Need some help with making rawhide

[rgerbitz]

Hello all,

I've been having some trouble getting some decent rawhide made lately. And am not sure what I am doing or not doing that is causing the trouble. The last two hides I have done I have only been able to get about half of the hair off after sitting in a lime bath for a few days. And some of the places where the hair would come off I would break through the top layer of skin with very little pressure being applied. Does anyone have any ideas what I might be able to try to get some better rawhide. I have been asked to make some peices for prizes for a buckaroo assn. to give out as prizes and really need some good string.

Thank you for your help,

Rob

[Alan Bell]

Hey Rob, make sure you have fleshed the hide really good before you lime it! if seems to me that the thicker areas with more fat seem to hold onto the hair more. Maybe the lime is not getting in there good because of the fat I don't know. Also, i used to worry about leaving them in the lime to long but Nate said he's left them in there for up to a week and still made good string! Last time I visited him he had two hides in a tub that were there before I got there and he didn't touch them the 3 days I was there to visit that I saw! He said he fleshes them REAL good before liming and his string looks as good as any better than most.

Vaya Con Dios, Alan Bell

Strike the hammer while the iron is hot!

Bob Marley - Mellow Mood

[rgerbitz]

Hey Alan,

I think I am doing a good job of fleshing, espesially where that fat is the thickest as this is the easier part to get off. What I am mostly worried about is that the hide is rotting through to quickly. That and the smell is enough to make my wife wonder if I have lost my mind for working with it at all. After reading through the thread on casing leather I am wondering about our water quality. We have a very shallow sand point well and I know from water test that the bacteria and nitrates in our water are high. We don't drink it ourselves. Any other ideas?

Thank you,

Rob Gerbitz

[rcsaddles]

I learned from Mary Fields back in the early 90's how she makes rawhide.

Take the hide from the critter and lay it out on the ground. start in the center and start cutting a strap about an 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide. Just kind of corkscrew out. This will make a strap over 100 feet long when you are done. Once the strap is cut, stretch it up between a couple of posts. Pull it as tight as you can. Then, put a small rope in the middle and pull it over to one side and tie it off to something to get more stretch out of it. Take a SHARP pocket knife and scrape the hair off. It takes me about an hour to scrape 120 foot long strap.

Once done, soak in water for a couple of days to get the consistancy of cooked spaghetti and run through a splitter. I try to pull though about 10 times so I am not taking much at any time. When done splitting, temper the strap, cut your strings and braid away.

I know this may be a little "off the wall" for some folks. I don't do a lot of rawhide, not as much as I want anyway, but Mary used this method and made 90 reatas as well as other items.

I anyone wants more info on this, let me know and I will explain it further.

Joe

[KAW]

Rob, it could be a number of things how long have you had the hides before you started to lime them, some times in real hot weather parts of the hide can start to dry before you realize it , it also could be your lime isn't getting evenly distributed, in hot weather I like to move the hide alot in the water to keep the lime even and to keep the temp of the hide close to the same through out it seems if you just let it set in a tub in real hot summer weather the top can get alot hotter than the bottom and the lime ussally works quicker when its warm and exspecialy if you have hard water, these are just acouple things it could be and some things that have worked for me in the past hope it will help you some.

KAW

Willey

[rgerbitz]

Thanks Kevin and Joe. I wonder to if there is a difference in lime, I have been using a sweet barn lime. It is a kind of course ground lime. I once found a small amount of lime that had been ground to the consistancy of flour that worked well. I know the temperature has a lot to do with it maybe it is to hot where I am doing it out on the south side of the barn in full sun all day in a galvanized stock tank. with a sheet of galvanized tin over the top to keep the sun off the hide. sounds like maybe I just need to stir more frequently. Thanks again for the help.

