Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-10-07
HOW INDIANS TANNED BuCnsKIs.
Aboriginal Method Fast Becoming
One of the Lost Arts.


One of the Lost Arts.
(St. Louis Globe-Democrat)
Mr.. Roosevelt calls the backswoods-
mans hunting shirt Of fringed buckskin
1.-The most picturesque and distinctly
national dress ever worn in America"
1t is seldom seen nowadays, even in the
widest regions, and before long the
process of making buckskin may be a
lost art. No tannery can produce a
leather So suitable for a frontiersman.
Buckskin is warmer J1an cloth, pliable
as Kid, noiseless against bushes, proof
against thorns, collects no burrs, wears
like iron, and its soft, neutral color rem
ders the wearer inconspcUous amid any
surroundings. 1t always dries soft after
wetting, and when of good quality 1t
can be washed like a piece OF cotton.
Most important of all to the hunter Is
the consideration that buckskin can be
prepared in the wilderness, with no ma
terials but those furnished by the forest,
the stream, and the animal itself.
The undressed skins which hunters and
trappers sell to the furrier or tanner
are merely raw pelts, which have been
scraped on the flesh side and then
stretched TO dry with the hair on. No
alum or other preservative is needed *
the skin be exposed to the air in cool,
dry place. A deerskin treated in this
way is too stiff for most uses, and
shrivels up into horny wrinkles after a
wetting Most of the raw deerskins
which reach the market are worked into
glove leather bat of late they have be-
come so scarce that sheepskin is COM
monty used In their stead, and the buck
skin" gloves which you buy in the stores
are likely to prove inferior limitations.
II a deerskin be tanned by the usual
process-that is to say, treated with
tannin in the form of a liquor from
ground bark, its fibre undergoes a chemi-
cal change and the skin becomes leather.
No tanned skin will dry soft
The material known as "Indlan-tanned
buckskn" is not leather. Properly
speaking, it has not been tanned, for
neither tannin nor any substitute has
touched it. The fibres have been loosend
and rendered permanently soft and fiexi-
Bile. the pores have been closed up, but
there has been little or no chemical
change from the raw state. Different
tribes have different methods OF making
buckskin, but the essential processes are
% soaking, % depiIating and fieshing,
CD stretching and treating with brains,
with repeated soaking and drying, az
smoking.
The skin is first soaked in water from
three to five days, depending upon the
temperature. Elk or buffalo hides are
immersed in a lye Of ashes and water,
or rolled up in ashes moistened with
warm water After soaking the hide is
taken to a granting log, which is simply
a stick of hard wood about eight feet
long and six or eight inches thick at the
butt. The bark is removed from the thick
end and the other is stuck under
a root or otherwise fastened in the ground
at an angle, leaving the smooth
end about waist high, like a tanners
beam or a short log may be used
one that will reach to the chin when
stood on end-in which case a notch is
cut in the butt, by which the stick is
braced against the limb of small tree,
with smooth surface facing the operator,
and the small end sticking in the ground
about two feet from the tree. A grain
ing knife is now required. 1t was
formerly made Of hard wood OF stone.
of the sharpened rib or scapula OF an
animal, or Of the attached bones OF
deer's foreleg, with the front edge Of
the ulna scraped sharp. The latter In
strument was used like a spoke-shave.
The back OF a thin butcher knife does
very well If the point is driven into
stick so as 10 give handle at eacn end.
In fact, almost anything with scrap
ing edge viii answer the purpose.
The skin is placed on the granting log
with the neck drawn over the upper end
Of the log about six or eight inches. The
do effgx befNyTgn the
neck and his body to prevent slipping,
and presses his weight against it. II
the notched log is used the neck Is caught
between the notch and the limb. The
hair and grain Cblack epidermis) are
scraped off by working the knife
down the skin the way the hair runs
III the hair Is stubborn little ashes
rubbed into such spots will offer resist
ance to the kife and will make the grain
slim. The hide is now turned over and
fleshed with a sharp knife by removing
ali superfious tissue and working the
skin down to an even thickness through
out This operation must be performed
with great care or the buekskin Will have
thick and stiff spots. which make II COM
paratively worthless.
After cleaning the hide II Is allowed
10 dry, and then is resoaked overnight
Now comes the hard work OF stretching
and softening the hide. The skin Is
pulled. twisted. and worked in every d.
rection until II becomes white and soft.
after which the operator rubs into II
the brains q the animal. which have
been removed by splitting the skull
lengthwise half In two. Sometimes the
brains are first dissolved in tepid water
being allowed to simmer over a slow
fire while the Jumps are rolled between
the fingers till they forla a paste, which
will dissolve more freely This solution
Is then rubbed into the hide on the hair
side, which Is more porous than the
flesh side. Deer brains may be preserved
by mixing them with moss, TO make the
mass adhere enough TO be formed into a
cake, which Is hung by the fire TO dry
Such cake viii keep for years. and
when wanted for dressing hide It Is