# making use of roakill -"tanning" hides



## crampicide

*** first and foremost, i would like to say i am strongly AGAINST killing animals for fur, killing animals in any inhumane way for ANY reason. i have learned skinning techniques from my "native" father, who is a respectable man that thanks his animal friends before they feed him and his family, and uses every part of the animal he has killed- he does this because it is his way of staying healthy without contributing to the slaughter houses and mass produced, inhumane meat industry.***


I get sad when i see smashed up critters... it is a shame to see their life force wasted on the side of a road without respect.

so..if youve got a tough stomach, and if the corpse is fresh (you cant do this if the animal is rotten or is over a day dead!) id say even 10 hours is pushing it... make sure you avoid touching any of your mucus membranes, and wear gloves or wash your hands and nails *really* well after handling, or you can pick up some fun diseases.

to get its hide:

you need:
-ashes (from a fire obviously) or lye..ashes are better
-a skinning knife
-a dull knife
-fire
-a pot big enough for the hide
-rope
-borax (optional, i recommend it tho)

1. to skin the animal, with sharp skinning knife cut desired amount- to get the full hide make incisions as if you were drawing a stick figure in the shape of the animal, on the animal. usually, the shape of a christian cross works, but it is helpful to add another diagonal cross from its backlegs, over the groin, to its other leg. it is a bit tough, dont be alarmed. pull the skin and fur off. 

(give this animals body burial rites as soon as you have finished, if you want to thank it.)

2. once you have managed to pull off the skin and fur, poke 4 holes symmetrically in 4 "corners" of hide, stretch the hide between anything that will support/stretch it (trees, poles, whatever) use the more dull knife to scrape off remnants that have clung to tissue. once it is cleaned, have a boiling pot of water ready. throw in a good amount of ashes ..lots! (several handfuls) and boil the hide until the fur has fallen off. 

3. remove hide from water, wash it again with borax (natural cleaning agent available pretty much anywhere. you dont have to do this, but it makes the hide more stretchy if you want to make moccasins or something)

4. stretch hide out again to dry. pull and tug at it, work it with your hands to help soften it. now you have hard earned, guilt free leather that you can use for just about anything, and you paying some respect to the animal that needlessly died. 



you can also remove claws and teeth, you can make jewelry or buttons and stuff with them.



i hope this post doesn't offend anybody, and if anyone tries it out let me know how it went for you. again, it is too late to use this technique on a rotten corpse.

hope it helps, leather can be useful.

also if you have better skinning technology please share, because this is pretty bare bones primitive, but it works
..


----------



## Pickles

Interesting. I thought this process would be much more complicated. I'm inspired, I'm definitely gonna start keeping an eye out for roadkill to try this out. Thanks for the detailed post!


----------



## Gudj

Usefull information.



Pickles said:


> Interesting. I thought this process would be much more complicated. I'm inspired, I'm definitely gonna start keeping an eye out for roadkill to try this out. Thanks for the detailed post!



Actually Pickles, it can be even easier than this.

My very basic way is to 
A) Skin the animal "sock style", with the fur being cut around each paw, then one big cut from the inside of the right rear paw to the inside of the left rear paw (also cut around the anus) and then just pull the skin of like a sock. 

B) Take all remaining flesh and fat off of the skin by scraping (VERY IMPORTANT)

B) Cut the back of the skull and remove all brain matter

C) Warm up some water and mix it with brains to make a light goop.

D) stretch the skin good, and rub the goop into the inside of it really good. Let it dry, and repeat until the brain soup is gone.

E) Keep it stretched while it's drying and play with it and stuff, then smoke it over some rotting wood, and you got yrself a skin.


...I guess that isn't really simpler than Crampicides way. There are a hundred different ways to do this, and alot of different tanning agents (brains, bark, acorns, lye, shit you buy, ect.). 
So try it all and see what works best for you. This is a good thing to learn I think, and although I haven't eaten meat in close to 10 years, I think it's good to get over all the "icky" animal stuff on my terms before I am faced with it in a survival situation.

Also, be warned... the first time I did this, it was a rabbit and I had a much stronger-than-expected emotional reaction during the skinning stage. It might just have been me, but be prepared for that.