Rob

[roo4u]

i had the same problem with the rotting...and the smell. couldnt get all thehair off first time so put it back in fresh water for acouple more days and when i pulled it out the top surface had rotted all away, there were even big holes in the hide...i though maybe the flies had gotten to some of it cause it wasnt alldunked down in the lime. im afraid to try again. may just buy one from hereford byproducts this time so i can actually get some practice braiding. when i last tested the well here it was very much on the base side of the ph scale that should have made it easier for the lime to work, right?

[seveneves]

I learned from Mary Fields back in the early 90's how she makes rawhide.

Take the hide from the critter and lay it out on the ground. start in the center and start cutting a strap about an 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide. Just kind of corkscrew out. This will make a strap over 100 feet long when you are done. Once the strap is cut, stretch it up between a couple of posts. Pull it as tight as you can. Then, put a small rope in the middle and pull it over to one side and tie it off to something to get more stretch out of it. Take a SHARP pocket knife and scrape the hair off. It takes me about an hour to scrape 120 foot long strap.

Once done, soak in water for a couple of days to get the consistancy of cooked spaghetti and run through a splitter. I try to pull though about 10 times so I am not taking much at any time. When done splitting, temper the strap, cut your strings and braid away.

I know this may be a little "off the wall" for some folks. I don't do a lot of rawhide, not as much as I want anyway, but Mary used this method and made 90 reatas as well as other items.

I anyone wants more info on this, let me know and I will explain it further.

Joe

do you flesh it at all? or is that accomplished by the splitting. When shaving off the hair is it still green? Also when you cut into a long strip what is the consistancy of the hide? I've tried to cut a hide when it's fresh of the cow and it moves around a lot and doesn't give you a straight line.

Edited April 6, 2010 by seveneves

[rcsaddles]

do you flesh it at all? or is that accomplished by the splitting. When shaving off the hair is it still green? Also when you cut into a long strip what is the consistancy of the hide? I've tried to cut a hide when it's fresh of the cow and it moves around a lot and doesn't give you a straight line.

I do not flesh before I scrape the hair off the strap. That is accomplished in the splitting process. If I have the time, I will cut the hide into the strap and then stretch the strap between a coupld of posts. Then I will immediately start to scrape hair. If I do not get back to it for a week or so, it does not seem to matter. I must say that the fattest parts in the summer time seem to be "greasy" when I am scraping hair.

As for the consistancy of the hide when I cut it.. how do you explain it? If I get the hide and it still has any heat in it, I will let it lay for an hour or two. This is hair up. I use a utitily knife to cut with. Easy to replace blades as they get dull and fairly inexpensive. I will put on a pair of knee pads, knees are not as good as they used to be, and basically walk backwards on my hands and knees while cutting. Not real easy to do and takes lots of practice to keep it a consistant width. I will pull the strap with my left hand while cutting with my right. I'm right handed. This helps to keep the line a little straighter. By the way, I will cut a little wider where the hide is thinner because when you stretch it, it will narrow down some.

This past winter, I was given a couple of hides with no brands on them. I was at my paying job and it was only about 5 degrees outside. I brought them home and layed them out on the ground and let them freeze. I was able to pull them into my shop and cut them on the floor. (OK, the shop is the garage but shop sounds so much better.) I cut the hides frozen and that worked prettty good. I did end up starting on the outside and pushing my utility knife rather than pulling it. I took the straps and hung them up to dry. I will get the straps down in a couple of weeks to scrape. I hope i didn't waste my time but I have frozen rawhide befoe and it worked just fine. I hung these in an 8 foot circle so I hope it will stretch when I hang it between the posts. I will probably soak it in water for a couple of days before I stretch it and scrape hair.

I will try to post something when I do this so hopefully it will help others with the process. I do not claim to be a "pro" with rawhide, I just do what seems to work fo rme. I do stay away from any chemicals or even lime with rawhide because that is what I was taught. Maybe there is an easier way and I am open to suggestions. Just letting you know how I do this.

[ct701996]

i use the type s lime and that stuff works pretty well, i have seen some guys first clip off the hair and then scrape the hide with pocket knife, hope this helps