been in the woods haven't been fishing in two months. I itching to get out again. A friend of mine told me about a spot on the mohawk that holds some good size crappie, I think I will give it a try real soon.
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say Larry, did your fish get cold and you had to get him a fur coat?
Looks tender to me... Nice harvest,
maybe I can get mine real quick so I can get back to the fishing pole.....
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[cool][cool] Taint got a coat anymore that guy is in the deep freeze. The coat is in water getting ready to clean it ( flesh side) then put it back into a Alum solution so I can set the hair then needsfoot oil and hang it on the wall.
Back into the woods tomarrow afternoon to try for another one. If it is brown it's down unless it is to small.
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Wow, been a long time since I heard of any one tanning thier own hide...[
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did you get the alum in a kit or did you find it some where else?
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I slid this over to the hunting board. see a good topic coming up[
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[cool][cool]Hi Dave I started here but just had to put something on the 16 species.
I've been tanning for about 8 years now. I've done a number of hides and enjoy it. I've been doing an old indian method of brain tanning, which involves smoking the hides after you scrape and strech them. this is good because after they are smoked they are them preserved for when you want to do a project. Right now I have about a dozen hides waiting for the final step which is the soaking in the brain solution.
The worst part is the scraping of the hide, which can take up to two hours to do one (both sides). I use a draw knife for that and it has to be extremly sharp and held at the right angle so as to remove the hair but not cut through the hide.The only project I have around right now is a hide I did many years ago (18) of the first deer I shot and that hangs in my office.
I used to have a jar of comercial alum that a professor here at school gave me but have used it up. now I have some pickleing alum from the store, I hoping that works as well. We will see.
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its been a long time for me since I last did any tanning my self, I used to use a brine made of Aluminum sulfate and borax, and maybe another chemical... I would have to look it up to be sure...
I found the fleshing part fairly easy, but back them I had my own board for fleshing, I still have many of the tools of the traid other than the board aperatus. my hard part was working in the oil to soften the leather,. when I did mine, I liked to leave the hair on. I found when water proffing the leather that the hair would also absorb the water proffing solution. I thought this would ad an extra sheilding when out in wet weather....
I used to do a lot of trapping in my earlier days, and to make a dollar I would have to flesh, dry and strech the skins before selling them. the better I got at it the more money I could make up to a point. When My line would go cold the fur buyer would hire me to skin and flesh his skins. You had to be fast in order to make 20 bucks an hour when you are being paid by 50 cents per peice.
sure miss those days,
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For fleshing I made a three legged stand set to my height with an 18" piece of four inch pvc knotched into the top that is my board. This allows me to concentrate my scraping into a 1" strip. I just keep on moving the hide as I go. With arthur. in my hands and neck I have to stand back and take breaks. I could never make money at it I just enjoy what I do. For streching I made up 2X4 frames, punch small hole in the perimeter of the hide. If I'm leaving the fur on at this point I'll add the oil and as the water dries out the oil gets sucked in then I'll work the hide until it becomes soft adding some oil as I go. The finished product repels water but it does not breath. The Braining method allows the hide to breath and is much more suitable for garments.
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well I am up in the air on this one, I cant decide weather I got a rich mans 4 point or a poe' mans 6 point [crazy]
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[sly][sly]Nice Buck Dave, I'm greedy so I 'd say it's a 6. But I'm not sure how long a point has to be to be considered a point.
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Well I took him in to have him registered this past fryday.
Like you I marked him as a 6 point, he scores as a 5. the old antage of it will hold a ring it's a point is not how the state of michigan registers them.
The michigan ruleing is the tine must be an inch long to count as a point.
in eather case the horns are being weather dried and soon will be brought in to in front of the furnas to be air dired then he along with a couple spikes will be turned in to a coat and hat rack...
finding a peice of wallnut 2x6x24 inches will prove to be as good a task in finding as finding a 5 point deer.
any way this years patch is pretty nice....
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