tanning hides

Andy. I told you I'd get this to you but forgot. For a year.




The Tanning Process 101 by Jim Champion




Since there's more then one way to skin a cat I'm going to go right to
dogs and start this out.
Ok, that wasn't funny. But I AM going to start this assuming all
skinning is done.
Keep in mind that there are several ways to accomplish what I'm about
to describe here. The following is the method I choose, and have used
in my shop for the past 10 plus years.

Once you have your critter skinned, you'll want to remove as much of
the meat as possible that was left behind. Same for the fat.
I use a fleshing beam or/and my round knife. A fleshing beam is
nothing more then a half round beam or a flat beam with rounded edges,
and anywhere from 4 to 10 inches wide. If you flop the hide flesh side
up across your beam, and let a small part of it hang over the front,
you can lean against it and the beam, holding the hide in place.
Smaller beams allow tubed skinned hides to be pulled onto the beam.
The beam would go inside the open end of the hide.
Using a draw knife you want to let the blade lay flat against the skin
with the edge pointing away from you and towards the direction on the
hide you will be scraping. You can shift, flip, or roll the hide as
you go, to turn up the unworked areas.
A round knife is nothing more then a fancy name for a fleshing
machine. It uses a round blade type knife. Hence the term "round
knife". The hide is pulled across the spinning blade and shaved free
of any meat and or fat. The amount removed and the depth of each swath
is determined by how you set the guards on each side of the blade.

Once the hide is completely free of any meat and/or fat you'll want to
lay it out flat, flesh side up and cover the entire thing with a good
layer of a good fine grade salt. Rub it into every square inch. Leave
no flesh unsalted. Don't forget the ears nubs if you left the face on,
and same with the paw pads. Then fold or roll the hide so that it can
begin draining. If you roll the hide, I like to fold the entire thing
in half once, then roll. But be sure to always roll the hide in the
opposite direction you folded it. Which will always leave the outside
edges of the hide facing the same direction allowing for drainage. For
example; if you fold the hide in half by reaching out in front of
yourself and pulling the farthest edge towards you. Then don't reach
across again and grab the folded edge and roll...you will be sealing
the first folded crease in the middle of your roll. DON'T DO IT. Fold
one way (only once) and then roll it up in the opposite direction.
This allows the fluids to be able to drain as the salt does it's work.
If you fold it without rolling, try to only fold it two or three times
and keep track of your outside edges keeping them all together. Set
the hide somewhere to drain.
About 24 hours later, you'll need to shake off all the salt and
reapply another coat the same way you just did. Never reuse the old
salt, but shake as much of it off the hide as you can before you
proceed.
I like to do this three times, before I hang the hide to completely
dry. At which point you can hang the hide where it is out of the
weather, and away from insects or rodents.

It will be approx. two to three days once the hide is hung before it
turns rock hard. Depending on the climate it's being stored in. Once
the hide is rock hard, I know it's completely dehydrated and I'll
prepare a rehydration solution. You can use a formula which consists
of 1 lb of salt to every gallon of water needed, and add a capfull of
Lysol Concentrate to each of those 5 gallons. So ...if you got a deer
cape, you'll need close to six gallons since it's in this awkward
postion and rock hard, and the formula would be 6 lbs of salt, 6
gallons of water, and a little more then a capfull of the Lysol
Concentrate. Mix it up until all the salt dissolves, and then go ahead
and place your fleshed dried hide in it to soak. The salt in the water
stunts any bacteria growth while it soaks, and the Lysol is there to
pick up any slack. Work it around the next few hours so eventually the
entire hide gets submerged.
Completely drying the hides this way and then rehydrating them, is the
first step in the skin to leather conversion your about to do. It
kills anything and everything as far as potential bacteria. Which is
what causes hair slippage.
Once your hide is completely rehydrated, and by that I mean in the
same state it appeared the day you skinned it, you can pull it from
the rehydration, rinse it well and hang it to drain for 30 minutes.
Rehydration may take up to 24 hours and the process can be aided or
sped up with many different chemicals available today for just that.
Now you can do a little more fleshing. You'll notice new areas that
need to be fleshed because the salt drying and rehydration process
will loosen more of it up. Give it a good once over and try to get it
all right down to the membrane if you can. Whittle around the ears,
the nose and the rest of the face being carefull not to cut into any
whisker folics. They'll look like a little brown pimples in the skin.

