This time of year we have a lot of hides on hand – deer, elk, and even cow hides when we are butchering. We’ve tanned them, traded them for gloves, given them away to others, but usually we just dispose of them. Not anymore. This last year we’ve been experimenting with using rawhide, and after a year, we are convinced having rawhide on-hand is one of the more valuable items for regular or emergency use. It is quite easy to process, unlimited in its use, and readily available to most of us. Hopefully some of our experiences get others thinking and considering how to make use of rawhide.
Tanning a hide for leather is quite a laborious activity, and while leather is very valuable and useful, its manufacture is intimidating. Rawhide in comparison is quite easy to produce, and provides many of the values and versatility. Rawhide is simply an untreated animal hide. Any animal hide is useful, and I would recommend trying out rawhide from a smaller animal, preferably a road kill, as your first foray into this product. The only tools needed are a plastic garbage can or barrel, and a good stick for stirring. We are currently processing several hides and you can see pictures and follow the progress on our blog.
The best part of working with rawhide is that you can set it aside for long periods of time and not worry about taking care of it. Even the unprocessed hides can sit if you keep them dry with some salt on them. The salt will help keep bacteria down that cause rot or smell. We made one deer hide into rawhide last year, and we used it up so quickly that we decided to keep all of our hides this year.
After pulling the hides off our deer, we trimmed off the larger pieces of fat and meat, then simply folded them and allowed them to dry out in the Wyoming air. In wetter climates we have found the hides don’t dry very quickly or as thoroughly and recommend you salt the hide heavily before it dries to keep bacteria and smell down. When the hide is dry we can simply fold and store it as is for up to a year. Check on the hide periodically to make sure it doesn’t start to smell or go bad. We sometimes dry them by the woodstove if needed.
If you prefer a cleaner hide (which we strongly recommend) and you have the time immediately after removing it from the animal, it should be scrapped to clean off all meat, fat, and membrane just as you would to tan it for leather. If the hide has been stored for a while dried, lay it out and put some water on it, or soak it for about a day to loosen it up and make it easier for scraping. A 4 to 6 foot long piece of 2×6 lumber is the best tool to drape the hide over, with the flesh side up for scraping. Another recommendation is to use an 8” draw knife (two handled) for scraping with. It makes the work more uniform and easy.
With the hide scrapped, it is ready for removing the hair. Soaking the hide in water or solution is often sufficient to loosen the hide’s hold on the hair allowing it to pull off easily. In the colder winter months, however, we have found it best to mix up a solution of water and hydrated lime at about 70 degrees F – about a quart of lime for every 15 gallons of water used. Soaking the hides in this solution for a week is enough, and you can leave the hides in the solution up to 6 weeks if you need to. Raising the pH of the hide is what we are after. Right now we have two hides soaking outside at about 45*F and after 3 days the hair is starting to pull out. We may let them soak more than a week because of the cold. Be sure to regularly stir the hides to keep them in solution. We also use a bucket of water on top of the hides to keep them from floating out of the lime.
We use hydrated lime because we already have it on hand for gardening needs. You can use (and many other folks do) other options such as lye, wood ash, or other alkali options. Just be careful with protective gloves and goggles but give it a try. Rawhide is fun because it is so basic and forgiving. Play around with options and see what works for you – you really can’t go to wrong with rawhide.
Once the hair is slipping out remove it from the solution and when dry enough to work, we put it back on our 2×6 with the hair up and use a duller draw knife to carefully scrap off the hair. It comes off pretty quickly, but be careful not to damage the hide – it is quite soft and can be cut or torn after soaking so long. When the hair is removed, you will need to rinse and treat the rawhide to restore the pH back neutral. If you have a source of running water you can put it in that for a day or two. We have lots of rain barrels, and soaking in one of those for 2 days is typically good, followed by a few rinses in a bucket. Next, we use a cup of vinegar for each 15 gallons of water used to neutralize the hide and get it as close to neutral [pH] as possible. Years ago we had a swimming pool, and we still have pH test strips that are very handy for projects like this to see how we are doing with respect to the pH.
Guess what – that is really it! The rawhide will need some stretching and scraping, but only if you want to do it, and only when you are ready to it. At this point, we fold up the hide again and dry it out well by the woodstove to put it into storage. Without the hair, a deer hide will fold up and fit in a shoe box, so it is nice and small. I recommend smoking the hide outside if you can around a fire – it will dry it out very well, and the smoking gives it a nice smell and will help preserve it for later use. If you don’t smoke it, adding a layer of salt will also be advisable.
Depending on how you plan to use the rawhide, you will stretch and scrap it more accordingly. We have found by repeatedly stretching and scraping the hide as it dries, it becomes more translucent – enough so that it could even be used as an emergency replacement for a window pane if glass were broken and unavailable. Stretching it less will make it thicker and more opaque.
Now is the real fun part of rawhide – using it for everything! As an engineer, I love finding new tools or techniques that let me do the most with an item, and rawhide is one of the best I’ve found – ever. This stuff is really nature’s ‘duct tape’, better than plastic, and begs for experimentation. In the event of SHTF, I believe this stuff will be prized by all who have access and use it.
