DOCSLIB.ORG

Traditional Hide Tanning Techniques of the Saskatchewan Woods Cree

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Traditional Hide Tanning Techniques of the Saskatchewan Woods Cree Traditional Hide Tanning Techniques of the Saskatchewan Woods Cree ANNA LEIGHTON Saskatoon, Saskatchewan A Cree woman introduced me to the practical art of hide tanning when I was doing a study of Saskatchewan Woods Cree plant names and uses in 1979 and 1980. She asked me to help her tan a hide and taught me what to do as we went along. After a time she began to see my involvement as an opportunity to write a booklet to teach people how to tan hides; she asked me to record the process and write it up with her help. The booklet was an important project to her because older women, like herself, are getting too old to do the hard work of tanning and few young women are learning the craft. This is affecting the supply of traditionally tanned leather that people like her rely on to make moccasins and mittens for their own use and for sale. So, at her initiative, we put together a how-to booklet on hide tanning based on the method she learned as a young woman from her mother (Hastings and Leighton 1993). I was very glad to work on this hide tanning booklet for several reasons. First, I quickly became interested in the hide tanning process. The more I learned about it, the more I realized that it is a complex and intricate process that requires a great deal of know-how. In addition, it produces a very high quality of leather for clothing that is flexible, soft, warm, tough and unharmed by moisture. Secondly, I became interested in the process of recording a technology like hide tanning, which, aside from several tools, a few raw materials and some home-made equipment, is simply a series of processes, done in a certain sequence and in a certain way. It is the kind of thing that is best learned by working with someone who knows how to do it, and is difficult to describe in words. The Woods Cree woman I worked with described hide tanning as a process involving ten procedures that are named in Cree. I took these named procedures to be fundamental and used these, in translation, to be the framework for describing her method of hide tanning. The details of 196 ANNA LEIGHTON each step were learned from what she showed me and in discussions with her about what was important and how to do things right. What I will present here is a description of the hide tanning method of this particular woman and then a brief comparison of her method with two other Saskatchewan methods, to give an idea of the kind of variation that exists. Although tanning involves a lot of hard physical work, it is actually a chemical process. Fundamental to every tanning method are chemicals, called tanning agents, that alter the structure of the hide to give it the properties of leather. Native North Americans typically used fatty animal tissues, such as brain, liver and fat, as tanning agents. This kind of tanning is called oil tanning. Many groups, like the Cree, used smoke, in addition to fatty tissues, as a tanning agent. This is referred to as smoke tanning and is what this paper is about. What do the chemicals do? They enter the hide and replace the water molecules that, in the living animal, bind together the collagen fibres which make up the animal's skin. The water in the hide must be replaced because it is a poor binding agent; as the hide dries, the water evaporates and the hide becomes stiff. If the untreated hide comes into contact with water, water molecules will bind to the collagen fibres again, attract more water, and soon cause the hide to rot. The tanning chemicals are good binding agents because they do not leave the hide as it dries. Their presence keeps the hide flexible and water repellant, so that even if the hide does get wet, the water will not bind to the collagen fibres and cause damage. Tanning, then, is the process of replacing the bound water with other chemicals. Much of the hard physical work involved helps to bring about this replacement. The Cree smoke tanning method I recorded can be summarized as follows. The hide is stretched on a wooden frame before it is fleshed and dehaired. When the flesh layer and then the hair layers have been removed, the tanning agents, the cooked brain of the animal and some grease, are applied to the hide. The hide is gently heated to ensure complete penetration of these two throughout the hide. When the hide has been heated enough, it is placed in warm soapy water and worked with the hands by squeezing water through the pores of the hide. When the hide has been sufficiently softened by this method, all the water is TRADITIONAL HIDE TANNING TECHNIQUES 197 Figure 1: a stretched hide, showing the placement of the ropes wrung out of it on a powerful wringer and the hide is then pulled until it is completely dry. When the hide is dry, the flesh side is scraped again to make it smooth and soft and then the hide is placed over a smoky fire to allow the smoke to penetrate the hide and turn it a brown colour. I will explain in more detail how each of these steps is done. Stretching the hide: A properly stretched hide is tight and flat. The entire surface of the hide must be accessible to the tanner and the hide must be stretched tight enough to provide resistance to the fleshing and dehairing tools. Stretching is done by suspending the hide by ropes inside a square wooden frame, called a stretcher, and pulling the ropes as tight as possible. Holes