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Post by joanne2 on Sept 18, 2010 7:55:53 GMT -5
Bovine I guess is what they're called. Poor little thing. Not sure what caused it's death. I came home to find this little creature's hide hanging over the rail on our back porch. A gift from my farmer friend, Dave. I mostly just call him the 'farmer'. Anyway he's got a mess of cows..just a bunch of them and sometimes they just don't make it into this world.. They surely are adorable. Well anyway....I wanted to wet scrape a fresh one but this one was far from it. It wasn't bad but there were definate signs of the skin starting to dry out and shrink tight and gee you wouldn't know there was much membrane on the skin left at all to look at it and scrape on it.. but there sure was. anyway first thing I did was head out to the barn for a piece of pvc I thought I'd left behind in there.. sure enough. The head was still attached.. so I just left it on for a bit as kind of a stopper. Inserted the pvc tube and leaned the pipe and the tube into the crook of the old apple tree in the backyard and commenced to scraping. I used a piece of plexiglass set into a handle to see what I could scrape off with the plastic bevelled edge. I like using the plexiglass as it seems gentler than steel IM0 So.. I really like scraping skins right off no soaking period but I could tell fairly soon into this that things were made lots tougher from the fact that the skin was just not moist like a right off the freshly dead critter was. This farmer found it then waited until maybe quite a few hours to skin it.. had some fly eggs on it but I'm just not too squeamish.. it also had a few bee's on it.. they seem to really like the fresh meat on hides and skins. They don't outright attack me anyway so I just kind of ignore those.. even though I hate being stung! Wellll It scraped fairly easily but I did make a couple small holes.. hate it when that happens.. BUT I think it's easier to just stitch up a couple small holes than it is to have wet hair and skin to deal with. I liked the fact that it was dry hair falling down around my feet rather than wet! It can stick to your shoes and well I don't don all kinds of gear if I can avoid it. The calf wasn't a really large one or anything. Sure was adorable. The blood vessels do run deep on these bovine calf skins. You can easily see them clear through the skin after I scraped off the hair and 'grain'. I scraped what I could off by evenly scraping the skin from head to tail, then when I'd about gotten all of that off pretty cleanly I then flipped the skin.. there didn't seem to be much meat or flesh on the flesh side so I skipped that step.. I decided to sever it's head and remaining front legs. The clean up crew was right there to see if they could find anything easily digestable. I had a few thoughts of saving the hock skins but then I thought about all the deer hock skins that await now! So I just pitched them. I will probably trim the ears and top part of the neck before long.
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Post by joanne2 on Sept 18, 2010 8:20:08 GMT -5
This fresh scraping can be kept fairly neat.. I'll go out and look for a rake soon. Maybe just transfer this dry hair from my backyard to over near my barn. Bet the sparrows that fly pretty freely in and out of our barn would really like this dry hair right about now. I know I will be using my powerwasher at some point and after scraping what I could fairly easily scrape off of this skin I decided it was time to get the skin wet and I know that my washer and turbo nozzle will both get the hide wet and rehydrate it and also raise the grain on the epidermis I'd missed.. So,...The little skin starts looking and feeling different very quickly. Time to flip the skin over and flesh and remove the membrane. It's really thin but looking way different than it had when I'd started.. I can tell that this membrane from the bovine's is way different than a deers skin is to remove the flesh and membrane from.. it's adhered really well. Anyway I was immediately VERY thankful for having the capability NOT to do this by hand because it was a bit tough for the machine and nozzle to remove.. The amount of membrane these guys have is really amazing. where it doesn't look like there is any the water quickly expands it and then the action of the machine finally sears it off.. A bit more concentration on the skin itself with that oscillating nozzle deeply cleans the skin helping to rid the skin of much of the blood. Nice to see it gone and whitening up a lot. This skin is really thin but dense structuring fiber wise. I can identify a bit of harm I made while abrading/scraping deeply to try to remove some of the most dried on epidermis. That was a mistake.. if it didn't come easily I should have not pushed it. Now I have a couple of very minor holes but holes none the less! Lesson learned. I didn't realize that I'd attracted a crowd.. Buster had little bits of flesh all over his face and although it was a little coolish outside to me the horsepony didn't seem to mind that cold spray hitting him full in the face like that. I'd missed the best picture of him displaying his teeth to bite the water and mane flying from the spray.. pretty.. LOL.. silly horse. They both ran off and later came back for more.. playful animals these two are. Well I hung the skin over the porch rail just to display how the scraping and machine work together in just a couple hours time, if even that. I just put the skin into a bucket of water for the night as I'd already had a long enough day. I will more than likely put this skin into a frame and squeegie out a lot of the stuff from the skin and then tighten it and stretch it tighter and let it dry.. perhaps Ill use the dry scraper to remove hair i've missed and maybe I'll even take the orbital sander to the skin a little bit as well. I'd like this skin to bubble very well and removing a bit more deeply into the hair side might encourage this breathability.. seems like the next best motions to take with it if I hope so soften this skin nice without the additions of lye. I don't think that step is really necessary. and I think I can eventually encourage this skin to soften good enough for something useful.
