Hello Xavier. You have done a marvelous job on explaining every process throughout this entire series of videos. It is greatly appreciated. Do you have a favorite stitch for comfortably against your skin? I like the looks of the welt seam but the french stitch seems like it would hold up much better. Again great job and thank you for putting out these instructional videos.
Hello and thanks for watching. I'm glad it was of use to you. The welt seam is great because it protects the stitching from being exposed to getting caught on something and breaking. But it is bulky so I usually use it to bring pieces of hides together where it is not going to restrict my movement or rub against me too much. That would be on the sides of pant legs, sleeves, and on the sides of my pull over. The french stitch is exposed and can therefore break but because of the way it is done it can break without really unraveling the whole thing, which is very useful. It is also pretty and much less bulky so I use it a lot for pockets and things of the kind. I use the baseball stitch when I don't want the pieces of hides to overlap but it is a pretty weak stitch otherwise. A simple running stitch is very fast and easy but can also be pretty weak. I hope that helps!
Yes indeed. I’m very glad you are so willing to share your advice and experience. I would like you to know that you have inspired me to brain tan my own hides and to make something uniquely my own. You are a great inspiration. Thank you
This is very good at showing how to do the various stitches, and how to splice in new leather thong, but you don't show how to end it when you're done sewing. Is there a way to end it without tying a knot, which you said can be uncomfortable?
Ah, good point. Unfortunately, I don't know of a good trick not to do a knot at the end. I usually do a simple square knot and tuck the end behind a previous stitch. If it's a problem you can hammer the knot flat and that helps. You can also think of where a knot would be the least obtrusive. So for pants start at the crotch and end at the bottom of the leg where a knot is not really a problem.
You're welcome! A hand planner may be overkill as the hide is not of an even thickness and not perfectly flat so you have to be very careful not to dig into it and make holes. A belt sander would probably work , especially along the spine. But I'd probably opt for the safer option of a mall palm sander first and see how it goes, just to have more control.
Hello. Hmm, great question! I've never heard of anybody smoking a hide with manure so I'm not sure. In theory it could work as long as you keep the smoke abundant, dry, and cold (if it's too hot for your hand it's too hot for the hide!). I'm not sure whether it would leave some weird smell in the hide though and not sure what color it would color the hide either. But if you decide to try it I'd love to hear the results!
@@daianciarrocca4273 You usually use a frame when dry-scraping a hide, which is a different technique altogether that uses a very sharp tool. When you use the wet-scrape method like me you just use a beam and a dull scraper. It's mostly a matter of preference but I think the wet-scrape method is a little more low tech and therefore easier to deal with.
What is the purpose or "removing" the bitterness by cooking? Is it a question of taste and/or texture or to remove toxins? Been eating it straight from the tree is small amounts without any side effects and I actually enjoy the texture and the taste is not so bad..
Lichens contain vulpinic acid, which is moderately toxic to mammals and needs to be washed out carefully. Cooking it for several hours at moderately low heat is the traditional way to prepare it to make it more digestible and then storable for long periods of time.
@@norm6973 It hasn't been studied extensively but symptoms may include shortness of breath and diarrhea. Lichen species high in vulpinic acid have been used as poison, notably for wolves.
@@sustainprimitivelife Thanks for the info man.. I'll research it more but my body seemed to agree with it.. don't know how to explain it but I somehow I can "read" my body's reaction to different thing I consume or do and it felt right...
@@norm6973 Sure, I get that. And, something to keep in mind as well is that our bodies have varying amounts of evolutionary experience with different chemical compounds. So sometimes we ingest a small amount of plants and our body is like "ooh, shouldn't have done that..." And then sometimes we ingest something, feel totally fine, and then by the time we figure out that our liver is trashed it's too late to do anything about it. So paying attention to traditional knowledge as well as our senses can be very useful and life saving.
I eat many wild foods. Never once have I had averse effects. I've eaten restaurant foods that my body rejects and end up sitting on the can lol. People think I'm nuts because I like dandelions. I trust them more than the grocery store produce isle.