are cut around the edge of the hide and a rope is passed down through each hole and over the stretcher pole. The hide is then pulled up into the centre of the stretcher and stretched tight by tightening the ropes again and again, until they cannot be tightened further. Fleshing the hides: When the hide is stretched, fleshing begins. First, the flesh layer is covered to keep it from drying out and a pole is placed across the stretcher to support the tanner. Fleshing begins at the top of the hide; the flesh layer is removed as one large sheet as the tanner works down the surface of the hide. The fleshing tool is a moose hind leg bone (metatarsus), with a blade shaped at one end. A sling for the 198 ANNA LEIGHTON Figure 2: fleshing a hide with Figure 3: scraping the hide with a bone fleshing tool. a metal bladed scraper. tanner's wrist allows her to deliver force through her arm as well as her hand. This tool is very effective. The blade is directed with a steady chopping motion at the point of attachment of the flesh layer and acts like a wedge that pries the flesh layer away. Fleshing a moose hide takes one person about a day. Dehairing: Next the stretcher, with the hide attached, is turned over so the hair side of the hide is up. The hair and the underlying hair- producing layer, which is embedded in the hide, are removed with a metal-bladed tool called a scraper. This step includes not just removing the hair but also thinning down the hide to a useable thickness. In fall and winter when the animal is growing and maintaining a heavy coat, the hair-producing layer is very thick and requires a lot of shaving with the scraper to thin the hide. The scraper has a metal blade and is used with great force against the surface of the hide. It is honed, frequently to razor sharpness. The scraper is used in two hands — one pushes the tool against the hide, the other pulls it down across the surface. Edward Ahenakew (1948) describes the tanner dehairing a hide as having "the appearance of a patient horse galloping as she wields her tool". This strenuous job takes at least a day. TRADITIONAL HIDE TANNING TECHNIQUES 199 Figure 4: turning the long pole Figure 5: using a pole to pull to wring out a deer hide. the hide as it dries. The fleshed and dehaired hide is rawhide, i.e., the dry, unprocessed layer of hide that is tanned to make leather. Rawhide has many uses but it is unsuitable for clothing because it is rigid, it rots after prolonged wetness, and it becomes stiff on drying. Applying brain and grease to the hide: The rawhide is cut off the stretcher and the actual tanning begins with the application of brain and grease to the hide. The brain is prepared by cooking and mashing it in a small amount of water to make a thick solution. The grease is melted and applied as a warm liquid. After these are spread over the hair side of the hide, the hide is heated in the sun or over a smudge until these substances penetrate deeply into the hide. Squeezing water through the hide: When the brain and grease have penetrated the hide and start to show through on the other side, the hide is soaked in warm soapy water and worked until it is very soft. This is done by squeezing water through the entire hide with the hands. At intervals it is taken from the water, wrung on a wringer (Fig. 4), draped over a pole and scraped with the fleshing tool. Then it is put back into the water for more squeezing.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Role of Knowledge and Environmental Values on Consumer Beliefs, Attitude, and Purchase Intention Toward Leather Products
    The Role of Knowledge and Environmental Values on Consumer Beliefs, Attitude, and Purchase Intention Toward Leather Products AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Elizabeth S. Becker for the degree of Master of Science in Design and Human Environment presented on June 11, 2014 Title: The Role of Knowledge and Environmental Values on Consumer Beliefs, Attitude, and Purchase Intention Toward Leather Products Abstract approved: Hsiou-Lien Chen Brigitte Cluver Globally, it is estimated that over 2,518,200 tons of hides and skins were exported in the year 2011 alone, with an estimated world production yield of 23 billion square feet of finished leather (FA0, 2011; Mwinyihija, 2011). While some manufacturers have adopted eco-friendly production methods, most tanneries still practice the old-fashioned techniques, which can create negative impacts on the environment and the health of industry employees due to the generation of solid (e.g., chromium salts) and liquid (e.g., untreated water) waste full of toxic chemicals (Iyer, & Mastorakis, 2009). While consumer behaviors and their purchase intentions related to their beliefs have been widely studied, researchers have not investigated consumer beliefs and attitude regarding leather production and whether their environmental values and knowledge impact their beliefs about leather products, attitudes towards purchasing leather products, and intentions to purchase leather products. To fill in a gap in the current research on consumer behavior and using the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein, 1967), Dickson’s (2000) extension of the theory and Dunlap’s (2008) New Ecological Paradigm as a guide, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether exposure to information regarding the environmental and health impact of leather production would ultimately change consumers’ beliefs, attitudes and intentions to purchase leather products.
