Making Rawhide Lesson

[acox4t4]

Howdy Rookie here. Newbi to the max !!! I read several books so decided to try my hand at drying some rawhide. Got a hide from the butcher last thursday took it and stretched it out on a tarp for a couple hours. Cut as much of the fat off as I thought I could, then cut about a 2 1/2 inch strip around and around for about 80 foot. I now have it hanging between a couple of post. Its getting very ripe smelling, maggots ect....... From what I'm seeing here I've done it all wrong. LOL I thought I read where ya cut it into a long strip then let nature take its course so thats what I'm doing. Will this work or should I trash it and start over???

[seveneves]

Howdy Rookie here. Newbi to the max !!! I read several books so decided to try my hand at drying some rawhide. Got a hide from the butcher last thursday took it and stretched it out on a tarp for a couple hours. Cut as much of the fat off as I thought I could, then cut about a 2 1/2 inch strip around and around for about 80 foot. I now have it hanging between a couple of post. Its getting very ripe smelling, maggots ect....... From what I'm seeing here I've done it all wrong. LOL I thought I read where ya cut it into a long strip then let nature take its course so thats what I'm doing. Will this work or should I trash it and start over???

It's hard to say. When you wrap your strip around the post make sure that you're not overlapping I believe that will lead to rotting. As long you have air circulating on both side you should be fine. I've never tried cutting into strips like you did. The best rawhide I've made has come from heating some water and putting the hide in the warm water and then you can scrape it off. KAW has a tutorial on here.

[acox4t4]

Well I got one 3 inch about 30 foot long stinky mess finally hair free and hanging in my garage to dry. The really long strip is still in a 5 gal bucket and needs the hair scraped off it, how long is to long for hide to sit in water?? I'm about to give up on this first try at making rawhide and just go buy another hide but I hate to quit on it since if nothing else it would let me see if the tools that I'm going to make work before trying them out on good stuff. I've got a long 2 inch stirp that I had hanging for a week, still has hair on it but the maggots have ate most of the fat off. Right now I have it in a bucket of water so that I can try and cut the hair off but how long is to long for it to be in water?? And do ya think I could go ahead and put some lime in it to get the hair off that way since from what I'm reading that makes it pretty much fall off. Or I'm I just whipping a dead horse so to speak ?

[acox4t4]

Plan B is now in progress since my plan A didn't work. I went and got another hide today since my first attempt at making rawhide was a flop. Live and learn and I'm excited to see if this second effort produces good results. I've read alot of your post and I made me a

8X8 frame out of 2 X4's and I put the hide into that stretching it out as much as I could. I then let it sit for a little while, then cut and scraped off most of the fat. At this point there was a stiff darker covering on some of the hide was I suppose to try and get that off also? I scraped at it but it wouldn't come off, so my hide after I scraped it doesn't look all white like yours does.

Ok now the hide is in a trash can with lime, I covered it with a lid should I have done that or does it really matter? So now I'm waiting for the lime to take effect so that I can continue on. Is what I've done so far sounding OK??

Thanks Annette can't wait to finally get to braid, gosh if I can't get this rawhide made right I'll never get to learn braiding. No wonder this is a lost art.

[seveneves]

Plan B is now in progress since my plan A didn't work. I went and got another hide today since my first attempt at making rawhide was a flop. Live and learn and I'm excited to see if this second effort produces good results. I've read alot of your post and I made me a

8X8 frame out of 2 X4's and I put the hide into that stretching it out as much as I could. I then let it sit for a little while, then cut and scraped off most of the fat. At this point there was a stiff darker covering on some of the hide was I suppose to try and get that off also? I scraped at it but it wouldn't come off, so my hide after I scraped it doesn't look all white like yours does.

Ok now the hide is in a trash can with lime, I covered it with a lid should I have done that or does it really matter? So now I'm waiting for the lime to take effect so that I can continue on. Is what I've done so far sounding OK??

Thanks Annette can't wait to finally get to braid, gosh if I can't get this rawhide made right I'll never get to learn braiding. No wonder this is a lost art.

That's just part of the process. I have ruined many good hide. It's a lot of trial and error type of thing. It sounds like you're doing it right this time. I think in a couple days the hair should start to slip. Then once you get it all off you'll want to rinse it out really good and let it soak for 24 hours in about a gallon of vinegar to neutralize the hide. I usually have trouble with fleshing the hide. Some say that you can use a fleshing beam when it's fresh off the cow and get all those little bits off before you do anything else. It's never really worked for me. There's some good videos on youtube if you haven't checked there.

[acox4t4]

Needing some please. Here is a picture of the rawhide in progress. Today is day 4 of it being in the lime I noticed it starting to slip the hair so I pulled it out to work with it a bit and see how its going. I was using a ice scraper to run it over the hide to see if the hair was ready to come out. Some of it comes out but most is still holding strong so I'm putting it back into the lime water. Question is does this look like what its suppose to?? When I scrape it some of it comes out and has what looks to be a membrane with it, slim stuff. Is that suppose to happen? Should I take all the hide down to under that membrane thats sluffing off with alot of the hair? I thought that was what made the hide strong but its just coming off when I even pull the hair with my fingers. Its only coming off in some spots not all. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance. Oh ya I bought some 1/8 inch 20 yards long rawhide from Tandy in Wichita and was wondering what horse related project would be the best do for my first braiding attempt?

[Stringman211]

Needing some please. Here is a picture of the rawhide in progress. Today is day 4 of it being in the lime I noticed it starting to slip the hair so I pulled it out to work with it a bit and see how its going. I was using a ice scraper to run it over the hide to see if the hair was ready to come out. Some of it comes out but most is still holding strong so I'm putting it back into the lime water. Question is does this look like what its suppose to?? When I scrape it some of it comes out and has what looks to be a membrane with it, slim stuff. Is that suppose to happen? Should I take all the hide down to under that membrane thats sluffing off with alot of the hair? I thought that was what made the hide strong but its just coming off when I even pull the hair with my fingers. Its only coming off in some spots not all. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance. Oh ya I bought some 1/8 inch 20 yards long rawhide from Tandy in Wichita and was wondering what horse related project would be the best do for my first braiding attempt?

Hi, Rusty here,

I would scrap this hide and start fresh. The way I learned to make rawhide came from a Bruce Grant article. The process

Started with stretching the hide first, then dehairing. I had problems when the hide wasn't dried long enough( 4 days were best for me), the same rotten spots showed when trying to dehaired.

More time stretched and left to dry was best and I got a better hide to play with. Cutting the long strip after and stretching for a few days as well, gave some really nice strings for different projects. Keys: stretching, scraping and drying adequately, then dehairing before cutting I to a long strip to stretch and dry some more. 'Twill be a long winter of braiding! Have fun!!!

[acox4t4]

Thanks I've not given up yet. I am waiting until Kansas Deer season and then will try it with the FREE deer hides to learn on. HEHE the $30.00 cow hides that then I twice messed up was starting to get expensive. So I took the advice of everyone here and went to hobby lobby and got some cheap plastic lace, and other leather lace to pratice making knots, ect with. That way when I do get this rawhide stuff down pat I'll be ready to use it

Thanks again for the advice I need all I can get.

[Aggiebraider]

Let us know how the deer hides work as rawhide. I have often wondered why no one talks about it as a possible source of rawhide for plaiting.

[roo4u]

it has been mentioned here before...if you search you should be able to find it....i believe it was said that it is too stretchy for braiding. perhaps that is why the indians did not make rawhide out of it.