Next you'll need to decide what your going to use for a pickling
solution. Pickling, as far as tanning is concerned, acidifys the skin
and readys it for an even tan, and also kills and prevents any
bacteria growth what so ever from this point on. Most pickling
formulas are a very low PH level which enables it to prevent bacteria
the way it does. And also put's the hide in such a state in can be
left in the solution safley for many weeks.
Not only that, if you go through the entire DEhydration and
REhydration steps, pickling makes removing the inner membrane of your
skins much much easier. Which absolutely has to be removed by the way.
Hides should be left in the pickle for a minimum of three days at the
proper PH level. No less. Longer is fine but no less. Get yourself
some PH papers and check the PH level twice a day for the first two
days. You can add acid to lower it, or add sodium bicarbonate (baking
soda) to raise it. Use these in very small amounts because it wont
take much to adjust it. The pickling method you choose and purchase
will have mixing directions and a required PH level to maintain. Do
yourself a favor and follow those closely.
Once the hide has been in your pickling solution at the required PH
level, for a minimum of 3 days, you can pull it out, hang it to drain
for an hour or so, and then take it back to your fleshing beam and
work on that membrane. The acid will have swelled the skin making the
membrane much easier to flesh off, and like I said it has to come off
in order for the chemicals to penetrate the skin, both the pickling
chemicals and your tanning chemicals.
Some critters just flat out give you trouble when removing the
membrane. When you come across this, try breaking the membrane up a
little. Instead of making a shaving motion down the skin with your
fleshing knife like you would when fleshing the first time, push your
knife down the hide straight. Meaning no sideways motion as the knife
moves ahead. Remember the membrane is the only thing between the skin
and your knife. If you go to deep, your into the skin.
Letting your blade lay flat against the skin, press it firmly to the
skin as you push the knife away straight. You'll see the membrane
breaking away in a few spots but it may not come off like some of the
meat and fat did, especially until you develop a nack for doing it.
Keep rotating the hide to expose an unworked area until you have most
of the membrane broke up. If you put the hide back into the pickling
solution for 24 hours and try again it will be easier to remove. Your
breaking up the membrane and resoaking it in the acid will have
pickled the newly exposed flesh and loosened more membrane for you.
Keep working it and soaking it in the pickle until your able to remove
it all.
Once your convinced that the hide is completely fleshed, membrane and
all, always put it back into the pickling solution for 24 hours again
to be sure all newly exposed flesh gets pickled.

After the pickling process comes the actual tanning...thought we'de
never get here didn't you? And just think, were actually about half
done here.
Before you can tan the hide, regardless of which tanning method you
choose, the hide will need to be neutralized. The pickling acids run a
very low PH level. Lower then the tanning chemicals, which in turn
would prevent the tanning chemicals from adhering to the skin and
tanning evenly if the hide wasn't neutralized.
To neutralize the hide you can mix 1oz. of sodium bicarbonate (baking
soda) to every gallon of water needed to submerge the hide. Stir it up
making sure it's all dissolved.
Soak the hide in your new bath here for 30 minutes. Try not to go
longer, but DO agitate the soaking skin often.
When you've accomplished this you can pull the hide out, rinse it well
several times in clear water, and hang it to drain for an hour or so
again.

Now your ready for the tanning process... which I am not going to get
into due to the fact that every tanning chemical on the market today
comes with it's own instructions. They are fairly simple to follow.
Some nothing more then mixing another soak solution.
I don't sell, distribute, or promote any tan and it would be unfair to
go into full detail targeting one brand. I use Rittel's and I'll leave
it at that.

After you've tanned your skin comes the breaking process. Some tans
require that an oil be applied as soon as it comes out of the tan.
Some require that you let the hide hang until only damp.
Most oils are compatable with other tans and which oil you choose
(unless your tan requires something specific) is merely your choice.
Look through a supply catolog and read about the oils finding one best
suited for your use. Such as; are you mounting the speciman? Are you
making leather? A finished fur?etc.

The oil you choose will also have detailed instructions. What I need
to tell you is that no matter what tan you choose, or what oil you
choose, it is very important to break the hide AS IT DRIES. If you
wait to long you get a stiff hide. If you start too soon, your doing
absolutely nothing. Breaking is softening, and got it's name because
in doing so, your breaking the skin fibers.
As the hide approaches it's damp stage, work it, stretch it, pull it,
shake it. Every square inch.
You can lay it out on a table flesh side up, and use a flat edged
slicker or a piece of a board and firmly push it across the skin
working towards the edges. Hold your slicker or your board like you
would when your scraping the ice off your windshield. Push hard and
stretch the skin fibers as you go. Work over the entire hide.
Some people use a thick smooth edge piece of metal. Clamp it in a vise
and work the flesh side of the hide back and forth over it like you
were shining shoes. You could use the edge of a table the same way.
Hold the hide on each end of the area your working. One hand up top
the table, the other straight down over the edge, working the hide
back and forth.
You could also put the hide in a cloths dryer WITH THE HEAT TURNED
OFF. Providing your wife never finds out. Tumbling does the same
effect as the methods just described. I've made a full post with
detailed instructions and pictures on how to build a tumbler here. How
to Build a Tumbler
You can tumble the hides to break them (soften). And if you have
access to a tumbler you can put hardwood sawdust in with the hide
after the breaking stages to clean and shine the fur.
The saw dust can be later combed and/or shaken out. If you have a cage
tumbler, which has cage walls instead of an enclosed drum, this would
be the time to use that. Cage tumbling removes the saw dust.

