How Do You Measure The Square Footage Of A Cow Hide?

[leathervan]

As you know cow hides rarely come in perfect squares or even edges. So how does a person measure the square footage of a cow hide when it has an irregular shape?

[DoubleC]

You do it by the sq. inch. You lay it out on something that is laid out in sq inches and count the total and divide by 12. of course the middle you can count by the foot where it's even, and do the edges by the inch. Cheryl

[gary]

I think you should divide by 144 or, if you haven't got an afternoon to spare, have an informed guess.

Edited August 12, 2014 by gary

[JREESER1]

There are 144 sq. inches in a sq. foot (12"x12") and 9 sq. feet (3'x3') in a sq. yard. An argument with a bureaucrat over the size of a red flag on overhanging pieces protruding from a vehicle on a commercial driver's license test is how I remember. I was the one that said 144 sq. inches. Even after being proven wrong he was not going to pass me until a supervisor intervened.

jr

[DoubleC]

Ooops, you are both right. Cheryl

[thunter9]

estimate 7' 6": X 3' 6" = 7.5x 3.5= should read 26 .1 meaning 26 feet and 1/4 foot

[Dwight]

I was told most of the hide houses use a laser thingy that dots the edges, . . . hits the CPU, . . . and spits out a number.

I've never been able to verify how close they are in their laser guesstimates.

May God bless,

Dwight

[billybopp]

A few weeks ago, I was watching a marathon rerun of "Dirty Jobs", and one of the places they filmed was a tannery that specialized in deer. Amongst the other cool machines they used there, was an antique leather measuring machine. It's got a bunch of wheels that move as the leather passes under, and stop when there isn't .. each movement ratchets up a master counter that gives the overall measurement. Pretty cool stuff to watch for those of us that are mechanical gadget junkies!

There appears to be a video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3vHZqsY9Qg

As for how to measure without one ... Yer on yer own!

Bill

[CampbellRandall]

If you are doing this to estimate cost for a project, my dad had a simple method.

1. Weigh the hide when it comes in, then divide the total cost by the lb/kg (tag the hide for future reference)
2. After cutting your parts, throw them on the scale... x cost per weight = easy math.

Edited January 29, 2016 by CampbellRandall

[Luckless]

A few weeks ago, I was watching a marathon rerun of "Dirty Jobs", and one of the places they filmed was a tannery that specialized in deer. Amongst the other cool machines they used there, was an antique leather measuring machine. It's got a bunch of wheels that move as the leather passes under, and stop when there isn't .. each movement ratchets up a master counter that gives the overall measurement. Pretty cool stuff to watch for those of us that are mechanical gadget junkies!

There appears to be a video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3vHZqsY9Qg

As for how to measure without one ... Yer on yer own!

Bill

You can do exactly what that machine does: Measure the area by estimation of squares based on parallel lengths.

If you were to cut the hide into perfectly straight strips, each exactly 1 inch wide and measure the distance from the middle of one end to the middle of the next, then you can easily figure out the number of square inches it was. Add the area of each strip together, and you get a value that gives you a pretty accurate number for the total area.

Of course, actually cutting the hide up doesn't do you a lot of good unless you happen to actually want all those inch wide strips, so a long ruler marked on both sides that will take up exactly 1 inch when you flip it over, or a handful of 1 inch wide rulers that you can place next to each other lets you get the values pretty quickly.

If you wanted to get REALLY creative, then building one of those mechanical units isn't a terribly impossible task. They are really little more than a fairly simple mechanical adding system. And you would have an awesome bit of kit setup as a conversation piece in your living room. (Because who wouldn't store something like that in their living room if they were geeky enough to build it?)