coup de pied# as seen on line CD.
3) Next the height of the #contrefort# of the moccasin will be of 10 cm. and its length will go around the ankle and override it by 1 cm. on each side of the #empeigne#. Verify the measures #sur le contour du patron# of each foot.
4) Using a nail or #alene# pierce holes at 0.5 cm. from the edge of the soles and of the # contreforts# #et de l'avant de l'empeigne#.
Space them out at equal distance between them with the exception of the sole where they will be closely made.
5) #La couture au point du sellier# which will maintain the sole to the #empeigne# will be started at the centre of the #empeigne# then it will keep on the edges while the stitching which will join the #contrefort# to the sole will be started in the middle of the #contrefort#.
6) To do a stitching #au point du sellier#, thread a needle at both ends of the thread.
At the first hole #egaliser les 2 longeurs du fil# and introduce the needles into the following holes going in opposite direction and then keep on going that way till it's finished.
LEATHER SHOE LACES: They are made from raw leather cut into thin circular (spiral) stripes done directly from the skin. Place the skin on a flat board and use a nail which will form the centre of the #spiral#. Using a sharp knife held vertically trace the #spiral# starting from the outside going toward the centre. Once the #spiral# is all done then you unroll your new shoe lace work of art. Since nothing is stronger than a rope with 3 thread one can use this leather laces to make himself one. If one has the time and needs a rope, all the has to do is to lay the skin flat on the ground and wet the skin a bit to help you when cutting it.
LEATHER MAKING: After cleaning, place the skin in water and weight it down with stones. Leave it until the fur can be pulled out in handfuls-usually 2-3 days. Make a mixture of animal fat and brains, simmered over a fire till they form an even consistency. Scrape the skin on both sides, removing hair, and grain. Keep it wet. Work sitting down with the skin over your knees. Keep manipulating it. Work the fat and brains mixture into the inner side of the still- wet skin, stretching and manipulating as you do so. Dry the skin in the smoke over a fire, keeping it well away from the flames. The smoke sets up a reaction with the solution you have rubbed in to make the skin supple.
LACES AND LASHING: Hide is one of the best materials for lashing and for thongs to lace things together. Cut short laces straight from the skin, along its length. To obtain a greater length cut in a spiral-keep the width consistent or the thronging will have weak points
SINEW AS THREAD: The hamstring and the main sinews of the legs-especially of the larger animals-can be dried and used as thread to stitch hides together for shelter and clothing. Recognise them by their strong white cord-like appearance. You can also function of the bladder is to hold water, so naturally the bladder of a large animal can be used as a water carrier-so can the stomach. Tie off the openings to seal them.