Making Buckskin http://www.cnynaturalist.com/activities/buckskin.

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MAKING BUCKSKIN
Introduction
Making buckskin from a raw deer hide is not difficult. Although it requires a bit of 'elbow grease', the reward is a
beautifully supple, light-colored, leather cloth. It gives me an added pleasure in knowing I am using another part of
a magnificent animal.

Although the white-tailed deer is the local source of choice for buckskin, the term applies equally well to the hides
of elk, antelope, goat, and caribou. Even wolf and calf hides have been used. The leather is different than rawhide in
being much thinner and lighter colored. The downside is it is not as durable as rawhide. Lack of durability does not
translate to lack of strength, however, and a shoestring made of buckskin is nearly impossible to break by hand.

There are many variations on the process used to create buckskin. The description herein is the one I have used
successfully for over twenty years.

Tools and Materials

The tools and materials you will need are not expensive or difficult to come by:

A fleshing beam.
A Fleshing knife.
Plastic, glass or ceramic vessel to soak hide in.
Fels Naphta Soap (1 bar).
Neatsfoot Oil compound.
Household Lye (sodium hydroxide)
Rubber Gloves.
Protective clothing and eyewear.
Stretching Frame.
Strong cord.

Dehairing
The first step is to wash the hide in fresh water. This steps simply cleans the hide of loose dirt, blood, insects, etc.
Prepare the dehairing solution by adding 1/4 cup of lye to each ten gallons of cool water. CAUTION- Lye is
extremely caustic. It burns if it gets on your hand or any exposed skin so wear rubber gloves and protective
clothing. It can do serious damage if a drop was to get in your eye so wear protective eyewear. If it does get on you,
wash it off immediately with running water.

Add the deer hide to the lye solution. Make sure the hide is completely submerged, especially the fur side.
Periodically (every 6-12 hrs) mix the hide in the solution to ensure the lye is working under the hair. After one day,
test the hide by trying to pull the hair out. When the hide is ready the hair should come out easily. Don’t leave it in
so long that the hair comes off without pulling. Two to three days should be sufficient. Any more than that may
deteriorate the leather.

Fleshing
While still in the dehairing solution, and while wearing your body protection, pull as much of the hair off as you can
by hand. At the same time, pull off as much as you can of the large deposits of fat and muscle from the other side of
the hide. How much of this there is will depend upon how well the hide was initially skinned.

Remove the nearly-hairless skin from the lye solution and rinse it in clean water. I do this three times. It makes the
hide safe to handle without gloves and makes it less slippery. Place the hide, hair side up, on a fleshing beam. I use a
board, six-inches wide by two-inches thick laid against a wooden horse. Tack the board to the horse so it doesn't slip
off. Tack the hide to the board at the top with a finish nail to hold it on the beam.

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 Begin by drawing the knife against the hair side to remove any residual fur. When this side is clean of hair, flip the
skin over and scrape the side to remove all muscle and fatty tissue.

Tanning
I prepare the tanning solution in my kitchen. Take a clean 5 gallon pail and fill it approximately halfway with
lukewarm water. Into this ‘shave’ the bar of Fels Naphta soap. By shaving, I mean to use a sharp knife and cut off
thin slices into the warm water in a manner similar to whittling a piece of wood. Using your hands, squeeze the soap
shavings until most have dissolved into the liquid. Add about one-half gallon of Neatsfoot Oil to the solution and
stir.
Place the dehaired hide into a clean bucket and cover with the tanning solution. Add enough cool water to
completely cover the hide and stir the hide to completely cover it with the oil solution. Leave it to tan for 3 (warm)
to 5 (cold) days.

Stretching
The next step is to place the hide in a stretching frame. This pulls the hide in all directions, opening up the skin
pores and is the first step in making a soft finished product.

I made my stretching frame out of four pieces of 2"x2"x10’ boards. I screwed steel angle brackets at each corner for
reinforcements. Begin by making a lateral cut in the hide at an edge along the long axis of the hide (the long axis
would be that portion of the hide that was the deer’s backbone). Through this slit, tie a piece of the twine. Now lift
the hide by this string and tie it around the center of one of the sides of the stretching frame. Rotate the frame
ninety-degrees and repeat the procedure, slitting the hide about halfway (in the midsection) and 1" in from the edge.
Again, tie it to the middle of the adjacent frame side. Repeat for the remaining two sides. At this point the entire
hide should be suspended by the four strings. Now continue the same procedure, fastening the hide every one to two
feet around the frame.

When finished it should look like this. Rotate the frame initially three to six times a day so the tanning solution does
not pool at the bottom edge of the hide. You want the hide to begin drying with a uniform covering of the tanning
licquor.

Working
Now comes the hard work- stretching the hide by hand. If you were to leave the hide in the stretcher for, say, a
week, it would soon dry into a hard, flat object resembling a large piece of cardboard. In order to get a supple piece
of buckskin it must be rigorously worked so that the skin fibers break down as they dry.

After a day or so in the stretcher you will begin to see spots where the hide is drying out. These appear first at the
top edge and then show up in the thinner spots as translucent patches. As soon as you see these it is time to take the
hide out of the stretcher and begin working it. I work it over the sharp edge of the fleshing beam, hair-side up.
Grabbing the hide by one edge, pull it across the fleshing beam while applying a downwards pressure to maximize
the stretching action. Then rotate the hide and do another location. Do this over and over again. I sometimes remove
the hide from the beam and just tug at it with both hands, stretching across different grains. When you get tired, roll
the hide up and place in a plastic bag until you are ready to continue working it. Do not leave it in the bag for more
than a day, however, or it could start to mold in a warm environment.

As the hide is worked two things happen: the hide becomes lighter in weight and also in color. The stretching
process is complete when the buckskin is soft, dry and lightweight. I think it will be apparent when further
stretching yields no improvements to the leather.

Preserving
If properly prepared, the hides will last many years without needing any special care. If desired, a light coat of
neatsfoot oil can be applied to the hair side, the hide rolled up and stored in a container that provides air circulation
(like a cloth bag).

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