That's all there is to it.
Treat your tanned skins like you would your wifes fur coat because
that's basically what they are. You wouldn't leave the fur coat laying
on your basement floor. Nor would you run it through the washing
machine. Don't do it with your tanned skins either and you'll have a
soft, healthy looking trophy hide that'll outlast even the youngest
member in your family.

building web sites

November 15, 2006
The Internet


How to Make Your Web Site Sing for You
By ERIC A. TAUB
THE idea that if you build it, they will come, might have worked for Kevin Costner in the movie “Field of Dreams,” but it certainly does not hold true for Web sites.

Build a bad-looking small-business site filled with poorly written text, and your potential customers will go away. Build one that is attractive, compelling and clever, but crucial design mistakes will still guarantee that few people will know that the site exists.

Your Web site is like a digital business card, designers say, the first online look at your company that a customer gets. With luck, it will not be the last.

A site must have addictive content, said Vincent Flanders, a Web design consultant in the Seattle area who is the creator of Webpagesthatsuck.com, a site that analyzes why some pages do not work. “People must be willing to crawl through a sewer for it.”

It is not just small operations that make a mishmash of their sites. Large companies can be just as prone to major design mistakes.

One global company states on its home page that “Indigenous and proven career management tools coupled with a comprehensive series of integrated initiatives have been evolved, to ensure that employees continue to sustain a high performance culture, while recruitment and selection is based on necessary competencies.”

That is “just gobbledygook,” Mr. Flanders said. “The words are not understandable by humans.”

According to Jakob Nielsen, a Web site consultant and author of the book “Prioritizing Web Usability,” it is essential that a Web page get a company’s message across quickly, because visitors are a fickle bunch. Most people do not go beyond what is in front of their faces.

Studies by Mr. Nielsen’s company, the Nielsen Norman Group, an Internet design firm in Fremont, Calif., show that only 50 percent of Web visitors scroll down the screen to see what lies below the visible part on their PC monitor.

“Users spend 30 seconds reviewing a home page,” Mr. Nielsen said. “A business must encapsulate what they do in very few words.”

With findings like those, it is no wonder that Web pages must visually hit a visitor right between the eyes. If a site does not answer a user’s questions about a business, then you have scored one for the competition. For example, the first thing customers visiting any restaurant’s Web site want to know is when it is open. But often that information can be found only by digging through multiple pages. As a result, “the site fails,” Mr. Nielsen said.

“It’s all about the basics,” said Baris Cetinok, Microsoft’s director of product management for Office Live, a site that offers free Web hosting and design tools for small businesses.

Visitors must immediately find out “who you are, what you do and how people can reach you,” Mr. Cetinok said.

Besides good grammar, Mr. Nielsen suggests that companies list a physical address, include a photograph of the building and not ask potential clients to fill out a form simply to ask a question. “That immediately communicates danger,” he said.

Making a site look good is complicated by the fact that no two monitors will necessarily present the Web in the same way. Users can set their browser’s default font size to be bigger or smaller, so it is impossible to know exactly how text will appear to any one person.

And how much of a Web site’s home page can actually be seen by users varies, based on the screen’s resolution.

The problems are made worse by designers being in Los Angeles or New York, and not, say, Texas, so “they think everyone has a large monitor and a fast D.S.L. connection,” said Neil Hettinger, co-owner of Lead Pencil Ad Design, a marketing and design company in Manhattan Beach, Calif. He suggests mixing text and graphics on a Web site, with dark type set against a light background for easy reading.

If you are selling a product, use thumbnail photos that can be enlarged when clicked on, Mr. Nielsen said, not a graphic that can be rotated in every direction. Otherwise “you see products at weird angles.”

“The most important rule in Web page design is to eliminate unnecessary design,” Mr. Flanders said. He recommends not adding large, spinning graphics that take a long time to download.

He also advises business owners not to add introductory splash pages that force a viewer to watch a video or animation.

“Splash pages are only needed for pornography, gambling and multinational Web sites that need to direct users to a particular country’s page,” Mr. Flanders said.

Graphics also do nothing to help a site get discovered by search engines like Google or Yahoo. Those sites troll the Internet for key words, as well as the frequency and quality of one site that links to another.

Text embedded in a graphic, like the name of a shop in a photograph, cannot be seen by search engines. And the old practice of embedding key words in white-on-white type will not increase a site’s page ranking; in fact it will do the opposite.

“The first time a word is used on a site, it’s significant,” said Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer. “If that word is used 50 times, there is a diminishing return.”

“If you put hidden tags on your page, you’re a total moron,” Mr. Flanders said. “You will get caught by search engines, or others will turn you in.”

If your business is local, make sure that the entire geographic area you serve is mentioned in text on the site. To increase the number of sites that link to yours, list your business in online trade directories, and mention it on various blogs.

Google offers free Web master tools that automatically analyze a site to determine if it is being optimized by search engines.

In the end, getting a prominent placement in a search engine is the only way to ensure that your site will be seen by those who can increase your business.

“If your site is not listed on the first page of search results, you might as well not exist,” Mr. Nielsen said.