![]() ![]() Swelling opens up and loosens the fibres, removes hairs and helps with oil penetration. ‘Liming’ opens up and swells the collagen fibres and breaks down non structural non fibrous proteins, mucins. Manually by scrapping, this step removes the flesh, that is fat and any meat adhering to the pelt.Ģ. For a detailed account of the structure of mammalian skins and the difference in structure between the animal types, see Kite & Thomson (2005).ġ. This tanning is method is not without some health hazards (Wescott, D. The fibres of the corium are course and loosely interwoven, resulting in stretchy leather, suitable for clothing. The grain layer takes 1/6 of the total thickness. The fibre structure of the skin is anisotropic, the skin is uneven in thickness. The thickness of deer skin ranges between 2 and 3 mm and measures from 0.9 to 1.3 m2. Terminology of the leather processing industry is used in this post (Covington 2009). Hide of a whitetailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus) was tanned at the workshop. He is a great teacher who tans skins for a living and knows everything about producing a beautiful and long lasting skin. I learned a lot from Kfir and I highly recommend taking a workshop with him. My aim for the workshop was to gain familiarity with material properties of hides prepared by this method, and to get better at material identification and understanding conditions of historic artefacts made from hide. replication of technologies used before the invention of machinery to process natural materials, & he recently presented at the 2nd Annual Reconstructive and Experimental Archaeology Conference. Kfir specialises in the so-called ‘primitive technologies’, i.e. In May 2010 I took part in a brain tanning workshop with Kfir Mendel and his company ‘Two Wolves’. This post gives some insight into the process (1) and chemistry (2) of the wet scraping brain tanning and smoking method of deer hides. The hide is stretched and is completely dry after 5 hours of of being worked on the frame. Opening the hide between the oil dressing. Wringing the hide after rinsing in the ammonium solution. ![]() Nurse.Ĭondition of the hide after graining. When the skin is about dry, it is pulled and worked back and forth over the top of a stake, as already explained, alter which it remains soft.Fleshing the hide. The inside is then thoroughly rubbed with a mixture of eggs, cornmeal, and water, great care being taken not to wet the outside, or fur. If the skin is dry and stiff it is first softened with clear water, after which it is spread over a beam and scraped on the inner surface to remove all flesh. (b) Skins to be tanned soft, with the hair remaining. These, already tanned soft and white and perfectly dry, are stretched over the hole and allowed to remain in the smoke an hour or more. On this are put pieces of rotten oak, no other wood being used for this purpose these are not permitted to blaze, as the more smoke that arises the better it is for the skins. a hole a foot or more in depth is dug in which a fire is kept until a bed of hot ashes accumulates. If the skins are to be smoked, a process that renders them more durable. “Young indian corn” would probably have about the same effect as the mixture of eggs and cornmeal. Lawson, 1 in writing of the Indians of Carolina more than two centuries ago, referred to their use of “young indian corn, beaten to a pulp,” in the place of the brains of animals, in preparing skins. The method described, including the use of corn and eggs, may have been followed by all the Southern tribes. Eggs of various kinds, they say, are used with equally good results. The Choctaw claim that it is a very ancient method of preparing skins. This process of tanning renders the skin soft and white. To soften it, the skin is pulled back and forth over the top of a stake driven into the ground, which has been made smooth and round to prevent tearing the skin. The skin remains stretched until dry, when it is, of course, rather stiff. A large bone probably served as the primitive implement. The instrument now employed consists of a piece of metal attached to a long wooden handle. While in this position it is scraped and all particles of flesh are removed. The skin is then taken from the mortar and wrung rather dry a number of small holes are cut around the edge and through these cords are passed, which serve to hold the skin stretched between two upright posts, as shown in plate 12, a. Eggs and cornmeal mixed with a little water are then poured over the skin, which is thoroughly beaten with a long wooden pestle. The hair having been removed, the skin is placed in a mortar, or in a hole cut a log (see image below) which serves the purpose.
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