Steps in the Buckskin Making Process

Framing

Hide frame: also known as a rack, a hide frame is a flat square or rectangle used to stretch a hide. “Framing” and “racking” are verbs that describe the act of securing a hide to a frame. Because the hide becomes stretched out as it is secured to the frame, this is also called “stretching” - not to be confused with “softening!”

If you’ve made a hide frame in the Fern + Roe way, it has broadhead nails on one face. These are for weaving your hide string around as you frame the hide. You do not need to wrap the hide string in loops around the nails, just use the nail.

Learning to frame a hide through written words is much bulkier than watching it happen. So before you read this, watch the video on framing. The use this written resource as a guide for pointers + reminders.

Before you frame: is your hide well-stretched by hand after wringing?  If not, stretch it (open it up) by hand and/or by pulling over the top of your wet-scraping beam.  A very stubborn, compressed hide can also be stretched by doing a quick once-over wet-scraping.

Directions for Framing:

• Set the frame down on flat ground with the nails facing up

• Add a tarp or clean towels in the centre to protect your hide

• Place your hide in the centre of the frame. Typically the hide is grain-side facing down and membrane facing up (but it doesn’t matter too much for making buckskin)

• Start at the neck.  Identify a small section that you will secure, from one side of the neck to the other.

• Poke holes in the hide with your awl.  These holes should be 1” from the edge of your hide and 3-4” apart from each other. Just poke holes in the small area of the neck that you’ve identified to start.

• Once you’ve got these handful-or-so holes poked, get a piece of string that is 3 arm wing-spans long.  Thread it through a large embroidery needle.

• Take the end of the string that’s not threaded, and tie a slipknot around the nail nearest to the edge of your neck.

• Take the tapestry needle ad begin weaving into the holes of the hide - down from the top and out through to the underside of the hide, around a nail, and back to the hide. Again and again.

• Once you’ve got that starting section (neck) completed, remove the tapestry needle from the string and tie a slipknot at the nearest nail.

• Next: move across the hide to the haunches.  Repeat the steps above in a specific section, from one side of the haunches to the other.

• If you run out of string before a section is complete, simply get more string and continue.

• Next: secure the sides (the belly) of the hide to the frame in the same way as above.

Tips

• Make sure you know where the spine is + keep it straight (perpendicular to your frame’s vertical posts)

• Keep the string tension at around 70%, not overly tight

• If you run out of nails, check to see where you maybe able to stretch the hide differently and free up nails

• It doesn’t matter if the hide is grain-side-down or membrane-side-down because we work both sides of the hide

opening up - Softening - Dry-scraping

Now the hide is secured to the frame. Yes!

Directions for Opening up

• Lift the frame off the ground and lean it against a wall.

• Take your wringing stick or a dry-scraper or the butt end of a tool or a shovel - anything goes right now.

• Press your tool into the hide. You’ll see the hide stretch inwards and turn white and opaque.  

• Keep pressing the tool into the hide and slide it around. Up, down, side to side, it’s all good. Whatever is comfortable.

• Focus on the edges of the hide. If they get stiff and crunchy, use a pair of pliers to open them up.

• Once you’ve gone all around the hide, you can ease up on your full attention. Return to the hide once every 30-60 minutes throughout the day and open it up. You can turn the frame around and use the tool on both sides. This will help the hide get used to being stretched forwards and backwards (it will make more relaxed-feeling buckskin)

• It will take anywhere from 90 minutes to six hours hours for the hide to dry. If you want to speed it up, put a heat source underneath it. If you want to slow it down, keep it cool and outdoors.

• Make sure you open it up several more times before it’s finally dry.

Directions for dry-scraping

• Once the outside of the hide is dry, we cna begin using our sharp dry-scrapers to remove surface tissue

• Scrape in a downwards motion (“bevel up, scrape down”)

• Remove membrane on the membrane side; clean the junction of the grain-dermis on the grain side.

• Watch your hide become super polished - and more flexible!

• After a hide is 100% dry, you can keep dry scraping. It is not time-sensitive, as the hide won’t change on its own.

The difference between “opening up” and “dry scraping.”

• The motion of our hands and arms is the same.  

• The tools may differ:

• You can use any blunt tool for opening up. If you use a sharp tool, a wet hide will dull it fairly quickly.

• You need to use a sharp (round) tool for dry-scraping

• The goal of each stage is different:

• Opening up a hide stretches the protein fibres wide and makes a hide more flexible. It prepares us for dry-scraping and eventually for softening. A compressed hide doesn’t accommodate these later, crucial stages.

• Dry-scraping removes surface tissue and texture from both sides of the hide. It does contribute to a hide’s flexibility, but only after a lot of dry-scraping. 

• The timing is different:

• Opening up happens when a hide is wet, until it is dry

• Dry-scraping happens when a hide is 80%-100% dry

SMOKING

After the initial frame-opening of your hide, you will have a hide that is flexible and dry. How flexible it is depends on how much it was worked relative to how big/thick.strong the hide was. Beginners are likely to have a more rigid hide while seasoned tanners may have a super flexible hide. Regardless of the level of flexibility, if the hide is brained (or fat-liquored) + dry, it is ready to smoke.

Directions:

Turn your white buckskin into a container (like a pillowcase) to catch smoke:

• Fold your hide in half along the spine

• Make a fabric chimney (smoke skirt) from an old towel, wool blanket, or pant leg.

• Using staples, clothespins, binder clips, stitches, or glue: attach the outsides of your hide together, edge to edge

• Attach the fabric chimney (smoke skirt) at the neck

• Hang the hide so that the fabric chimney is at the bottom, hanging vertically

Tend to your smoke source:

• Create a small kindling fire in a metal bucket, old pot, or a hole in the ground. (Eventually you may want to invest in a portable woodstove or make a smoke box.)

• Wait until the small fire turns to vibrant coals: the wood should have turned from brown to black, but still hold a flame.

• Blanket the vibrant coals with 5 handfuls of your dried, punky (rotten) wood: they will immediately emit a thick smoke

Start smoking your hide:

• Cover your smoke source with the fabric chimney immediately

• Put a timer on for 10-20 minutes, depending on weather

• Plug any holes in the hdie with paper towel or wool

• Add more punk wood as the coals eat through the top layer. Use both large chunks of punk and powdered punk.

• After your timer goes off, check the inside your hide to see if any colour has appeared

• When you're happy with the colour of the first side, take the hide down, turn it inside out (remove clips if it was clipped) and smoke the other side 

An unsmoked buckskin is white; a smoked buckskin is golden. The richness of a buckskin’s colour is directly proportional to the length of time it was smoked, the quality of the smoke (i.e. thickness), and the catchment system (i.e. whether you let smoke escape).