I usually harvest the sheep in the fall, keep the hides salted through the winter, and then do the rest in the spring. It's possible the hides may be ready sooner than that but I'm not sure of the exact timing.
How did natives keep the brains from going rancid until they were done with soaking/scraping/resoaking/rescraping process, basically everything they needed to do until the tanning process? Seems like a lot to do before the tanning process. How do you keep the brains from going bad without refrigeration?
You can keep the brain inside the skull for about a week without it going off too much, which is plenty of time to get the hide ready to be tanned. And rotten brains still work great; it's just very unpleasant to deal with them. And though I've never tried it myself I've read that you can mix some lichen with scrambled brains and then let them dry completely for longer term storage. Then you soak all that in water when you're ready to tan the hide.
@@sustainprimitivelife thanks for the response. I'm sure it would probably help to bury the head in the ground to help keep it cool as well. It gets hot here in Alabama.
Hi Xavier, I salted my hides as soon as they were skinned, but made the mistake of leaving the salt on for 3 weeks and then started the process in your videos. I got to the sanding part and realised the hide hadn't dried out properly(obviously, I then realised you store them for 6 months with salt on!). My question is, would it be possible to salt the same hides again and store them for 6 months and start the process again? Thank you in advance!
Hello. The short answer would be yes you can. But the truth is that I leave my hides salted for 6 months more out of convenience than anything else. I've never done actual experiments to know the best amount of time for the salt to work its magic. Technically, it makes sense that the longer the hides are in the salt the softer they will be. But you should consider what you really want to do with those hides. If you just want to use them as rugs you don't need them to be super soft and pliable. As long as they don't crinkle when you roll them up that's all you need. I you need them to be more supple than that then salting them again would make sense. So what do you mean when you say that the hides didn't dry out properly? Is it that they're not supple enough for your intended use or are you just concerned that you didn't leave them salted as long as I did? If you really want to salt them again I'd dampen the flesh side with some water first and then apply the salt. The dampness will allow the salt to interact with the hide much better. I hope all this helps! Let me know if you have any more questions.
Hiya Xavier! Thanks so much for getting back to me! I know that the hide wasn't yet dried out because when I was sanding it I found a sort of spot that burst when I went over it with the sandpaper, quite Bit of pus came out. I deducted that the salt hadn't had time to dry that out yet. I have now resalted the hide and I'm going to wait for a couple more months before resuming! Thank you so much for your help!
@@amyoliver5538 Hmm, at this point there shouldn't be any pus at all. Did you flesh the hide very well before salting it? The role of the salt is not to dry out the hide - it should actually remain moist- but to soften it a bit.
Something like this: www.amazon.com/OrderMore-Stainless-Deshedding-Dematting-Undercoat/dp/B07L84ZMFQ/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1MZ1EX70HV5S&dchild=1&keywords=pet+comb+rotating+pins&qid=1617896596&sprefix=rotating+pin+pet%2Caps%2C334&sr=8-16
Hi Ivan. Unfortunately, I don't have any hides for sell. You may want to try braintan.com/product-category/buckskin-and-leather/ You may also want to consider moose instead of elk for moccasins as elk fibers tend to wear out a lot more easily than moose.
It's clearly on high alert just after noon. Probably why even though they are around my area I rarely see one dead let alone walking around. Nice shot of it.
You generally want to wet-salt your hides (see my blog post here: sustainablelivingproject.blogspot.com/2012/11/storing-deer-hides.html ), which means that you have to store them in a tarp or container that's tight enough that there's no air circulation. That way your hide is still flexible when you're ready to work on it. But yes, if your hide is stiff now you should rehydrate it fully before stringing it up. Otherwise, it won't be pulled flat in the rack.
@@vibegems2139 Shove it gently into a 5-gallon bucket or trash can. If the hide is bone dry be careful not to fold it too much or it could tear. Then cover it with lukewarm water if you can. Cold water it fine but will take longer. Hot water is a no-no. Leave the hide in the water for an hour or so then try to gently pull on it. If it's easy to pull then it's ready to go. If it stretches just a bit but is still a little stiff then pulling on it gently all over will make it easier to absorb water, then dunk it back in for another hour or so.