    [Show full text]
  • TAWING Basically It Is a Mixture of Un-Iodised Salt, Alum and Water. but I Will Get the Exact Proportions. Aluminium Potasium Su
    TAWING Basically it is a mixture of un-iodised salt, alum and water. But I will get the exact proportions. Aluminium potasium sulphate (alum) 4 parts Sodium chloride (un-iodised salt) 1 part. Added to this enough water so that the above will just disolve. Next in the book was a description of how to first bleach the skin if you want to retain the fleece and not damage it, I can post it if you are interested, but it’s kind of long otherwise. After cleaning, the skin is soaked in the mixture for a few hours and then 'staked'. You need something resembling a stake or plank, sticking out of the ground at about waist level. You then take the skin in each hand and with an alternating each hand up and down, motion draw the skin across the stake. This sort of 'opens up' the pores of the leather allowing more of the solution to soak in next time. Keep on repeating soaking and staking. As you do so the skin will get whiter and softer. Eventually getting a rough texture sort of like suede. Now briefly rinse and set aside to dry. If it becomes too stiff, stake during the drying process. The skin is greatly improved when dry by stuffing. The leather at this stage is open in texture and a wide variety of substances can be absorbed to give greater body. For fleeced skins the safest stuffing is glycerol (glycerine) for it is the least likely to stain wool or hair. However fat and oils of any type, egg yolk, flour and starch are among substances which have been used for stuffing.
    [Show full text]
  • Traditional Leather Processing Using Domestic Methods in Estonia Made Uus
    164 Best of Studia Vernacula Traditional leather processing using domestic methods in Estonia Made Uus Abstract This article provides an overview of the traditional domestic leather processing methods used in Estonia throughout history, as well as of the research papers on leather processing that have been published or have yet to be published in Estonian. There is also an overview of the main leather processing and tanning methods (vegetable tanning, alum tawing and flour tanning). Based on her own experience, the author gives a detailed description of traditional leather pro- cessing with a fermented flour mixture (flour tanning) as one of the oldest and most widespread methods of processing hides with fur. The article also gives an overview of the current situation of traditional leather processing using domes- tic methods in Estonia. Keywords: animal hide, tanning, leather dressing methods Introduction Animal skins have probably provided people with raw material since the begin- ning of humankind, since the times when people lived through hunting and gath- ering, and animal hides not suitable for eating were used for clothing or houses. Items made of raw or poorly processed hides or skins usually dry rock hard; therefore, processed leather or fur is much more valuable and usable. Primitive hide processing probably consisted only of kneading and treading the raw hides. Somewhat later appeared greasing and smoking of the hides. The next step was processing animal hides with soils rich in various salts and aluminum, thus allowing the hide to retain moisture; a hide processed this way did not rot and was a flexible and durable material (Kangro 1939: 5–6).
