Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

324 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTbut the one here given is less complicated than mostof them, as satisfactory as any, and is adapted to anykind of skin, big or little, with or without the bailorfur. Tanning with alum I do not recommend:it shrinks and thickens the skin, hardens it, andmakes the fur dull and harsh if any gets on it.Robes Indian-tanned.—One may be so situatedthat he can get none of the ingredients required bythe above process, and still he may want to makea robe with the fur on. In such case, do as theIndians did, who had not even salt. A pelt can be*'Indian-tanned" as soft as by any chemical process,and will be even stronger and more durable. Theonly trouble is that it takes more elbow-grease.The method is similar to that of making buckskin,already described, except that the hide isfleshed without soaking enough to make the fur slip.Then the skin is stretched, the brain water rubbedinto the flesh side, this is repeated several times,and then the pelt is suppled by thorough hand work.One of my earliest recollections is of the cosywarmth and peculiar but not unpleasant scent ofbuffalo robes, as I lay comfortably under them inthe big sled and rode over the shimmering whiteprairie in a temperature of twenty or thirty belowzero. The following description of how thoserobes were prepared is quoted from Colonel Dodge.We have no more buffaloes to hunt, but we havecaribou and reindeer, and the same workmanshipcan be used on their hides, though a white manwould use a beam and fleshing knife instead of theground and a squaw's adze:"The skin of even the youngest and fattest cow is,in its natural condition, much too thick for use,being unwieldy and lacking pliability. This thicknessmust be reduced at least one-half and the skinat the same time made soft and pliable. When thestretched skin has become dry and hard from theaction of the sun, the woman goes to »work v.'ith asmall implement shaped somewhat like a carpenter'sadze: it has a short handle of wood or elkhorn, tier!