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Post by whitedove on Sept 18, 2010 12:10:38 GMT -5
Hello Paulette, Always enjoy your post... this was a very interesting story as well. For somewhat new commers like myself as I've said the pictures really make the story come alive.And the step my step makes the stories that much more interesting.I always enjoy when anyone displays their work.It says something about them,and the stories just make it all the better.And it makes you want to log in and look and see if anybody has added anything.As we know there are many people who could just stop by the forum and browse.It's good to get their interest,as they say a picture says a thousand words. So, I encourage you,as there are many people who really doesn't know the whole process.Maybe they've missed a step.For example my son could have used some help sometime back.We just looked at the pictures, a few anyhow.Sometimes people too proud to ask for help,to say they don't know how,it seems to make them vulnerable.Especially when shot a deer or something.They want to say I did on my own.However,after he'd already tried,tried,and tried.He gave up hung it up outside.I asked about it,several times didn't know that process.As brain tanning is all i ever seen done. After the fact, I continued reading the forum, I found it interesting, continued showing the pictures of the work displayed. They would look at a picture or two here and there.When folks just need to know there's a great group of friendly people who don't mind if you ask .... The How too's...in fact they know what their doing and their quite neighborly. And here's to havin a Good day!!!! To anyone readin ...Hi yaall!!!! Have a very good day!! WhiteDove
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Post by joanne2 on Sept 19, 2010 21:32:14 GMT -5
Hello White Dove, Yep. Thanks for commenting. Please forgive me for not replying sooner.. set the calfskin in a bucket of water and there it still sets! was hoping to get it framed this morning but one of the horseponies decided to escape! and then I also started another job yesterday of refinishing my kitchen cupboards so I have them all totally sanded down and ready for stain and polyurethane now.. whew.. I'm still covered in dust! Sheesh. exhausted. yawn.. 6a is going to come early tomorrow! I will try to make an update soon.. just please be patient! I hope your son takes up tanning again. I like scraping them fresh like this.. they scrape pretty easy fresh.. kinda stick to the plastic pipe or wooden beam. makes scraping go pretty quick. Even big bison and elk can just be scraped clean easy. just make sure it's a narrow pipe and a blunt heavy bar is best..long as it doesn't cut into your finger or the skin you're scraping. Old women and young girl NA's tanned hides while the mom age women tended the young children. Makes sense. my kitchen.. lol.. that was yesterday.. I think there were about 15 doors.and they were all that reddish color on the right hand side.. I'm going with 'natural' now.. least on my cupboard doors! Man I've been wanting to redo these for a long while now.. once upon a time they were dark.. 'walnut' so they've been sanded down twice now. should probably go over all the doors with the fine paper.. whew. well, I sanded all the doors outside but the framing just really threw dust EVERYWHERE.. almost like doing drywall.. not much difference.. Better than taking the cupboards down.. OMG.. been there done that.. just really a DIY'er here.. lol. The trouble all started when my daughter and I went to Lowes and we started looking at new countertops and well I found one on sale! lol.. yepper.. what a deal.. only had a small defect! well told hubby that I couldn't see replacing the countertop without having the advantage of sanding that board below it.. much easier to sand with the countertop off! lol.. boy did that start the confrontation.. this is all very disturbing to my other half! Oh well... I can hardly wait to cut the countertop! Good thing I have him to 'tell me how to do it'! LOL.. This is how it looks tonight. Glad you enjoy my posts, White Dove. I enjoy reading yours as well, thanks! Paulette
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Post by joanne2 on Sept 29, 2010 7:04:11 GMT -5
Wellllll. ;D I'm still stalling on this calf skin...and the hair on deer skin and the bunny fur and even the beaver is in need of some more smoke..so gosh this brain tanning can take a lot of time and patience. I'm sure the many two footed's around here COULD potentially help out but they all want frogskins! What I did find out working on my cupboards was that I prefer painting on the brains on framed animal skins to applying polyurethane to cupboard doors.. anytime.. I suppose if I did home DIY every day I'd improve... I'd probably improve on prolific brain tanning if that was all I had to do, too. Unfortunately that is probably more of a dream world there. Will need to run out for more gas for the powerwasher this morning ;-) Oh that baby really saves me some time and effort as well as getting skins really clean. There was no way I could have membraned this calf skin like this without a heck of a wahinkte.. and time.. and probably a whole tribe to help me. This skin sure is tight. Anyway thought I'd show you all who are interested what I have done on it. I stretched,oiled and am prestretching till it's all dry feeling.. I think the whiter and more stretched out it is the more smoke may be able to penetrate.. Perhaps I should reoil and resoften first.. good question because if it doesn't have the oil in it when it is smoked the opposite could occur and I would like this skin to 'feel' soft as well as be fully tanned.. hmmn I guess the more one tans the more one dislikes resoftening but brains are much better applied to well oiled skins..hmmn...well anyway a few pics. The skin is still damp in all these pics.. Damn to me means that if it isn't constantly manipulated, it can shrink and tighten up! So..we don't want to let that happen! Back into the deep freeze it goes till I just have to work on it some more. Ice cubes, calfskin and roadkilled deer, yummy.
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Post by Cody ( The Patriot ) on Sept 29, 2010 7:55:25 GMT -5
You sure are a worker bee
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Post by whitedove on Sept 29, 2010 13:09:48 GMT -5
Boy,Howdy isn't she...
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Sept 29, 2010 21:44:13 GMT -5
looking good
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Post by joanne2 on Sept 30, 2010 10:22:07 GMT -5
Thanks you all :-). I have a friend that says some of the indians tanned longhorn cattle skins and made tipis with the skins. I think I found some locally too.. not something that you see very often in Michigan. He says they just thinned and thinned and repeatedly brained and smoked them..hmm we'll seee. Sure would be cool to have a real skin tipi.
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