Oh, also be aware that picking up roadkill is illegal in most places[that i've looked into].


----------



## finn

Gudj said:


> Oh, also be aware that picking up roadkill is illegal in most places[that i've looked into].



In practice, this generally only extends to deer, just in case you have a psycho who hunts via ramming. (I guess this has happened?) I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble with smaller animals like foxes, raccoons, rabbits, etc.


----------



## Pickles

That seems simple enough. A sock. I'll remember that.



finn said:


> In practice, this generally only extends to deer, just in case you have a psycho who hunts via ramming. (I guess this has happened?) I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble with smaller animals like foxes, raccoons, rabbits, etc.


 
Good to know. How do you normally carry the animal back to your camp? I would assume a trash bag but has anyone ever been without one and had to improvise?

Also, how does the fur fare through this ordeal?


----------



## hobogirl

ok this thread is grossing me out. I was hungry but I just lost my appetite


----------



## Gudj

Pickles said:


> That seems simple enough. A sock. I'll remember that.
> 
> 
> 
> Good to know. How do you normally carry the animal back to your camp? I would assume a trash bag but has anyone ever been without one and had to improvise?
> 
> Also, how does the fur fare through this ordeal?




If you do it my way, and don't get the brain on the hair side, then you will have a pelt.
You can shave it if you want. 
I think crampicides way makes the hair fall out.


Edit: I would also like to add here that I am a total novice at this. It seems better to use crampicides method of submerging the skin in tanning agent to tan it from both sides at once, even if loses the hair.


----------



## MiztressWinter

No way in hell could I do this. I mean sure I COULD if it were a matter of life and death. But otherwise...


----------



## Wolfeyes

Used both techniques numerous times. If you would rather not use the brain tanning method, you can substitute egg whites(fry up the yolks for a tasty lunch) in place of the gray matter.

You can actually avoid poking holes in the corners by using a rock. Place the rock on the hide, wrap a bit of hide around it, then tie your stretching rope around it so that the bulge acts like a stopper. Less waste that way.

The tighter you stretch the hide while it's drying the faster it will dry. Remember to stretch from the middle too.

On the legality of picking up roadkill. It's pretty much only illegal to pick up endangered species. Even in areas where you can't legally pick up game animals, usually if a cop/warden/wildlife officer catches you, if you can show that you didn't kill the critter, they'll let you cart it off. Wardens/wildlife officers especially. 90% of those guys would rather see somebody put that animal to good use as opposed to incinerating it. That's just based on my experience though.


----------



## oldmanLee

Doesn't offend,it gives me heart that folks still take some thing seriously.
In the matter of the woodash version:be carefull.what you are doing with the ash is leaching out lye(the stuff they use in lye soap and other cleaners).it is effective,but can cause chemical burns to your skin,so either have a tough old hide like mine or use a stick to work the hide into the solution.It will strip the hair,and if you dont do the borax,you have made rawhide that is suitable for drumheads.Also rinse with plenty of clean water after.
As to brain tanning:the one thing that you might want to try is to cook up the brains,mash fine,and let it sit a day or so until it goes "off".To prevent bugs from ruining the hide,salt and roll it up,flesh side to flesh side.rinse,and work in the sour brains.After it cures the hide.rinse,strech and dry.Then start working the leather to soften.a nice color and scent can be acheaved by smoking the hide over a cedar smudge if you like.


----------



## Pickles

All very good advice guys. I'm actually going to print out this thread and bring it with me so I don't forget anything. I really appreciate all the useful information. Now whenever I see roadkill in the city, I think of this and look to see if the hide is salvageable. Haven't seen any intact hides yet. Also, I don't believe my roommate would appreciate me bringing dead squirrels into the apartment. Does make me think though.

As for the emotional thing, I used to have a huge problem with seeing dead animals (was actually a vegetarian for a time) but in Ghana, I saw a good number of slaughterings (chickens, goats, sheep, cows, etc.) and it really doesn't bother me anymore. I liked that there, they really did use every bit of the animal. They would sell the hides to leatherworkers for drum heads and such, cook the heads and eat the meat from them, eat all parts of the meat (liver, kidneys, intestines... and not just the poor, everyone would), eat the skin, eat the shells of crabs and prawns, even eat some bones, especially chicken bones, which are softer and fairly easy to eat. I picked up quite a few of these habits and continue to do these things when I can. Waste not!