Xavier de la Foret okay thank you! should I make sure all the salt is off the hide before submerging it in water? I’ve heard getting the hide really wet will cause the hair to slip, not sure if that’s true or not but I’m hoping to keep the hair intact
@@vibegems2139 No, don't worry about the salt for now (unless you're using a metal container, but I wouldn't recommend that anyway). Getting the hide wet is fine; you just don't want to leave it in there until the root of the hair starts rotting off though. So start with one hour and see how it goes with rehydrating. If you had to leave it overnight in cold water it would still probably be fine. But once it's flexible, make sure to string it up in a rack and let the hide dry well. If it's cold and rainy where you are and it would take several days for the hide to dry, you could help it along with a hairdryer on COLD.
@@sustainprimitivelife Ca va, j'ai une vie bien plus citadine que la tienne semble-t-il :) j'ai mis 20ans à retrouver ta trace, je suis pas doué... je trouve même ton mail dans ton blog pour t'écrire !!
Nice videos in this series? Can I ask you about dying the buckskin. I want to put a shamanic outfit for schools. However I'd like to have a white outfit if possible. I'm considering a chalk wash in your experience do you think that this would work or should I use tallow and chalk and burnish the outside of the skin to achieve this?
To my knowledge, traditionally white skins were just left unsmoked. You just have to be careful not to get them wet as then you'd have to start the softening process over again. If you've already smoked your hide, using chalk might work but depending on how dark you smoked the hide I doubt the result would be that great. I've only heard of using tallow and chalk on rawhide but not buckskin. My guess is that it wouldn't really work and that it would just make the buckskin oily, which would probably make it very unpleasant to wear, to say the least. But what I would recommend to know for sure is just to try both options on a piece of scrap and see what happens. Let me know if you find out anything interesting in the process!
Watch the video on Tanning hides the woods Cree way. At one point they rub flour in and sand with a round rock. Light smoking and the type of wood might make a difference too.
It depends what you mean by that and what you want to use it for really. A brain-tanned hide soaks up water like a sponge but smoking it makes it so it can do that and still retain its softness. If you want something more naturally water resistant, then grain-on bark tanning is more suitable for that: sustainablelivingproject.blogspot.com/2011/07/bark-tanned-deer-hide.html If you want to make it completely waterproof you can use wax, but then of course you completely lose the hide's flexibility.
@@erickunkal3166 Not really. A bark-tanned deer hide is still flexible enough to wear as a "raincoat" but it has its limits. It would to fine in a light rain but will start soaking up water beyond that. Traditionally you'd have some outer garment made of shredded cedar bark for instance to shed the water, and then wear the buckskin as a soft undershirt.
Yes, it is very stretchy. That's why you have to wet your buckskin thong and pre-stretch it before you use it in your sewing project, so that your stitches don't get loose on you.
@@sustainprimitivelife Thanks! I guess a finished buckskin article is stretchy too, so that, let's say finished bucksking gloves with a size a bit smaller than the hand will do well, is it?
@@okeyeng8024 It's possible but it really depends on how the hide was stretched in the final moments of softening. If it dried in a "neutral" position the hide will stretch a little in all directions. If it dried in a stretched position then it will not stretch at all in that direction but much more in the perpendicular direction.
Hey, I have been watching your videos and reading the questions which have been super helpful. I also tried just water for awhile and then added ash later-- probably a gallon bucket of hardwood ash into 10 gallons of water. My hair slipped well, I got the grain off. But now, my hide is super slimy. I read below that I just need to soak it with the hose running for a really long time. Based on how much ash I used, should I add vinegar to neutralize? I am nervous about adding vinegar if I don't have to and turning it to jelly (below). Thank you!
