Smoked it today. This is to keep the skin from getting hard again when it gets wet...as a chamois does. Punky wood smokey fire turned it a nice smoked tan color. Now for the sewing project.
Great thread. From beginning to end. Learned a few things. I was unsuccessful in an attempt to tan a hide last year. Might have better luck now.
That is awesome, good for you! Every hunting season I think I should try tanning a hide but it never happens... Someday I will give it a try.
I learned some things myself! I will probably give it another try next year following some of VaughnT's info. This year I bought the supplies when I bought my archery tags. That helped me when I had the wet hide lying there.
Just let me know when. Maybe give dry-scrape a try. There's always plenty of need for good rawhide. Until then, shop around with the local ranchers to see if there's some goat or calf that you can get ahold of. I've still got a big sheet of calf rawhide I made ages ago and intended to turn into a quiver. Never got around to it. Haven't shot a bow in ages and ages.
On the TV show "Edge of Alaska" there is a guy who raises goats for milk and meat. It looks like he uses the goat hides for some of his outer wear, jacket, etc.
Good to know. I've only ever tanned one goat and it was too thin, imnsho, for outerwear. Of course, that's brain-tan and not chemical tan which produces a different quality of leather. Maybe different species of goats have different hide thicknesses, or the cold weather of Alaska causes them to thicken up for durability's sake. It'd be fun to experiment on some more goats.....
