&c., for gloves, &c., are also tawed, but the hair must be taken off.
The skins are first soaked in warm water, scraped on the flesh side to
get off fat, and hung in a warm room until they begin to give a slight
smell of hartshorn. The wool or fur then comes off rapidly. The hair
side should now be thoroughly scraped against the hair. The skin is
next soaked two or three weeks in weak lime water, changing the water
two or three times. Then they are brought out again, scraped smooth
and trimmed. Then rinsed in clean water, then soaked in wheat bran
and water for two or three weeks. After this they are well stirred
around in pickle of alum, salt and water. Then they are thrown again
into the bran and water for two or three days. Then stretched and
dried somewhat in a warm room. After this they are soaked in warm
water and then worked or trodden on in a trough or pail filled with
yolk of eggs, salt, alum, flour and water, beaten to a froth. They are
finally stretched and dried in an airy room, and last of all smoothed
with a warm smoothing iron. This makes the beautiful leather we see in
gloves, military trimmings, &c. The proportions for the egg paste are
as follows: 3-1/2 pounds salt, 8 pounds alum, 21 pounds wheat flour and
yolks of nine dozen eggs. Make a paste with water, dissolving first the
alum and salt. A little of this paste is used as wanted with a great
deal of water.
Chamois skin and deer skins not wanted for gloves are similarly
treated up to the point of treating with egg paste. Instead of using
this process, they are oiled on the hair side with very clean animal
oil, rolled into balls and thrown into the trough of a fulling mill,
well beaten two or three hours, aired, re-oiled, beaten again and the
process repeated a third time. They are then put into a warm room
until they begin to give out a decided smell, then scoured in weak
lye to take out superfluous grease. Here the intention is merely to
get a thick felt-like skin of good color, a nicely grained surface is
not required as in gloves. The skins are finally rinsed, wrung out,
stretched and dried, and when nearly dry, slightly rub with a smooth,
hard, round stick.
These are the fine processes. A dried skin oiled so as to become smooth
and pliable will retain the hair or wool a considerable time.
Or it may be made more durable where the color of the flesh side is no
object by scraping, washing in soapsuds and then putting directly into
the tan pit. For ordinary purposes rabbit, squirrel and other small
skins can be efficiently preserved with the hair by the application of
powdered alum and fine salt, put on them when fresh, or if not fresh
by dampening them first. Squirrel skins when wanted without the hair
will tan very well in wheat bran tea, the fat and hair having been
previously removed by soaking in lime-water and scraping. Old tea
leaves afford tannin enough for small skins, but they give a color
not nearly so pleasant as bran. Almost any of the barks afford tannin
enough for small skins--willow, pine, poplar, hemlock of course,
sumach, etc.
Coloring or Dyeing Skins and Furs.
Furs are dyed by dealers, to suit some fashion, to conceal defects or
to pass off inferior furs for better ones.
The best way is to brush the dye over the fur with a good sponge,
brushing with the hair. As a matter of course, you can only dye them
of a darker color than they are, and retain the handsome lustrous look
peculiar to fur. They may be bleached, but the process leaves the fur
looking like coarse flax or even hemp.
* * * * *
BLUE.--Sulphate of indigo, (soluble indigo, sold by all druggists,)
is the readiest and best to get a blue with. Furs are never dyed blue
for sale, for that would be spoiling a white fur, but sheep-skins are.
The skin should be dipped several times in a bath of hot alum water,
allowed to drain, and then dipped into a solution of sulphate of indigo
and water, with a few drops of sulphuric acid added, this gives a pale
blue. Aniline blue is very fine, and dyeing with it is very simple. A
solution of the color in water is made, a hot solution, and the skin
put in all at once, (if a part of the skin is put in first that part
will be darkest, so quick is the absorption of these colors). Fancy
sheep-skin mats are colored blue, red, green, and yellow, and have a
ready sale when they are new.
* * * * *
BLACK.--The best black is obtained by first dyeing the skin a
blue. Then boil one-quarter pound gall nuts, powdered, and one and
one-quarter ounces of logwood, in three gallons of water. If the flesh
side is to be blue, while the fur or wool is another, this decoction
must be sponged on.
