Back Into Rawhide Work After A 25 Year Lapse

[venthompson]

My first post and first braiding in 25 years. Just getting back into it. Pictures are of a fancy quirt made of Cowhide 16 plait with deer and elk fancy knots. The aussie style whip is 16 plait elk thong and a 48 plait deer covered hickory handle. also a picture of how I flesh hides with a pressure washer.

[megabit]

Doesn't look like you forgot anything. Very nice work.

[benlilly1]

They look nice! Tedious work!

[megabit]

I just notice you are in Bell Fourche, any chance you know my friend over in Red Owl, Robert Dennis?

[venthompson]

^{i know of him but haven't had the pleasure of meeting him.}

[Tanthathide9]

At what pressure is ur pressure washer set to when ur defleshing, with a house full of little ones mama not so happy happy happy when dads out fleshing a hide

[venthompson]

It's 2500 psi pressure washer with a special rotating nozzel I picked up at Sears. It takes about 15 minutes to do a deer hide and about an hour for a cowhide to flesh. It makes a mess but I have plenty of room outside. It sure cleans the hide good though.

[acox4t4]

Whow, you all are killing me making your own rawhide. I've tried 4 times now and still have not done it right. Since the 3rd try I used to much lime and created a holy mess, I used less lime but after 3 weeks in the lime bucket and still no hair coming off the neighbors were getting a bit worried I had a dead person in my garage, to be honest it was smelling pretty bad for a city home with close neighbors. It was pretty chilly here but not freezing, and read the post on how to make rawhide where it said might take longer then the 3 days when cold but gave up and tossed it. Not giving up totally, just gave up at the time since deer hunting season and needed to get the hide out of my freezer to make room for meat.

[venthompson]

For cowhides i use about a gallon of Builders lime with about 30 gallons of water. The brand name of the lime is SnowBrite type N hydrated high calcium lime, I get it at the local builders supply. During the summer the hair will slip in about 3 days. I just fininshed a hide today that had been soaking for 2 weeks, it finally got warm enough to melt the ice in my tub. I have had hides in lime solution for a month or so and never had any problem with them rotting. The hardest part is getting them rinsed good enough to get the calcium deposits out of the hide.

Deer and Elk will usually slip the hair sooner but they will float more because of their hair, I usually have to weight them down.

[cuero]

For cowhides i use about a gallon of Builders lime with about 30 gallons of water. The brand name of the lime is SnowBrite type N hydrated high calcium lime, I get it at the local builders supply. During the summer the hair will slip in about 3 days. I just fininshed a hide today that had been soaking for 2 weeks, it finally got warm enough to melt the ice in my tub. I have had hides in lime solution for a month or so and never had any problem with them rotting. The hardest part is getting them rinsed good enough to get the calcium deposits out of the hide.

Deer and Elk will usually slip the hair sooner but they will float more because of their hair, I usually have to weight them down.

Ven,

Nice work!

Do you flesh the cowhide before you de-hair? Do you stretch/dry it before you cut it into thongs? Please explain your procedure up to the braiding of the thong... because there seems to be so many different ways. I going to try the pressure washer method.

Thank you,