Here is where occasionally you will see my newest projects, and hear my two cents worth of thought.

Many of you all ready know that I try to help Loren some by graining hides for him throughout the spring and summer. Sometimes I also fill in for a few minutes of stretching or some other "short" help.  Well, this summer I decided to do a start to finish braintan hide.  So here is a picture of my success.

liza's hide.JPG

I am thrilled with my results. Of course I had lots of free instructions coming my way too. Sometimes this was helpful and sometimes full of laughter. He can make things look so easy. I hope to do a second hide once this heat breaks. I must admit though my hide is soft, it is not as soft as my husband's hides. I did find out that the whole hide tanning process is filled with small little steps that are each very important in their own way. Of course I already knew this by seeing the process happen repeatedly over the years, however braintan is very much a a tactile (touch and feel) process so the hands on brought a better understanding. It did reinforce many of the things that I already knew. For instance Loren has two wring poles. I used them both at different times in process, but found that the lower one was much easier for me to wring on than the one that was only 2 to 3 inches higher. Working with Loren reminded me of working with my father in his tin shop. Surprise, Surprise! Both of them have much more hand strength than me. This makes certain steps take longer for me or makes me have to find my own way of doing it.  An example of this would be, yes, I can wring a hide, but I cannot manage to get as much of the moisture out of a hide as Loren can.  Loren drapes the hide over the wring pole and hand squeezes a lot of the moisture out before even making the hide doughnut. I had to divide the hide in two sections the part hanging in front of the pole and the part hanging behind the pole in order to hand squeeze the hide with any efficiency at all. When I wring the hide I all ways have to stop a twist or two short of what Loren wrings, this means that when I end up at the softening stage I start with a wetter hide to begin with so I just have to work a little longer at that stage. I said this before, and now I believe it even more: the height and breath of your tools can make a difference of a hard job and an almost impossible job. Loren and I both like different tools for graining. My favorite scraper is 2 to 3 inches shorter than his. LOL Surprise, Surprise! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8-1-2011 Well, I must be a glutton for punishment. lol I've started my second hide. I fleshed and grained it last Fri. and Sat. Oh, is this one different from the first! I took so long fleshing it that Loren came to check on me. lol I wanted to get all the flesh off of the very edges because I don't like graining when someone leaves a small roll of fat on the edge of the hide. It makes it harder to grain to the very edge of the hide and also cause more splashes to the face. lol He is definitely much more time efficient at fleshing than I. Second, when I went out grain it most of the hair had fallen out. I briefly though of bark tanning it, but went ahead and started graining it. You need to know that if the hair is gone or slipping real bad, I always leave that hide for Loren and choose another to grain. (Nothing like having picky help.) This hide was truly hard to grain... It made me grumble.... But I stuck it out. I did the neck too. (Again on a hard hide I often leave the neck for Loren.) I ended up cutting a little off the neck. I'm hoping that this hide will match up with the hide that I did early, so that I can make a skirt out of them. I have this feeling though that this hide will end up thicker than my first hide. Life just isn't fair. lol On the hide I grained for Loren today the grain layer came off slick as butter. It was an easy one. I even did the neck, too. I actually thought switching the hides and tanning this one. Wish I could figure out how to make all the hides I grain this easy. Well here is picture of my progress so far. Will keep you posted on how it turns out.



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Comments  

 
0 #3 Melvin Beattie 2011-08-03 08:10
Liza,
Yes hides are difficult to grain when the hair is slipping or has slipped makes the grain layer slimy and difficult to remove. Will get a answer to your question on the email.

Hope your hot weather is getting cooler.
 
 
0 #2 admin 2011-08-01 21:30
oldwood,
I did a mixture of both hand softening and frame softening. I highly doubt that anyone struggles as much as me when it comes to technology, but it nice to know that I'm not alone. ; )

Melvin, Thanks!

Liza
 
 
0 #1 oldwood 2011-07-25 14:02
Liza, I am abit technologically declined. Made a comment on your first successful buckskin, but posted it on "Brain tanning questions". Maybe I will do better one of these days.
oldwood
 

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