    [Show full text]
  • About Leather Types of Leather
    About Leather Types of Leather Leather is an ancient, durable material created through a process of tanning animal rawhide to preserve it and make it pliable when dry. Many features of natural leather make it superior to synthetic products including durability, comfort, beauty, suppleness, and resilience. Plus, leather’s ability to patina and absorb body oils continues to enhance the leather’s appearance and makes it more beautiful over time. Leather can broadly be divided into full grain, enhanced grain, corrected grain, top grain and split leathers. Full Grain Leather Full grain leather has no surface alterations. The hide’s natural pores and grain textures are intact and it will develop a patina over time. The tiny pinholes dotting the surface indicate the hide’s open hair follicles. The presence of these hair follicles demonstrates a high quality surface which has not been altered to conceal flaws. This full grain surface breathes. It keeps the user Full grain comfortable as it adjusts to body temperature. Full grain leather is the highest quality, most beautiful, and most comfortable leather available. Enhanced Grain Leather Enhanced grain leather is a full grain with an artificial grain embossed over the natural grain. Enhanced grain leather has the same comfort and breathability of a full grain, but the surface has received minor alteration to improve grain Enhanced grain appearance. Corrected Grain Leather Corrected grain leather is produced from the upper portion of the hide. The surface is lightly sanded or refined then embossed with an artificial grain texture. Corrected grain leathers have a more consistent appearance across the entire surface.
    [Show full text]
  • Home Tanning of Leather
    B-86 1937 HOME TANNING OF LEATHER issued by The ExtensioR Service Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas and The United States Department of Agriculture H. H. Williamson, Director, College Station, Texas 8-86 TEXAS AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE G. G. GIBSON. DIRECTOR, COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS Home Made Gauge Knives-The materials required are one piece of timber 2 x 4 x 24 inches, one piece of timber 2 x 4 x 20 inches, one .1 inch bolt or large nail, one corner brace 4 x 4 x ~ inches. and one butcher knife. Horne Tanning of Leather By M. K. Thornton, Leather Specialist One of the oldest arts known to man, the tanning of leather, has become almost a lost art to farmers and ranchers. Yet it is a fairly easy process if care is taken. ' There are many methods of tanning, and no one of them rnay be called best. The methods described here are among the easiest and produce satisfactory results. No attempt is made to give details to suit every kind of weather. The ideal temperature is from 70 to 75 degrees F"ahrenheit. In no case should the hides be permitted to freeze. The warmer the weather the more quickly hides spoil, and as - a result there is greater likelihood of getting weak or tender leather. The hides to be tanned may be fresh, green salt, dry salt, or flint. A fresh hide is one which has been taken from the animal and allowed to cool. A green salt hide is one which has been well salted shortly after being removed from the animal, folded and placed in a cool place until the salt has penetrated well, and then stored until ready for use.
    [Show full text]
  • Fat??4 21" Ginger Cowhide Cases *102.00 *72.00 Century Europe
    range wide enough for man to get 98 Pet. in GI action yesterday to halt this [cannot be revealed without fear a and for at least six Training Craft Nears End foothold, US. Businessmen in Japan “dangerous trend.” He issued a of jail. Navy months of the year it manages to Are for More 1,200-word statement on behalf subsist cut off from the outside Eligible of representatives of the 100 The Veterans Administration Protest Official world. Secrecy American concerns who belong to Of Winter today announced that 98 per ■y the Associated Press Exploring In summer, when they are known cent] the chamber. of the World War II veterans who TOKYO, Mar. 17.—American to the outside world, these moun- Mr. McEvoy said “indiscrim- have entered GI training are eligi- businessmen in accuse tain slopes are blue and crimson Japan inate and use of "se- At Top of World ble for additional training. profligate” with flowers and alive with birds. Washington of imposing official cret” and lesser classifications on By January 31, a total of 6,228,- (The Navy icebreaker Edisto, Now they are a regiment of ghosts secrecy on business matters here affairs had 707 veterans had entered training nonmilitary prevented from, which Mr. Henry writes, is arrayed in single file, weirdly blue which have' nothing to do with businessmen from mu- ies8teas» FRIDAY at one time or another. Of these. discussing engaged in tests of winter oper- as moonlight falls on ice pools and military security. tual problems with occupation n 5,749,023 had trained under tie ating conditions in the Arctic.) ice evanescent as officials.