Get the wool or hair thoroughly impregnated with this and then add
one-quarter pound copperas to the dye and go over the fur or wool
many times with the sponge. The process above given will answer
without previous blueing, but the black is not so brilliant. Another
“home-made” dye which will answer for dyeing clothes a black, as well
as sheep-skins, is this: Just make a bath of eight ounces of bichromate
of potash, six ounces alum, four ounces fustic; boil in water enough to
cover five pounds of yarn, cloth or a single sheep-skin. Make another
bath of four pounds of logwood, four ounces each bar wood and fustic,
or eight ounces fustic; same amount of boiling water as last. Stir the
goods well around in the first bath, keeping the water hot for an hour;
then work it in the second bath the same length of time. Take them and
wring them; then, adding one-quarter pound of copperas to the last
bath, put the goods in again and give them a good stirring. This is a
good black dye for wool goods or furs, but not for silks or cottons.
* * * * *
RED.--Furs of course are never dyed red, at least in this country.
Sheep-skins might be dyed with madder or cochineal, but in the former
case, the skin would of necessity be boiled with the dye, as that is
necessary in using madder. Cochineal would be expensive and require
much working, while as brilliant reds and purples may be got from the
aniline colors, dissolved in moderately warm water, the skum taken
off, and skin dipped. These colors are the cheapest, too, as they go
very far. But always have the wool as free from grease as possible by
working in weak hot lye or hot soapsuds.
* * * * *
YELLOW.--Can be got on sheep-skins with black oak bark, (quercitron
bark) old fustic, annotta, and Persian (also called French) berries.
The skin should be previously dipped into a hot bath of alum, cream of
tartar or spirit of tin, about two ounces to the gallon. About one-half
pound of annotta, or a pound of the other articles, are enough for a
single skin. If you wish to use fustic, be particular to ask for old
fustic, as what is known in the trade as young fustic, is a different
article and gives a different color. There is also now an aniline
yellow which works like the other colors.
* * * * *
GREEN.--Dye first blue as explained above, then pass through a yellow
dye, until you get the shade required. An alum bath, cream of tartar,
or spirits of tin, as above, must be used before the blue is given.
* * * * *
PRESERVATION OF FURS.--While in use furs should be occasionally combed.
When not wanted, dry them first, then let them cool, and mix among
them bitter apples from the druggists, in small muslin bags, sewing
them in several folds of linen, carefully turned in at the edges and
kept from damp. Camphor or pepper used in the same manner, will have a
similar effect. Well cleaned furs are much less liable to be attacked
by moths, than those affording rich repasts of dried flesh, though no
furs are absolutely safe without great watchfulness. Wrapping well in
good brown paper and keeping in a tight paper box, are all helps to the
preservation of furs. Sunshine and fresh air kill the fur and wool moth
grub. Therefore taking out the furs occasionally and airing, sunning
and beating them is necessary.
* * * * *
TO TAN MUSKRAT SKINS WITH THE FUR ON.--First for soaking, to 10 gallons
of cold soft water add 8 parts of wheat bran, 1/2 pint of old soap, 1
ounce of borax; by adding 2 ounces of sulphuric acid, the soaking may
be done in one-half the time. If the hides have not been salted, add a
pint of salt. Green hides should not be soaked more than 8 or 10 hours.
Dry ones should soak till very soft.
For tan liquor, to ten gallons warm soft water add 1/2 bushel bran;
stir well and let stand in a warm room till it ferments. Then add
slowly 2-1/2 pounds sulphuric acid; stir all the while. Muskrat hides
should remain in about 4 hours. Then take out and rub with a fleshing
knife--an old chopping knife with the edge taken off will do. Then work
it over a beam until entirely dry.
Some Additional Valuable Miscellaneous Information Useful Alike to the
Hunter, Trapper and Angler.
* * * * *
HINTS TO TRAPPERS.--The skins of animals trapped are always valued
higher than those shot, as shot not only make holes, but frequently
plow along the skin, making furrows, as well as shaving off the fur.
To realize the utmost for skins they must be taken care of, and also
cleaned and prepared properly. Newhouse gives these general rules
derived from experience.
1. Be careful to visit your traps often enough, so that the skin will
not have time to get tainted.
2. As soon as possible after the animal is dead and dry, attend to the
skinning and curing.
3. Scrape off all superfluous flesh and fat, and be careful not to go
so deep as to cut the fiber of the skin.
4. Never dry a skin by the fire or in the sun, but in a cool, shady
place, sheltered from rain. If you use a barn door for a stretcher (as
boys sometimes do), nail the skin on the inside of the door.
5. Never use preparations of any kind in curing skins, nor even wash
them in water, but simply stretch and dry them as they are taken from
the animal.
