The advocate., 1897-09-22
TNDIAN-TANNBD BUOKSKIN.

mans hunting shirt of fringed buckskin
the most picturesque and distinCtively
national dress ever worn in America"
1t is seldom seen nowadays, even in the
widest regions, and before long the pro-
cess Of making buckskin may be lost
art No tannery can produce a leather
so suitable for a frOntiersman. Buck
skin is warmer than 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 incOnspiCuous 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 buckslIin can be
prepared in the wilderness, with no ma
terials but those furnished by the for
est, 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 if
the skin be exposed to the air in a cool,
way is too stiff for most uses, and shriv-
els up into horny wrinkles after a wet
ting. Most of the raw deer skins which
reach the market are worked into glove
leather, but of late they have become so
scarce that sheepskin is commonly used
in their stead, and the "buCkskin" gloves
which you buy in the stores are likely to
prove only inferior limitations
If deerskin be tanned by the usual
process, that Is to say, treated with tan
min in the form of a liquor from ground
bark, its fiber undergoes chemical
change, and the skin becomes leather.
No tanned skin will dry soft.
The material known as "Indian-tanned
buckskin"' is not leather. Properly
speaking, 1t has not been tanned, for
neither tannin nor any substitute has
touched it. The fibers have been lOOs-
ened and rendered permanently soft and
flexible, 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
Q) soaking, (2) depilating and fleshing,
(3) stretching and treating with brains,
with repeated soaking and drying, (4
smoking.
The skin is first soaked in water from
three to five days, depending upon the
temperature. Elk or buffalo hides are
immersed in q 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
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
root or otherwise fastened in the
ground at an angle, leaving the smooth
end about waist high, like tanners
beam. Or 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 a 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 It was for
merly made of hard wood, of stone, of
the sharpened rib or scapula Of an ami
NAL, or Of the attached bones of q deers
foreleg, with the front edge Of the ulna
scraped sharp. The latter instrument
was used like a spOke-shave The
back of a thin butcher knife does very
well, If the point is driven into a
stick so as to give handle at each end.
In fact, almost anything with a scraping
edge will answer the purpose.
The skin is placed on the granting log
with the neck drawn over the upper
end Of the log six or eight inches. The
operator places a fat stick between the