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,

[venthompson]

I flesh my hides with the pressure washer first, Then soak in the lime until the hairs slips, I just use a junk of plywood about 2 feet long that fits my hands comfortably (about 2 inches wide by 1/2 inch) the hair will puch off fairly easy. I'll rinse in clean water a couple of days changing the water 3 or 4 times a day. Then I'll soak in water and a gallon of vinegar to neutralize the lime for a day. The deer hides I'll stretch and nail to plywood to dry, trying to do most the the stretch lengthways. Cow and elk hides i stretch between a frame until just about dry then I will cut rounds out of them trying to avoid the flanky and belly sections. From the rounds I will cut about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thongs aroung the circles. With the deer and elk i will stretch the thongs trying to get all of the stretch out of them I can then I will split them down and stretch again before cutting my final length. The worst part of the elk and deer is the stretchiness, I waste a lot of hide by stretching and cutting down to the size I need. But I get all of my deer and elk for free and usually have more than I can work. Once the strings are cut I will cut them to length depending on what I am making and bevel the edges. I use a Hansen string cutter that I bought from Frank in the 80's. Once cut and beveled I start braiding. I have a braiding bench that makes it easy to clamp my braid in so I can keep everything fairly straight. It is modeled after a spoke shave bench. I keep the thongs soaped up with Fiebing saddle soap and 'pull tight braid loose'.

[cuero]

Thanks Ven,

Nice bench!

Cutting the thongs to an constant width from the round is my biggest challenge without creating waste.

Do they still have the Days of '76 celebration in the Deadwood?

[venthompson]

Yep they still have the Days of 76. It has been voted the top mid sized PRCA rodeo for the last few years. Doesn't seem like we make it up there to see it though. We always take in the Black Hills Roundup rodeo over the 4th in Belle. I never try to get consitant width from the round, I always cut a little oversize then split the string then run it through and get the width even. I never used to bother with all of that but then I was just making usable cowboy gear. I'm trying to refine my braiding in my old age. I just make things to give away to friends.

[ljensen]

Thanks for sharing the pictures and some of your tips. I really like the looks of the quirt. I will have to try the pressure washer some day.

[JLD]

I flesh my hides with the pressure washer first, Then soak in the lime until the hairs slips, I just use a junk of plywood about 2 feet long that fits my hands comfortably (about 2 inches wide by 1/2 inch) the hair will puch off fairly easy. I'll rinse in clean water a couple of days changing the water 3 or 4 times a day. Then I'll soak in water and a gallon of vinegar to neutralize the lime for a day. The deer hides I'll stretch and nail to plywood to dry, trying to do most the the stretch lengthways. Cow and elk hides i stretch between a frame until just about dry then I will cut rounds out of them trying to avoid the flanky and belly sections. From the rounds I will cut about 1/2 to 3/4 inches thongs aroung the circles. With the deer and elk i will stretch the thongs trying to get all of the stretch out of them I can then I will split them down and stretch again before cutting my final length. The worst part of the elk and deer is the stretchiness, I waste a lot of hide by stretching and cutting down to the size I need. But I get all of my deer and elk for free and usually have more than I can work. Once the strings are cut I will cut them to length depending on what I am making and bevel the edges. I use a Hansen string cutter that I bought from Frank in the 80's. Once cut and beveled I start braiding. I have a braiding bench that makes it easy to clamp my braid in so I can keep everything fairly straight. It is modeled after a spoke shave bench. I keep the thongs soaped up with Fiebing saddle soap and 'pull tight braid loose'.

I know a while has passed but I am haveing all sort or issues with some deerhide rawhide and I wondered if you could help

I purchased deerhide rawhide precut into lace and also a deer rawhide uncut. I have tried to braid with the deer rawhide lace after it has been cased to a "al dente' and it breaks really easily. I cant thin it as it either breaks if I pull or bunches up under the blade as a sort of pulp. I cant thin or cut it if it is dry and it appears to have "tough" spots"

There is obviously an art to using deer could you please give me some hints. I was hoping to be able to cut it very fine to use it for braiding as in your fancy quirt.

I have used cow rawhide so I am not a total novice just this deer has me beet ...revenge of Bambi?

Any help you could give would be much appreciated.

Johanne

[Tanthathide9]

Sounds like its too wet...I usually soap it before I case it so the moisture content evenly distributes throughout while its casing I'm still learning but as I've had more luck cuttin better string doing it this way hope it helps

[venthompson]

_{I've never had any luck with purchased deer rawhide for the same reasons you mentioned. I will wet my hide and then case it in a large plastic storage bin that has about 1/2 inch of water with the hide above the water on a shelf and I leave it until it for a day or 2 until the moisture evens out in the hide, even then I will have to let it dry a little before cutting. It doesn't take much moisture for deer hides to be too wet to cut. If you are cutting rounds you will have to really watch out for the flanky portions, I waste a lot of hide by just taking the rounds out of the best portions of the back. If I don't need very long strings I will take the strings lengthways down the back. I always cut my strings oversize, stretch them and cut down to size. I've found that the deerhide I make is very strong but very stretchy, the only reason I use it is because I get all the hides I want for free I just have to do the work to make them into rawhide. If I had to buy it I would buy good cowhide or horse.}

[JLD]

Hi

Thanks for your replies. Yes I think it was too wet so this time I didn't use any water I just gave it a very light wipe with rawhide creme waited a few minutes till it seemed to relax and then tried. Much better result and then I found out what you meant Ven, about the over stretchy bits when I tried to getting the thickness even.

Bits slid under the blade with nothing coming off and then it would go to twice the thickness, very interesting, but I must say that cutting the lace down was a whole lot easier if I ignored the pile of broken bits on the floor.

Braiding comes next that should be fun.

Ven (I hope that I have your name right if not I'm sorry) being that I have another full hide of deer rawhide I would be really appreciative if you would be able to put up a sketch of which bits are usable and what to give to the dogs as chew toys. This might save me a lot of heartache if I just try to use the "good bits"

Thanks again for the help at least I can now use some of the pre cut lace and I know never to go down that path again

Johanne