Hello. Did you test the strength of your solution before dunking your hide in? I'm a little concerned about the "sliminess" of your hide. My experience is that after bucking the hide is swollen and rubbery more than anything else. But if the hide didn't fall apart during scraping then you're probably good. So yes, I'd start with letting the hide be submerged freely in a large tub of water with a hose running, overnight to 24 hours. If the hide doesn't lose its swollenness after that I'd try a weak vinegar solution, like a pint of apple cider vinegar in 3 gallons of water for up to 12 hours or until the hide has lost its swollenness. I hope this helps!
I've never heard of it being a problem. That being said, it's a bad idea to handle brains if you have open wounds. I know people who've had blood poisoning from it. Also, I usually use food-grade pig brains for my tanning. If you are using the brains from a wild animal you should definitely evaluate its health and stay away if anything doesn't look right, especially in areas where CWD is a known problem.
Thank you so much for making all these efforts into sharing your knowledge ! Your videos are full of details that helps me very much (I'm right now tanning a bunch of reindeer and red deer skins) ! Plus I'm french and that the first time I really manage to follow a youtube video in english ! Looking forward to watch your next videos ! ;)
Thank you for sharing your stitches! I'm about to attempt a pair of buckskin breeches, and will probably use an assortment of them. I was wondering if you had any tips on how to prepare the skin before cutting out the garment pieces? I have what are probably "commercially" tanned, and they seem like they could use a bit of a stretching before cutting. I've dampened the skins and stretched them out a little by hand, but wasn't sure if/how/how much I should stretch them before cutting. Guess I'll find out after I cut the seam allowances off the pattern and do a pants-load of baseball stitching. ;)
You should make sure the hides are "in neutral" before you cut your pattern because they will tend to go back to that shape. So, if you stretch them too much in one direction and cut your pattern like that it will end up way out of shape in the long run. Play with it a little bit by stretching it in one direction and then the other and you will get a good sense of how it is supposed to be when it is not stretched in one particular direction and cut your pattern like that. Note that commercially tanned hides will probably not stretch as much as brain tanned ones but the principle should remain the same.
Thank you! You're right, it did not stretch a lot, but enough to make it look better and get the pattern pieces to fit nicely. I'm about halfway through construction at the moment. The spiral stitch looks great on the side and center seams, and I used a lot of blanket stitching on the waistband and fall front. Just reviewed the baseball stitch again so I can attach the bearers behind the fall. Have you seen these needles since you posted this video? They've made handsewing with thong SO much easier... www.tandyleather.com/en/product/perma-lok-needle
hello, just wondering if you could help, my boyfriend gave me a nice salted skin to finish off. i washed it a few times and laid it to dry, the weather has been bad, so its taken a long time. in places the skin has dried and is hard and brown, and its starting to smell. the wool is lovely though, will i be able to save it? what can i do? thankyou :)
Hmm, it's very important for a hair-on skin to dry asap or you can run into that kind of problem. Is it actually starting to mold/rot? That can be difficult to get rid of. What I would probably try is to get a little bleach, dip a brush into it and then brush the skin somewhat vigorously with it. Then dry it asap, and maybe use some sand paper to get rid of some of the superficial funkiness. If it's still deteriorating after that and the hair starts pulling off then you should toss it. Good luck!
@@sustainprimitivelife thanks for your reply. i will try that. no it's not rotting or anything, it just smells.. well...dead basically. there is still some extra skin, with some extending to the tops of the legs and armpits as it were, which i might cut off, it might help the case. yes it was probably wet for too long sadly. i will try and see what happens. its an experience anyway. Maybe next time i will try in the summer! many thanks, will let you know how it goes.
I don't tan deer hides with the grain on, though of course you could do it in the same way as the beaver hides. I dehair the hides by soaking them in water for a few days and then scraping them with a dull edge. I describe all that in the first two videos of this playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PL0eYQ9KlgirVuOHZ69OI6iBsLDrbmVC3g
The best hair-on hide tanning videos on YT I have ever seen :), thank you Xavier! And this method is perfect for me since I am doing viking. My question is, if you have this experience: I got a frozen beaver skin from my friend-hunter, it was very difficult to flesh it, I almost had to cut off rests of meet and fat instead of scraping, and used about 2h. Could it be because it was frozen? I tanned few (fresh) foxes before, and have never had this problem. Thanks!