    [Show full text]
  • THE VIRGINIAN a Horseman of the Plains by OWEN WISTER
    THE VIRGINIAN A Horseman Of The Plains by OWEN WISTER To THEODORE ROOSEVELT Some of these pages you have seen, some you have praised, one stands new-written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to remind you of their author's changeless admiration. TO THE READER Certain of the newspapers, when this book was first announced, made a mistake most natural upon seeing the sub-title as it then stood, A TALE OF SUNDRY ADVENTURES. "This sounds like a historical novel," said one of them, meaning (I take it) a colonial romance. As it now stands, the title will scarce lead to such interpretation; yet none the less is this book historical--quite as much so as any colonial romance. Indeed, when you look at the root of the matter, it is a colonial romance. For Wyoming between 1874 and 1890 was a colony as wild as was Virginia one hundred years earlier. As wild, with a scantier population, and the same primitive joys and dangers. There were, to be sure, not so many Chippendale settees. We know quite well the common understanding of the term "historical novel." HUGH WYNNE exactly fits it. But SILAS LAPHAM is a novel as perfectly historical as is Hugh Wynne, for it pictures an era and personifies a type. It matters not that in the one we find George Washington and in the other none save imaginary figures; else THE SCARLET LETTER were not historical. Nor does it matter that Dr. Mitchell did not live in the time of which he wrote, while Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Feasibility Report for Tannery Udyog Capacity (300 Hides) PROJECT
    Feasibility report for Tannery Plant M/s Tesmia Tannery Udyog Feasibility Report For Tannery Udyog Capacity (300 Hides) PROJECT: M/s Tesmia Tannery Udyog Village: Mussa Sher Nagar Janshat Road Muzaffarnagar-, Uttar Pradesh 1 Feasibility report for Tannery Plant M/s Tesmia Tannery Udyog Executive Summary Tanning leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin. Making "rawhide" (untanned but worked hide) does not require the use of tannin. Rawhide is made by removing the flesh and fat and then the hair by use of an aqueous solution (this process is often called "liming" when using lime and water or "bucking" when using wood ash (lye) and water), then scraping over a beam with a somewhat dull knife, then drying. The two aforementioned solutions for removing the hair also act to clean the fiber network of the skin and allow penetration and action of the tanning agent, so that all the steps in preparation of rawhide except drying are often preludes to the more complex process of tanning and production of leather Livestock Mortality and Biosecurity. Basic Information Sl. Item Details No. 1 Name of the project/s M/s Tesmia Tannery Udyog 2 Proposed capacity 300 HIDES 3 New/ Expansion/ Modernization - 4 Location and Address M/s Tesmia Tennery Udyog Plot/ Survey/ Khasra No. Village District Musa Sher Nagar State Muzaffarnagar Uttar Pradesh 5 Nearest railway station/ airport along with Muzaffarnagar Rail Way Station 8 KM distance in kms. 6 Nearest Town, City, District Headquarters Muzaffarnagar along with distance in kms. 2 Feasibility report for Tannery Plant M/s Tesmia Tannery Udyog 7 Villages Panchayats, Zilla Parisad, Tehsil:Sadar, Muzaffarnagar Municipal Corporation, Local body 8 Name of the owner Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Table of Contents
    Table of Contents Leather Terminology.........................................................................3 Hide Definitions................................................................................4 Leather.............................................................................................5 Skirting ............................................................................................6 Tooling Sides, Shoulders ...................................................................7 Latigo, Harness .................................................................................8 Chap Sides........................................................................................9 Chap Split.........................................................................................10 Garment Split ...................................................................................11 Plonge..............................................................................................12 Pig Suede .........................................................................................13-14 Patent Pig .........................................................................................14 Lambskin..........................................................................................15-16 Deer, Elk ...........................................................................................16 Linings, Sole Bends ...........................................................................17 Rawhide ...........................................................................................18
    [Show full text]
  • Preparing and Using Rawhide
    Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3 Volume 3 Number 6 November-December, 1954 Article 23 11-1954 Preparing and using rawhide J A. Mallett Department of Agriculture Follow this and additional works at: https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/journal_agriculture3 Recommended Citation Mallett, J A. (1954) "Preparing and using rawhide," Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3: Vol. 3 : No. 6 , Article 23. Available at: https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/journal_agriculture3/vol3/iss6/23 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 3 by an authorized administrator of Research Library. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PREPARI USING By J. A. Mallett. NTANNED bullock or horse hide—usually known as rawhide or greenhide—has U played an important role in agriculture in many countries for centuries. It needs little preparation and combines tremendous tensile strength with light weight and durability, so is an ideal material for many farm uses. The Boer pioneers in South Africa prob­ The Bran Method. ably used rawhide more extensively than A method of de-hairing recommended any other community and developed con­ by "The Handbook for Farmers in South siderable skill in its preparation. Africa" is to immerse the hide in a sloppy They used rawhide to make ropes, whip­ mixture of wheat bran and rainwater, lashes, harness, footwear, saddlebags, rubbing this well into the hair. The hide buckets and many other articles of farm is then taken out, folded and placed in equipment.
