Advice For Making Rawhide

[millwright]

I am going to flesh, slip hair, and stretch my first hide this weekend. I bought it yesterday from the slaughter house and put it in a freezer. Any tips on fleshing the hide? I planned on hanging it up and fleshing it. Would I be better off with laying it over a post or board (my version of fleshing beam) to flesh it? I plan on heating it in a barrel of hot water like KAW's tutorial to slip the hair. It looks like, from what I can tell, the hides I've seen posted have been trimmed before stretching. What's the rule of thumb on trimming the junk hide (where/what is the junk hide) and when is the best time to trim it? Do you need to flesh it before you can tell where to trim? I'm curious as to how long it would take to cure here in eastern Oklahoma too? I know this isn't the best time of year to do this but I'd rather not wait 'til spring to make rawhide.

I've heard/read that you should cut your circles from areas where the hide is even/consistent thickness. Are there general areas where the hide is even?

Any other advice tips are welcomed and appreciated.

[millwright]

Well, I ruined it. I guess I left it too long in the water, or maybe something to do with leaving it in the freezer over night, but it started to get hard and curl/wrinkle on the edges, had a cooked look to it. I will get another hide and try the lime method. That looks more forgiving to me than the hot water method.

I never saw anything about trimming the belly or anything in other posts I've been reading so I was just going to leave it as is. Bret

[curlyjo]

Millwright, maybe I can help out a little. Take the fresh hide and trim off the belly. When I get a hide from a down cow or whatever, I just take the neck, down low on the shoulder, along the base of the ribs, around low on the butt, back low along the base of the ribs again and back up to the neck. What I try to do is skin in front of the ears and cut all the way around the animal. Then hook the head to a tree or hitch on a pickup and hook a chain around the ears and pull the hide off with another pickup. No knife marks. That leaves the belly on the cow. Then throw it over a barrel or large round post and get all the meat and flesh you can off. The more you get off, the more and easier the hair will slip. 1/2 a garbage can of water with a large coffee can of lime and stir whenever you can. A lid will keep it warmer. Check to see if the hair is slipping easily, then throw over the barrel or whatever and slide the hair off with a flat stick. The warmer the weather, the faster it will slip. Then hose off both sides and put in a container with 1 gallon of vinegar and enough water to cover overnite. Pull out and hose off again and put in stretcher and check for more flesh and meat. Let it dry in the stretcher in the shade. Now the work begins! Brad

[millwright]

Many thanks Brad. Sounds like a good way to skin a downed cow and leave the belly. You were describing how you skin them without a knive and it reminded me of how a friend of mine says he skins his deer. He gets the hide started enough to get a small rock, about 1.5" diameter, under the inside of the hide, then ties a rope around the rock and hide from the outside, and pulls the hide with a truck. If I get the chance I'm going to trim one like you described and will definately use the lime method to slip the hair next time. Thanks for the reply, Bret.

[brycew74]

if you find the lime method does not work for you you can also streach the hide with the hair on and scrape it with a knife or sprinkle dry ashes on the hair side and scrape the hair off with a stick, these are my prefered methods

[millwright]

Might do that too brycew74. Won't hurt to dry two hides, different methods, at the same time. Twice as much hide too! Bret

[acox4t4]

There is also pictures and explanation of how to do it in the sticky notes at the top of this forum.

[millwright]

Those are the instructions I used to ruin it. I stretched one Tuesday, hair and all. Maybe by spring it'll be dry and I can scrape the hair off.

Edited November 17, 2014 by millwright

[bucksnort]

Millwright, The dry ash method works well & preserves the color of the hide. I will also sometimes clip the hair & not scrape the hair until after I have cut, split & cornered my strings. Only leaves a small amount on the main part of the string to scrape. As long as you get the hair all to an even length it doesn't seem to create any problems with wetting & tempering. If you plan to try the dry ash method you don't want to clip, the longer hair creates more grab. Hang in there, we've all ruined a few. Buck

[rcsaddles]

Don't listen to Buck. Some of us have ruined more than a few! His advise is good, I was only talking about the last statement.