* * * * *
TO DRESS BEAVER SKINS.--You must rip the skin the same as you would a
sheep. Stretch it in all ways as much as possible; then it is to be
dressed with equal parts of rock salt and alum dissolved in water, and
made about as thick as cream, by stirring in coarse flour. This should
be spread on nearly half an inch thick, and scraped off when dry, and
repeated if one time is not enough. This same process of dressing
applies likewise to otter skins.
* * * * *
TO TRAP QUAIL.--A quail trap may be any kind of coop, supported by a
figure 4. The spindle of the figure must either be so made as to hold
grain, or, what is better, some grains of wheat or buckwheat are strung
over a strong thread with the aid of a needle, and tied to the spindle.
Quails and prairie hens easily enter a trap when the ground is covered
with snow. At other times it is rather difficult to catch them.
* * * * *
TO TRAP WILD TURKEY.--A wild turkey trap is made by first digging a
ditch; then over one end is built a rude structure of logs, covered at
the top.
The structure should not be tight, but, of course, sufficiently close
not to let the birds through. Indian corn is scattered about and in the
ditch, and inside of the pen. The turkeys follow up corn in the ditch,
and emerge from it on the inside. Once there, the silly birds never
think of descending into the ditch, but walk round and round the pen,
looking through the chinks of the logs for escape that way. To make all
sure, the ditch should end about the centre of the pen, and a bridge
of sticks, grass and earth should be built over the ditch, just inside
of the pen, and close to the logs; otherwise, in going around the bird
might step inside the ditch, and once there, it would follow the light
and thereby reach the outside of the pen.
* * * * *
TO CATCH MUSKRATS WITHOUT TRAPS.--It is a mystery to many how muskrats,
beavers, and other animals, are able to remain so long under water,
apparently without breathing, especially in winter. The way they
manage is, they take in a good breath at starting, and then remain
under water as long as possible. Then they rise up to the ice and
breathe out the air in their lungs, which remains in a bubble against
the lower part of the ice.
The water near the ice is highly charged with oxygen, which it readily
imparts to the air breathed out. After a time, this air is taken back
in the lungs, and the animal again goes under the water, repeating
this process from time to time. In this way they can travel almost any
distance, and live almost any length of time under the ice. The hunter
takes advantage of this habit of the muskrat in the following manner.
When the marshes and ponds where the muskrat abounds are first frozen
over, and the ice is thin and clear, on striking into their houses
with his hatchet, for the purpose of setting his trap, he frequently
sees a whole family plunge into the water and swim away under the ice.
Following one for some distance, he sees him come up to recover his
breath, in the manner above described. After the animal has breathed
against the ice, and before he has time to take his bubble in again,
the hunter strikes with his hatchet directly over him, and drives him
away from his breath. In this case he drowns in swimming a few rods,
and the hunter, cutting a hole in the ice, takes him out.
* * * * *
BLEACHING WOOL ON TANNED PELTS.--Put an old pot or other iron vessel in
the bottom of a hogshead, and in the vessel a roll of brimstone. Fasten
near the top a stick or two to place the skin on. The wool must be wet
when hung on the sticks. Heat an old iron red hot, or take live coals
to start the brimstone. When it is burning briskly, cover the hogshead
tight to keep the smoke in. If not white enough, repeat the process.
The Esquimaux mode of tanning is very simple, and the material employed
the cheapest and cost accessible of any used in the art, viz: the urine
of man and beast. The skins are prepared in the fur, and softened and
tanned in urine, which is usually kept in tubs in the porches of their
huts, for use in dressing deer, seal and other skins. They show great
skill in the preparation of whale, seal and deer skins, and these, on
the whole, are equal to the best oil skins made in England. It imparts
to them firmness and durability, and makes them waterproof. The boots
worn by the Esquimaux are generally made from seal or walrus hides, and
resist the encroachments of water.
* * * * *
HAWK AND OWL TRAPS.--To catch hawks or owls, take a pole 20 feet long,
to be set a short distance from the house or barn or on the poultry
house. Split the top so as to admit the base of a common steel trap,
which should be made fast. When both trap and pole are set you may be
sure of game of some kind. These birds naturally light on high objects,
such as dead branches of trees or tops of stacks, and one should use
judgment about the place where he puts the traps. An open field near
the chicken yard is probably the best.
* * * * *
DOMESTIC MANUFACTURE OF FURS.--The skins of raccoons, minks, muskrats,
rabbits, foxes, deer, cats, dogs, woodchucks and skunks are all
valuable. Handsome robes may be made from the skins of the last two
animals, and the writer has seen fur coats made from the skins of
woodchucks, well tanned, dyed and trimmed, which were elegant as well
as comfortable, and no one but a connoisseur would be able to guess
their origin. Of the finer and nicer furs, beautiful collars, muffs,
cuffs, caps, gloves and trimmings may be made with a little ingenuity
and perseverance; and who would not feel a greater satisfaction in
wearing a nice article, from the fact that it was something of their
own manufacture--a product of their own taste and genius?