----------



## hobogirl

I stumbled upon this article last week and was fascinated. Since then I found a racoon near the place I'm staying at and have made a hide out of it. haha coonskin cap here I come.


----------



## Pickles

Props to you, girl, that's awesome! Which method did you use?


----------



## carlylanea

wow I'm definitely gonna suck up my girlyness and try this! Thank you!


----------



## xmaggotx

when doing the method described originally in this thread (i have never used this exact method, but have some experience in making buckskin), you need to scrape off both _all_ membrane from the inside of the animal skin (in addition to any fat and flesh left on) as well as the epidermis layer on the outside of the animal. both of these layers will prevent brain fat from penetrating the hide (another step that is ESSENTIAL to making a proper buckskin, that was left out) membrane and apidermis also tend to stiffen more when dry. also, ALWAYS smoke the hide with punky wood dry rot) when you have completed the rest of the steps. this will ensure that insects and various fungi and bacteria do not eat your hide.


the skining method gudj mentioned-tube skinning- is good for small animals IE squirrels, coons, opossums, etc. do not use the wood ash method when you are dealing with that type of animal. the skin on these animals is very thin, and if you remove the hair and membrane as well as the epidermis (how you are supposed to make buckskin) you will end up with a paper thin, translucent skin filled with holes. useless. so you need to free the anus, skin the animal (tube skinning may or may not be preferred depending on what you are making-just visualize how the pelt will come out depending on how you cut it.), wet scrape the hide, often you have to dry scrape the hide as well, then you have to brain it, stretch it CONSTANTLY until it is _completely_ dry, and then smoke it. this process is not as easy as it sounds, and a lot can go wrong. that said, most problems can be fixed. instead of going into even greater detail about this, here are some great links.

www.primitiveways.com
http://dynamiteskills.blogspot.com/
www.urbanscout.org

also, for your first animal (it obviously depends on what you find), i do NOT recommend raccoons, or for that matter house cats, or opossums. coons in particular as well as opossums have an absurd amount of fat, and this makes it exceedingly tedious to flesh the hide. house cats are by far the most difficult animal to flesh that i've encountered. i have a good amount of experience in this area, so if anyone has specific questions, feel free to ask. i can also help you out with field dressing and butchering road kill.


----------



## Pickles

Thanks maggot! Printing that too.


----------



## xmaggotx

i would strongly suggest that you dont bother printing this thread out, as it does not provide adequate information for you to utilize, and end up with a usable/desirable end product. there are many things, like what type of scraping tool to use, how to properly skin an animal while leaving the membrane layer intact, etc, that are not covered here. instead i suggest printing out something from one of the links i posted above


----------



## sprout

Spent today skinning a roadkill raccoon with my friend. Surprisingly was mostly salvageable. Collected tons of bones, four paws, tail, skull, and a full hide.


----------



## xmaggotx

its such a bitch to peel the skin off the tail. some friends and i put on a primitive skillshare, and showed people (amongst other things) how to field dress, and skin a raccoon. we had two people holding the (mostly separated, all except the tail) skin, and two holding the actual body, and it was slipping all over the place haha but it came out good. biggest fucking coon i ever seen. good eatin. did you take the penis bone? i love that coons have penis bones. i want to shove one through my septum some day but gotta fucking pierce it first...also opossums their testicles in the same area that humans do, but their penises are behind the ass hole...wierd shit


----------



## rusty

hobogirl said:


> ok this thread is grossing me out. I was hungry but I just lost my appetite


had the opposite effect on me, defiantly hungry now.


----------



## christa

this is good information thanks alot, important to have survival skills and to use all "waste"


----------



## Arapala

Here is a good zine about this kind of stuff. Have not read it in a year id say, but im pretty sure the first section has this same process in it, but with more explanation for first timers. As well as a bunch of vegans salvaging and cooking roadkill meat. Interesting read.

http://zinelibrary.info/files/feralforager.pdf


----------



## Gudj

I really really really love vegans who eat meat.
(Not to be confused with vegans who _sneak _meat!)


