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STEPS OF PREPARATION: ( Safety Note: working with raw and bloody remains of animals subjects the practitioner to the possibility of infection by flesh- and blood-born Pathogens . Good hygiene and safety precautions should be exercised. )
Cut around the neck, "wrists", "ankles", and anus of the animal. A single cut is then made down the belly from the neck-circling cut to the anus-circling cut. Additional cuts are then made up the inside of each leg, from the "wrist" or "ankle" cut, to the belly cut. Starting at any convenient corner, the skin of the animal is then carefully pealed from the carcas, using the knife as needed to sever the connecting tissue between the meat and the hide.
A long-bone (ie: femur, etc) or section of a wooden branch of similar length and diameter is prepared to the general shape of a large chisel. The flat end is used to scrape remaining flesh from the hide.
( Safety Note: brain and nervous-tissue have been implicated in the transmission of diseases such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)/(Mad Cow Disease) in cattle, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans, Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk. ) Each animal comes with just enough brain to effect the preservation of its hide. The brain is removed by any convenient means from the animal's skull and kneaded through the fingers until it becomes a uniform paste. The brain paste is then slathered onto and worked into the hide.
( Safety Note: lye is a caustic substance, capable of chemically burning a persons eyes, skin, and/or clothes. Proper handling techniques are required. ) To prepare the lye solution: the ashes of burnt Hardwood (hickory, ash, beech, maple, oak, etc) are mixed into Soft Water in a wooden or plastic bucket. The concentration of lye is judged correct when a raw egg will float in the solution with an area approximately the size of a table spoon above the water's surface. The hide is submerged in this solution, and left to soak until the hairs float freely to the water's surface. The fatty tissues of the brain and in the hide, in conjunction with the lye, undergo a Saponification process.
Burn punky or Dry-rot wood (wood which is dry, crumbly, and clearly decomposing; but not wet or slimy with a large percentage of fungal growth). This wood will produce a lot of smoke when burned. The hide is suspended over the fire such that it is subject to the smoke, but not the flames. Erecting the hide in the manner of a small Tipi over the fire is ideal.
After all of the above steps, the hide, now buckskin, is ready for Tailoring into clothing or other fabric- or leather-made articles. |
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