Thanks! Beavers are really fat, which makes them difficult to flesh. So yeah, using a knife to cut off the meat and fat is sometimes necessary. But since the skin will be dry scraped you just need to remove the big stuff for now, then frame it and let it dry, and then you'll remove whatever is left with the dry scraper.
@@neverstopexploring8655 You're welcome :) That's correct, only hides that are very thick (buffalo, beaver, moose, etc) need to be thinned to allow good brainings, though some people choose to dry-scrape hides of medium thickness (like from big bucks) instead of wet-scraping them.
Hi Xavier! Can I also ask: When I work with a thin hide hair-on (fox hide for ex.), and use vet-method scraping. Is it necessary to remove all the membranes before brain-tanning? Will brain solution go throught if some membrains remain on skin?
Hello. For this particular set of videos I use a salt tanning technique. All the videos can be found here: ru-vid.com/group/PL0eYQ9KlgirW7fUcvWQBID8sMLQo6ZFfJ For brain-tanning information you can see my playlist here: ru-vid.com/group/PL0eYQ9KlgirVuOHZ69OI6iBsLDrbmVC3g and also here for tanning hair-on hides: ru-vid.com/group/PL0eYQ9KlgirVvaLqKAwg3Hv3vwBee4ZMA Let me know if you have more questions.
A hide done this way isn't really tanned right? I mean, if you just dried it with salt and abraded the back you haven't tanned it... I imagine that the only reason that it isn't rock hard is because of how thin sheep skin is. That said is seems that with a thin hide it may be just as useful as a rug as it would be if it were brain/bark tanned. Ive got six sheep hides I want to make into sleeping mats right now. I was imagining just brain tanning them but if they come out reasonably soft and stay that way after getting wet the way you did it it may just be worth it just to salt them. Thoughts?
Technically, salt is a mild tanning agent so yes, you end up with a tanned hide. If the hide was not tanned you'd end up with a very crinkly skin, even if it's thin. With this technique the hide is definitely flexible/soft with no crinkling. But note that it is a passive process that takes time. I've never experimented with how long it really takes but I usually salt the hides in the fall, store them salted (they remain wet), and then pull them out in the spring when the weather warms up. Just rubbing a little salt on it for a little while, drying the hide, and rubbing the salt off will just not do the trick. It probably takes at least a couple of months for the salt to do its thing. So if time is a factor, brain tanning is probably the way to go. But if you have the time, considering that brain tanning is more intense and may result in holes in the skin (considering that it's so thin), this passive salt tanning technique is really great. And yes, a brain tanned hide would be a lot more flexible than a salt tanned one but if the only thing you use it for is as a rug or sleeping mat and you just need it to be rolled up nicely then brain tanning is overkill anyway. If you expect your sleeping mats to get wet you'd definitely need to smoke the hides on the flesh side a little bit. That will also keep the bugs away, which can be a problem if the hides are stored for extended periods of time (moths love to lay eggs in there and the larvae will eat the grain layer and the hair will fall out). But if you think the mats will get REALLY wet, then bark tanning will do a better job at keeping moisture away than any other technique. I hope that helps.
Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! I am excited to try tanning them this way. I have much more experience tanning beaver pelts and your video on that was very informed, so im going to trust that a wet salted hide won't rot over the winter! : ) @@sustainprimitivelife
I've never had a wet-salted hide rot on me, even after several years of being stored. It really helps if, after you've salted the hides, you stack them flesh to flesh at an incline (on a pallet works great) so that the extra liquid pulled out by the salt can drain. But still make sure the hides are wrapped in a tarp or something like that so they don't dry out. After about a week the draining should stop. Check them out and add more salt if necessary. Then fold them flesh to flesh onto themselves and they can be packed in a trash can or something where they won't dry. I still put some large rocks at the bottom in case some more liquid/blood trickles down so the bottom hide doesn't end up swimming in there. @@Thice123
