Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

PELTS, BUCKSKIN, RAWHIDE 309scrape off whatever fat is on the skin, and returnskull to its natural position inside the skin. Cutaway all meat from leg and wing bones, and frombase of tail, but without loosening tail feathers.Turn the skin right side out, smooth the plumage,the cavity loosely wnth cotton.and fillBuckskin.—To make good buckskin takesconsiderablemanual labor; otherwise it is not difficult,and one can turn out a good article if he followsclosely the directions here given—the regular Indianway, which I myself have used. Whether youmake your own or not, it is well to know how realbuckskin is made, so you may not be humbugged intobuying base imitations.*Genuine Indian-tanned buckskin is, properlyspeaking, not tanned at all. Tanned leather hasundergone a chemical change, from the tannin orother chemicals used in converting it from the rawhide to leather. Buckskin, on the contrary, is stilla raw skin that has been made supple and soft bybreaking up the fibers mechanically and has thenmerely been treated with brains and smoke to preserveits softness. In color and pliability it issomewhat like w^hat is called chamois skin, but it isfar stronger and has the singular property thatalthough it shrinks some after wetting and gets stiffin drying, it can easily be made soft as ever bymerely rubbing it in the hands.For some purposes buckskin is superior to anyleather. It was used by our frontiersmen, as well*"Much 'buckskin' nowadays comes from a sheep'sback. I will give an infallible rule by which totell genuine buckskin that comes from a deer'sback. After the skin is tanned by 'any old process,'you will observe on the flesh side littleveins,or channels where they once were. They arespread like the veins on the back of one's hands,only smaller. Where these are found on a hideor skin, you may rest assured it is buckskin offa deer's back."— (Farnham, Home Maniifacture ofFurs and Skins.)