The most common use for rawhide is cordage and rope. We’ve made a lot of plant-based cordage, and even made string with ligaments, but nothing is as strong or long-lasting as rawhide strips. Cordage will become rough and stiff over time if not well used or kept dry, but with repeated use, working it over and over on metal or wood posts, and with some oil the cordage will be quite supple. It can be twisted or braided and both work well. If you plan to make a lot of cordage, I’d recommend getting a leather strap cutter – they are inexpensive and make great, uniform cuts.
Many folks on the internet have some great examples of using rawhide for knife sheaths and hard, custom formed containers. We haven’t tried these yet but they look like fun. With rawhide, the key is keeping it dry to keep its form. When it dries out, it is tough, rigid, and durable. When it gets wet, it softens and can be reformed – this can be a big advantage, too. I also recommend oiling rawhide lightly to help make it more water repellant, but do so lightly as the oil itself can soften the hide.
Rawhide is a fantastic replacement for nails, which is how we use most of ours. Small strips of cordage wrap easily like string when wet and then as it dries, it will shrink, tighten, and harden into a rock-solid bond. Think of the rawhide bones that dog’s chew (another good use for your hide) and remember how hard those can be. We use rawhide to bind arrowheads on shafts, and when covered in a protective, thin layer of pine pitch, the arrowhead becomes a solid part of the shaft. The strength to weight ratio of rawhide is very good. Early pioneers constructed “Red River Carts” entirely without nails, using only an axe, wood on hand, and rawhide.
I fixed a rake handle when it was stepped on and split by wrapping a s3x4 inch strip of wet rawhide tightly around the break, and tying it in place until the hide dried and shrunk. That fix will outlast the rest of the tool. Similarly, a loose head on a splitting maul was tightened easily with a long, 1×8 inch strip wrapped cross-wise and dried. When roasting marshmallows, we found that a few wraps of rawhide are good enough in a pinch for a handle and insulate from heat quite well. This led us to speculate that rawhide would be useful for any number of automotive repairs on exhaust, water, or engine related repairs, though we have yet to try them.
I have heard it is possible to boil up glue using rawhide, though I’ve never tried it. Likewise I have never tasted rawhide, but know throughout history it was a common staple for famished travelers and pioneers. In a situation of starvation, boiled rawhide will nourish better than boiled plastic – and let’s hope we never get to that point.
Rawhide applied around an object also is a great stiffener. We have stiffened wooden bows with narrow strips of it wrapped or laid along the outer edge of a bow, and in some cases stiffened the bow too much with what seemed a small piece of hide. A loose furniture piece or piece of machinery could quickly and inexpensively be helped along by that old deer skin. A few years ago I gave a steer hide to a woman who made a beautiful set of rawhide pack saddle panyards with the hair left on it.
I’ve read of several accounts of Plains Indian shields made from buffalo rawhide stopping or deflecting bullets. It is quite feasible, seeing the thickness and toughness of rawhide to imagine it working though I don’t think a modern rifle bullet would be stopped in such a way. It does make you wonder about armor applications, though. Our 12 year-old son is working a deer hide right now that he wants to experiment with to see if and how several layers of rawhide would perform against different caliber bullets. Sounds like a great school science project in the making. Another thought he came up with was putting a layer of rawhide on cowboy chaps or a motorcycle jacket for added protection. Perhaps a shoe’s sole replacement or shin guards during rattlesnake season. Our older son speculated at casting a broken arm in rawhide to protect it if plaster were unavailable – though rawhide is far from sterile and I would not recommend it on a wound, it was a good idea. At least they are thinking of ideas and that is worthwhile in and of itself.
Even if you are not a hunter or rancher it isn’t difficult to get hides. I’ve posted on Craigslist to give away cow hides after butchering and was overwhelmed with the volume of responses. Posting online or asking around will put you in touch with hunters in your area, or ask at a local butcher shop or meat processor. These are good folks to get to know for future emergency events anyway. Another option is road kill – yes, it is gross and a little hillbilly, but the price is right, and small hides are easiest to work with. I recommend being picky about the road kill you pick up 😉 The price is right and there is a ready supply.
The last recommendation I have for rawhide is to avoid the larger animal hides like elk or cow in favor of a deer hide or smaller animal. The larger animal hides are much thicker and heavier to work with and unless you have a big project needing these features the rawhide is less versatile. Deer hides are thinner, more pliable, and more than adequate for most jobs. For small cordage, squirrel or rabbit are actually my preference, so bigger usually isn’t better. As we finish our latest batch of rawhide and put it into use we will post more pictures on our blog,
Rawhide has been the ‘duct tape’ of the world for centuries. It is reasonably available, requires minimal effort, and offers great strength, versatility, and usability for so many situations it is worth considering for your preparations. It will be a valuable barter item in the case of TEOTWAWKI. God in His wisdom has provided us with yet another item for our needs and deserves our praise and thanks. I hope these ideas and options are valuable or useful in your efforts. It has been fun for us.