    [Show full text]
  • Material Culture Experiment
    Material Culture Experiment The following slides document the 2012 experiment to Test the effectiveness of a rawhide shield made from buffalo throat skin against a reproduction 19th century muzzle-loading rifle Counter prevailing argument that rawhide shields were always inferior to European firearms Experiment carried out by Director Dr. Roland Bohr and Thomas Schlup (ANPO-Bison Ranch, Rossburn, Manitoba). Rationale for Muzzle Loader Versus Rawhide Shield Experiment Aboriginal and European observers during the fur trade era often assigned great importance to the role of firearms in altering Aboriginal material culture, hunting techniques and military relations between Aboriginal communities. Based on these assessments, scholars in the first half of the twentieth century generally dismissed Indigenous weapons, including rawhide shields, as inferior to European weapons, especially firearms. In contrast, since the 1980s, a new generation of scholars has argued against this perspective, pointing out the many flaws of early firearms when compared to Aboriginal distance weapons, such as the bow and arrow. Following a discussion on this topic with the rancher Thomas Schlup, we conducted the following experiment to field-test the penetrative force of the reproduction of a fur trade era muzzle-loading gun against a shield made from the throat skin of a bison bull. Site of experiment showing hide drying frames. Picture taken from site of target. Thomas Schlup using a reproduction .50 cal rifled muzzle loader. .50 cal ball Buffalo hide shield Set up of shield as seen on thick side which measures ca 2.5 cm. Set up as seen from thin side which measures ca 0.5 cm.
    [Show full text]
  • Export of U.S. Non Ruminant Rawhide Chews and Canned, Retorted Pet Food for Cats and Dogs to Australia
    Export of U.S. Non Ruminant Rawhide Chews and Canned, Retorted Pet Food for Cats and Dogs to Australia General Instructions: The following non-ruminant (other than bovine dairy) products may be exported to Australia without an accompanying Australian import permit: rawhide chews, rawhide chews with color added, and canned/retorted pet food. APHIS Veterinary Services export certification attesting to Australia’s conditions of import is required. APHIS Veterinary Services inspection and approval of pet food manufacturing facilities remains a requirement for export of pet food and pet chews to Australia. Please refer to the conditions of import below. Conditions of Import: RAWHIDE CHEWS WITH NO COLOR ADDED a. Documents must be provided with each consignment which: 1. Identify the consignment (if non-personal) e.g. entry number 2. Identify all goods being imported as part of this consignment e.g. invoice or waybill or importer’s manifest 3. Describe the goods being imported (where not clear). e.g. 1: Product XPet = Pet chew derived from bison milk e.g. 2: Product RawX = Rawhide derived from porcine skin e.g. 3: XCan = Canned pet food containing poultry and bovine whey b. The rawhide dog chews must be treated with a lime solution, be made from hide or skin, and not contain ear tissue or tissue containing cartilage. To demonstrate compliance with this requirement, you must present the following on an official government veterinary certificate or Government-endorsed Manufacturer's Declaration*: 1. A statement that the product has been soaked in a lime solution of pH 14 for not less than 8 hours.
    [Show full text]