Very handsome floor-mats are made by tanning sheep pelts and dyeing
them some bright color, which is done with very little trouble; the art
of dyeing is now so familiar to almost every household. Furs may be
dyed as easily as woolen goods, notwithstanding the impression that it
is an art known only to the trade. Any dye that will color woolens will
also dye furs, only care must be taken not to have the dye too hot, or
the texture of the skin will be injured.
The mode of tanning usually followed by city furriers is to rub the
skins well with rancid butter, then tread them thoroughly in a tub or
vat, after which a large quantity of sawdust is mixed with them, and
the process of treading continued until all the grease is absorbed,
when they are finished off by beating, working and rubbing with chalk
and potter’s clay, whipping and brushing. An old trapper practiced this
method with small skins, first washing with a suds of soap and sal-soda
to free them from grease, then rinsing in clear water to cleanse them
from the suds, then rubbing as dry as possible, after which they were
put in a mixture of two ounces of salt to a quart of water, added
to three quarts of milk or bran-water containing one ounce of best
sulphuric acid, and stirred briskly for forty or fifty minutes; from
this they are taken dripping into a strong solution of sal-soda and
stirred till they will no longer foam; they are then hung to dry, when
they are very soft and pliable.
A very good and simple process in use among farmers is to sprinkle the
flesh side, after scraping it well, with equal parts of pulverized alum
and salt, or washing it well with a strong solution of the same, then
folding the flesh side together and rolling it compactly, in which
state it should remain for eight or ten days; then it is opened,
sprinkled with bran or sawdust to absorb the moisture, and rolled up
again, and after remaining twenty-four hours, the process is completed
by a thorough rubbing and manipulation, on which the pliability
depends. Skins, when taken off, should be freed from grease or flesh
by thorough scraping, when they may be dried, and left to await the
leisure of the owner. Previous to tanning they must be well soaked and
wrung dry.
It is no extravagance to assert that every farmer’s family may furnish
their own fur collars, gloves, robes, and other articles of dress and
ornament, with trifling expense, from the resources within their own
reach; but from want of more knowledge on the subject valuable skins
are wasted or disposed of for a mere fraction of their real value,
and articles of apparel that should be made from them are bought at
extravagant prices of fur dealers.
* * * * *
INDIAN MODE OF TANNING BUFFALO SKINS.--The hard and incessant labor
that is necessary to properly “Indian tan” a robe is not easily to
realize unless one may see the work go on day by day from the first
step, which is to spread out the pelt or undressed hide upon the
ground, where it is pinned fast by means of wooden pins driven through
little cuts in the edge of the robe into the earth. The flesh side of
the robe, being uppermost, is then worked over by two and sometimes
three squaws. The tools used are very rude, some being simply provided
with sharp stones or buffalo bones. Others, more wealthy, have a
something that much resembles a drawing-knife or shave of the cooper.
The work in hand is to free the hide from every particle of flesh, and
to reduce the thickness of the robe nearly one half, and sometimes even
more.
This fleshing, as it is termed, having been thoroughly accomplished,
the hide is thoroughly moistened with water in which the buffalo
brains have been steeped. For ten days the hide is kept damp with this
brain water. Once each day the hide is taken up and every portion of
it rubbed and re-rubbed by the squaws, who do not have recourse to
anything like a rubbing-board, but use their hands until it would seem
as if the skin would soon be worn off. There seems to be no definite
rule as to the length of time which the robe shall occupy in curing.
The squaw labors until the hide becomes a robe, which may require the
work of one week or two, sometimes even more; but I think that ten days
may be considered as the average time which it takes to properly cure a
robe.
* * * * *
TO DRESS DEER SKINS.--Put the skin into the liquid while warm, viz:
eight quarts rain water to one pint soft soap. Warm it. Then punch the
hide, or work it with a soft stick, and let it lay one day. It is then
to be taken out and wrung--rolled between two logs--or even a wringing
machine will be better. Then stretch it until it is dry, in the sun is
best, or by a hot fire. Then oil it thoroughly with any oil convenient.
It should then be treated to the same bath of suds (heated quite warm),
and lay another day. Then pull it out and dry as before. Any oil will
do, but good fresh butter is better than anything else. When the skin
is dry rub it with ochre, which will give it a splendid yellow color.