----------



## Arapala

Been thinking about trying this for a bit. One of my cats went on a killing spree and killed three baby rabbits. I decided to skin them instead of just letting them rot completely. 

This was the first time i did this, and am a complete beginner at this. I don't even eat or cook meat so it was a big step for me to be cutting up dead animals. Anyways i just used the methods i read about in the zine i posted above. The one all alone on the board was the first one i did which was really bad hahaha, and the second one i did was the one on top there, and the third is the biggest one. You can see the progression, i was getting a little better each time. These were very tiny rabbits so it was pretty hard to control the cuts, ad the longest legs were only two inches long at most. Pretty interesting stuff! I am letting them dry right now and tanning it tomorrow. Heres a picture:


----------



## acrata4ever

i need a tanned shaved coonskin for a breadpan banjo


----------



## uncivilize

I'd have to agree with maggot, learn this from a more experienced source, not this thread. Boiling a hide, especially from a smaller animal is probably not the best idea, especially if you don't know what you're doing/what to look for. You might just end up making a nice big batch of hide glue mixed with hair. Also, you use the yolks instead of brains, not the whites, as was stated earlier.


----------



## Piniyoq Mana

I did this with a roadkill skunk once but it lost the brain so it didn't turn out so good next time I'll try the egg white method thanks Gudj


----------



## crazy john

ive used the brains method to cure a couple pelts and it has worked pretty good, plus you can usually keep the fur on, but nexttime i find some poor critter, ill have to try this one out. also i like oyur idea of a burial to pay repect and thanks to the animal. thanks for the instructions and if i get to try it out ill let you know how it works


----------



## crazy john

sprout said:


> Spent today skinning a roadkill raccoon with my friend. Surprisingly was mostly salvageable. Collected tons of bones, four paws, tail, skull, and a full hide.


do you have any tips on cureing the paws? ive tried with some rabbits ive skinned, but since i dont remove the flesh so there still furry they just ended up rotting.


----------



## Monterey

If you just want the leather:

I know this is long, but it is made for printing out and reading as you go in the woods.

Carefully trim all flesh and fat from the hide, and then soak the skin in water for several days. This may be all that is necessary to loosen the hair. However, if the hair does not come off easily, sprinkle some wood ashes upon the wet hair, roll it up, and keep the skin in a cool place for a few days more. The lye action of the ashes will do the job.
A smooth log with bark removed makes a good scraping block, or "Beamer". The log should be tilted, so that it reaches the waist of the worker. A good scraper can me made from the ulna, the inner bone of the deer's foreleg. It's curve is just right, and the hind edge of it is thin and sharp enough to be used as a scraper. Place the skin upon the log, flesh side down, and scrape off the hair by pushing down and away from you. When this has been carefully done, turn the skin over; scrape the flesh side and clean it of all grease, fat and fiber in the same way.
Next make a mash of the brains by squeezing them through your fingers into warm water. Every animal has the exact amount of brains to tan it's own hide. Sometimes the liver is boiled and mashed up with the brains. Some Indians mix the brains with moss, shaping it like a cake of soap and drying it before the fire. The brains in this form can be kept in good condition for years. When needed for tanning, the cake is dissolved in hot water and the moss removed.
In the meantime, lace and stretch the skin upon a frame in a cool, shady spot and rub the brain paste thoroughly into it. This job completed, roll up the skin and keep it in a cool place for two days. Then wash and rinse it carefully several times in fresh water and then squeeze it nearly dry. Drive a sharp-edged stake so that instead of being a round stake driven into the ground, the appearance of the stake from the top resembles a triangle, not a circle. Have the stake sticking up out of the ground about two to three feet. Pull the skin over the edge in every direction, vigorously back and forth like the way you shine your shoes with a t-shirt. This requires a lot of elbow grease. If the job is done right way, a soft, velvety skin will be the result.
The hide is now ready for smoking, which closes the pores, makes the skin more durable, and prevents the pelts from drying hard when wet. The Indians usually make a cone shape, resembling a tepee, of the hide, pegging it to the ground and holding it up on a tripod made of three sticks. Make only a smoky smudge, for flames or heat will ruin the skin. A good smoking fuel is the dry-rot wood that is dry and makes a bluish smoke. The type of fuel often governs the color of the skin. A yellow color can be secured from a dry willow smudge; green willow makes a brownish tone. Hardwood, like black birch, is excellent for smoking. Smoke tanned skin will not harden when wet and can be washed like a piece of cloth.

