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Post by beaudro on Jul 20, 2011 22:34:17 GMT -5
I'm finding this tool was called several names, beaming tool, fleshing tool, grainer, graining tool. I'm going to add this to my list of goods, they are easy to make as well. I'll find out how good it works this fall when my tanning season starts. It's a 2"x12" blade, I can make these any size.
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Post by paskinner on Jul 21, 2011 8:26:55 GMT -5
How much? I was thinking about what you said earlier-the trapper's would have had to have an efficient way of fleshing various furs, too. I don't think they were messing around with dryscraper like tools. Too slow. Is there any indication that they basically clean skinned beaver? I know they probably weren't as concerned about perfect fleshing as we are today, since the beaver sold for the felt more than the fur, but on the other hand, you couldn't have your big bale of beaver pelts grease burning either.
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Post by beaudro on Jul 21, 2011 12:53:48 GMT -5
How much? I don't think I can make it as cheap as Matt Richards fleshing tool.. but I'll do what I can. I want to make sure it works too. I'd be willing to let you demo my prototype , I can send you one. On dryscraping/wetscraping , lets say we are talking about the years 1820 to 1840, and we are in the Rocky Mountains involved with several different fur companies. Beaver of course is the fur they are after, but otter and muskrat were taking when they could be had. I don't know how those were prepared, there isn't much talk about them in the mountains. Otter and Muskrat were dried and shipped around the Great lakes, so most likely the same in the mountains. Beaver was hooped, dried, and then scraped with dry scraping tool , but only to a minimum. The bales were sold by the pound , so lets don't scrape too much off. I don't know if grease burns were a concern if all they wanted was the hair. The trappers in a large company most likely did not skin or work their own hides, the camp keepers did that for them. There are a lot of variables and situations though. I'd be willing to be that a butcher knife was used to scrape those hides, but a large outfit could have better tools. It could be because they travel so much that it's hard to set up a beam for wet scraping, I'm still keeping an eye out for all the tools of doing this job. Deer/elk/antelope/bighorn skins are a big part of the mountains, some of this has to do with a companies license to trade with Indians, and also it was illegal to trade whiskey with Indians. They broke these laws many, many times, but they don't write that down in journals. What you have to do in interpret the journal by reading several days of it. It'll go something like this day 1. met 2 paiutes today and traded 1 fish hook for 5 dressed deer skins. day 2. one of the paiutes stole whiskey and got drunk , gave him meat and sent him on his way.
Thats a little exaggerated, but it's a good example of how to interpret what might have really been the trade. It's also the reason for keeping a journal , these guys didn't write this stuff down like a little girls diary, there were good reasons for covering your proverbial butt in the business. Back to skins, it's real common to find Indian tanned skins. These hides were most likely worked with crude Indian tools, as many descriptions say they still use flint tools at this time. A few descriptions talk about the trappers themselves actually braintanning for garment leather, but nothing near as often as natives of course. These always use the word graining block , and beaming tool, or beamer. But this means these trappers are settled, possibly wintering, and a little outside of the mainstream trading because there was way too many Indians offering the skins for a small trinket of any trade goods. I believe this happened most often after 1840 when the companies broke up and left. Around the fort, it may have been more common, where white trappers were tanning more often. That is actually where I expect to find the real tanning tools. On buffalo, a whole different story. I only find Indian women tanning buff hides, and she has many different primitive tools. one journal says the hides of buffalo are too hard to tan and the white hunters leave them behind. Thats not to be compared with the buffalo hunters to come later in history, this is a time when the hide would have been useful, it was only better obtained from trade than attempt to tan it. There are times the whites would use a raw/green hide , epishimores were often dried hides, and when the trappers were in a pinch they would sleep on a green hide. But I see no instance of a white trapper attempting to tan a buff hide, so no tools for that job either. The only buffalo tanning tool I can find (in trade goods) is the wahintke scraper blade, and it took a few years for that to become a small trade item. I think the blade was an attempt to increase production of tanned buffalo hides , but before it could become common the time came of just hauling the hides to a tanner back east. So, a fleshing tool like I want may not have been a trade item, there's only a chance it might have been a tool at the fort and there wouldn't be very many of them around. Only a few legbone fleshing tools and makeshift metal tools seem to exist , and it's surprising because there were more hides tanned during this time than any other. Soon wool clothing takes over and the use of buckskin falls way back.
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