* * * * *
TANNING AND BUFFING FOR DEER SKIN GLOVES.--For each skin take a bucket
of water and put into it 1 quart of lime; let the skin or skins lay in
from 3 to 4 days; then rinse in clean water, hair and grain; then soak
them in cold water to get out the glue; now scour or pound in good soap
suds for half an hour; after which take white vitriol, alum and salt,
one tablespoon of each to a skin; this will be dissolved in sufficient
water to cover the skin and remain in it for 24 hours; wring out as dry
as convenient, and spread on with a brush 1/2 pint of currier’s oil,
and hang in the sun about two days; after which you will scour out the
oil with soap suds, and hang out again until perfectly dry; then pull
and work them until they are soft; and if a reasonable time does not
make them soft, scour out in suds again as before, until complete.
The oil may be saved by pouring or taking it from the top of the suds,
if left standing a short time. The buff color is given by spreading
yellow ochre evenly over the surface of the skin, when finished,
rubbing it in well with a brush.
* * * * *
DYEING FOR BUCKSKIN, (Buff.)--5 parts of whiting to 2 parts of ochre
(yellow), and mix them with water to a paste; make into cakes and dry.
When a dressed skin is dry, rub one of the balls over the surface;
rub the powder in. Take a piece of sand-paper and raise a nap on the
leather by going over it. (Black.)--Take clear logwood; after it is
dry use copperas water to blacken it. Be careful and not use too much.
(Dark Brown.)--5 pounds of oak bark; 4 pounds of fustic; 14 ounces of
logwood. Use alum water (strong) to make it strike in. (Drab.)--Mix
blue clay with soft soap; add blue vitriol to shade the color. It can
be made any shade you wish.
* * * * *
DYEING FOR MOROCCO AND SHEEP LEATHER.--The following colors may be
imparted to leather, according to the various uses for which it is
intended. (Blue.)--Blue is given by steeping the subject a day in urine
and indigo, then boiling it with alum; or it may be given by tempering
the indigo with red wine, and washing the skins therewith.
(Another.)--Boil elderberries or dwarf elder, then smear and wash
the skins therewith and wring them out; then boil the elderberries
as before in a solution of alum water, and wet the skins in the
same manner once or twice; dry them, and they will be very blue.
(Red.)--Red is given by washing the skin and laying them two hours
in galls, then wringing them out, dipping them in a liquor made with
ligustrum, alum and verdigris; in water, and lastly in a dye made of
Brazil wood boiled with lye. (Purple.)--Purple is given by wetting the
skins with a solution of roche alum in warm water, and when dry, again
rubbing them with the hand with a decoction of logwood in cold water.
(Green.)--Green is given by smearing the skin with sap green and alum
water, boiled. (Dark Green.)--Dark green is given with steel filings
and sal ammoniac, steeped in urine till soft, then smeared over the
skin, which is to be dried in the shade. (Yellow.)--Yellow is given
by smearing the skin over with aloes and linseed oil, dissolved and
strained, or by infusing it in weld. (Light Orange.)--Orange color is
given by smearing it with fustic berries boiled in alum water, or,
for a deep orange, with turmeric. (Sky color.)--Sky color is given
with indigo steeped in boiling water, and the next morning warmed and
smeared over the skin.
* * * * *
OPERATION OF TANNING.--The first operation is to soak the hide, as no
hide can be properly tanned unless it has been soaked and broken on a
fleshing beam. If the hide has not been salted add a little salt and
soak it in soft water. In order to be thoroughly soaked, green hides
should remain in this liquor from 9 to 12 days; of coarse the lime
varies with the thickness of the hide. The following liquor is used
to remove hair or wool, viz: 10 gallons cold water (soft), 8 quarts
slacked lime, and same quantity of wood ashes. Soak until the hair or
wool will pull off easily.
As it frequently happens it is desirable to cure the hide and keep the
hair clean, the following paste should be made, viz: equal parts of
lime and hard-wood ashes, (lime should be slacked,) and made into a
paste with soft water. This should be spread on the flesh side of the
hide and the skin rolled up, flesh side in, and placed in a tub, just
covering it with water. It should remain 10 days, or until the hair
will pull out easily, then scrape off with a knife.
* * * * *
TO DEODERIZE SKUNK SKINS.--To deoderize skunk skins or articles for
clothing scented, hold them over a fire of red cedar boughs, and
sprinkle with chloride of lime; or wrap them in green hemlock boughs
when they are to be had, and in 24 hours they will be cleansed.
* * * * *