Post by beaudro on Mar 25, 2009 19:29:02 GMT -5
It's not the best of picture, but i've finally got things working again. malware took over my computer a long time back.
I was buying pieces of barktan almost every year, used it to make hunting pouches, knife sheaths and what ever else i could find it good for.
I finally did it myself and it's too easy. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier on. I plan on doing several hides each year , it's too good to pass up.
This is one of the two hides I did. It was never suppose to work , the other hide is actually better. I started out going to braintan as usual. I fleshed a little, and then put them into a lime buck. Normally they stay in the buck for 2 days , but i was called away at work and left these 5 days. No problem, they will still tan, but I was called away again and I left them out to drip so I never got a chance to neautralize them and remove the lime.
they were caked with lime , and I thought if i took a chance with barktanning it would be just a lesson learned .
As they were caked up in lime and dried hard as a rock , I just resoaked them , removed the hair and left the grain on. This only took like strokes with the fleshing tool. After removing that, i threw them in a barrell and ran water to them for about a day. I added some vinegar and let them sit for about 2 days. When they felt neutralized, same as braintanning, i put them in a mix of about 1 lb of quebracho and filled with maybe 15 gallons of water. After 3 days i added more quebracho , I stirred pretty good for the first week, maybe 8 times a day . Then i got lazy, went to work, went to texas to a rendezvous,, and figured they went to waste when i got back... I pulled them out after that 3 weeks. I oiled on them both with neatsfoot oil and framed the first one last night. Today when I got in from work i found the framed hide was great, i'm was really impressed, it's the same as what i was buying!! The other hide I did not frame, but it was still soft and ready to use!!
I spent a total of 15 minutes rubbing oil into them, the framed hide was a decent flat hide easy to lay patterns on,, the other was a little lumpy , but it's going to work just fine anyway.
It was just too dang easy, and now i've got basically free leather. I ordered the quebracho powder from braintan.com , i bought 10 lbs of it and I can use whats left in the barrell for more hides,,, so it goes a long way i think.
Next time i won't leave them so long , I think one week might do it on most deer hides. Thats not a bad amount of time, you don't have to do anything but toss them in a barrell and let them take care of themselves. I would advise stirring often, but for me it's ok to have weird spots on it. I've already got an idea for a new hunting pouch!!
I was buying pieces of barktan almost every year, used it to make hunting pouches, knife sheaths and what ever else i could find it good for.
I finally did it myself and it's too easy. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier on. I plan on doing several hides each year , it's too good to pass up.
This is one of the two hides I did. It was never suppose to work , the other hide is actually better. I started out going to braintan as usual. I fleshed a little, and then put them into a lime buck. Normally they stay in the buck for 2 days , but i was called away at work and left these 5 days. No problem, they will still tan, but I was called away again and I left them out to drip so I never got a chance to neautralize them and remove the lime.
they were caked with lime , and I thought if i took a chance with barktanning it would be just a lesson learned .
As they were caked up in lime and dried hard as a rock , I just resoaked them , removed the hair and left the grain on. This only took like strokes with the fleshing tool. After removing that, i threw them in a barrell and ran water to them for about a day. I added some vinegar and let them sit for about 2 days. When they felt neutralized, same as braintanning, i put them in a mix of about 1 lb of quebracho and filled with maybe 15 gallons of water. After 3 days i added more quebracho , I stirred pretty good for the first week, maybe 8 times a day . Then i got lazy, went to work, went to texas to a rendezvous,, and figured they went to waste when i got back... I pulled them out after that 3 weeks. I oiled on them both with neatsfoot oil and framed the first one last night. Today when I got in from work i found the framed hide was great, i'm was really impressed, it's the same as what i was buying!! The other hide I did not frame, but it was still soft and ready to use!!
I spent a total of 15 minutes rubbing oil into them, the framed hide was a decent flat hide easy to lay patterns on,, the other was a little lumpy , but it's going to work just fine anyway.
It was just too dang easy, and now i've got basically free leather. I ordered the quebracho powder from braintan.com , i bought 10 lbs of it and I can use whats left in the barrell for more hides,,, so it goes a long way i think.
Next time i won't leave them so long , I think one week might do it on most deer hides. Thats not a bad amount of time, you don't have to do anything but toss them in a barrell and let them take care of themselves. I would advise stirring often, but for me it's ok to have weird spots on it. I've already got an idea for a new hunting pouch!!