Saturday, September 8, 2012

The Benefits Of Rawhide

By Ethan O. Tanner


The early Americans utilizes rawhide and rawhide uses are drum heads, shields, lace, lamp shades, furniture, wraps, and much more. Rawhide is very firm as it has not been tanned; it has only been de-haired and cured. Soaking it in water for molding, cutting and shaping. It dries out, stiffens and holds its shape.

Rawhide equals often times and mistakenly called leather. Rawhide has been used for many other purpose for very long time. Rawhide is made by scraping the skin thin, soaking it in lime, and then stretching it while it dries.

The making out of rawhide is stiffer and less hardened than other forms of leather, and is mainly found in uses such as drum heads or western furniture where it does not need to flex significantly. It is also cut up into strips for use in lacing or stitching, or for making many varieties of dog chews or bones.

Rawhide was utilized to make par fleches (envelope-like containers), moccasin soles and ropes. Rawhide is what you commonly see on Native American drums, par fleches, etc. Rawhide is animal hide which has been dried (by salting). Rawhide is used to make everything from clothing and personal items to building materials, furniture, and tools.

Rawhide is the fresh hide of an animal that persists in its natural state. Numerous companies use rawhide to make low-friction, high-impact, soft face hammers, mallets, These rawhide mallets are excellent for tooling and stamping oak craft leather.

Developed rawhide can be purchased at some large craft stores, saddlery shops or leather distributors such as Leather Unlimited. Prepared rawhide may include rawhide goatskin, rawhide pigskin, rawhide drum covers, rawhide lace, and many additional products.

Preparing your own rawhide is much more comfortable than tanning a hide for the novice, and is quite inexpensive. Once this is done, turning a raw skin into rawhide is a reasonably simple process. If you prefer to save it for later use, once the rawhide is dry, roll it gently and tie with a lace for storage. When you are ready to use the rawhide, soak it again in a five gallon bucket until it is soft again, usually about fifteen to 24-hours, depending on the heaviness of the hide. If you soak a piece of rawhide, then something comes up and you are not ready to use it when you planned, you are able to keep it hydrated for Rawhide is really just skin that has been dehaired, and it has many varied uses.

Chances to work on such crafts as drums, rawhide making, rawhide tanning, cradles, moccasins and many other enchanting primitive technologies are great craft projects. First it must be converted to "rawhide". Once tanned, the rawhide achieves the soft substance of leather that we are acquainted. Dog chew toys are a good source of rawhide if you do not need large pieces. Why do you think we call it "rawhide". : Rawhide is "raw" because it has not been tanned. Most of the leather we use today is tanned leather, but rawhide is still practiced to make many products even though it is not technically tanned.




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