Alternately, a sort of Indian chemical tan was made by soaking the skin in a liquor made by boiling hemlock or balsam bark until a brown fluid resulted.

-Monterey
What economic depression? This river is full of fish!


----------



## Monterey

If you want a pelt:

Fur animals are skinned either "open" or "cased". To skin an animal "open" means that the hide is cut from the chin, down to the belly to the vent, and along the undersides of the legs. When the skin is "cased", the cut is made along the inside of the hind legs and across the rump at the vent.
When taking off the skin of a "cased" animal, skin the hind legs out. If the furred feet are to be saved, work them out and cut off at the claws, which remain attached to the skin. If the feet are not wanted, run the skinning knife around the ankles.
Pull out the bones of the tail, for the skin would rot if they were left inside. Make a small opening at the tip of the tail and run a stick through to open it and allow the air to enter and dry. If the tail skin were to stick together inside, it would not dry properly and the hair would fall out. Muskrat, beaver and opossum tails are not wanted and are simply cut off.
Then pull the skin down inside out over the animal as you would remove a sock. Work out the front legs, the feet being cut off or skinned out as were those of the hind legs.
Then peel the pelt down over the head, and cut the ears close to the flesh to prevent cutting the skin. Great care should be taken in skinning out the eyes and lips, so that the head skin comes off intact without damage or stretching. Scrape all bits of flesh and fat from the flesh side, but take care not to scrape the pelt thin at any spot. Raccoon, skunk, and opossum pelts are very fatty. If the fur is bloody or dirty, clean it with soap and water. Always dry a wet pelt before stretching. A little gasoline cleans stubborn dirt and may be used to deodorize pelts of the skunk family. Animals should be skinned as soon as possible after killing. The pelts will have a much better appearance if this is done.
If the skin is not properly stretched, the fur will lose in value, no matter how perfect it's condition. "Open" skins should be laced tightly upon a frame or tacked flesh side up on a board. Beaver should be stretched on a hoop frame.
For "cased" pelts, wedge shaped wooden boards 3/8 to 3/4 inch thick are made of soft wood, like pine. The edges and the point of the stretcher, as it is called, is rounded and smoothed, resembling the pointed end of an ironing board. Stretcher boards with wedges are often used, since skins may be stretched more tightly with this type.
Of course, the size and shape of the stretcher varies with the type of animal. For weasel skins a very narrow board about 16 inches long is used. A mink's stretcher is about 30 inches long and about twice as wide as the weasel's.
Approximate sizes of stretchers for various animal skins are suggested as follows... The format is <Animal> <Length of stretcher> <Width at shoulders> <Width at base> All numbers are in inches:
Weasel 16, 1 1/2, 2 1/2
Mink 30, 3, 4
Marten 25, 3 1/4, 4 1/4
Muskrat 20, 5, 7
Skunk 30, 4, 7 1/2
Raccoon 30, 6, 9
Fisher 50, 5 1/2, 8
Fox 45, 5 1/2, 8
Otter 60, 6, 8
Lynx 60, 6, 9
Wood is highly advised due to the fact of it's absorbing moisture, and it does not allow the flesh side of the skins to come into contact. Any hardware store will have pine planks in the dimensions allowing you to carve and sand out the shape.
The pelt is pulled over the stretcher fur side in. The nose and lips are tacked into position, and the skin is puled down to it's full length and tacked at the end. Sticks are placed in the forelegs to stretch them, and the edges of the hind legs and tail are tacked full length so that they may dry properly. In drying, never allow the skins to be in the sun or near a fire. They should dry slowly in cool shade.

- - - - Indian Tanning of Pelts - - - -​ 
Pelts freshly skinned need not be soaked before tanning, but dried skins should be moistened until pliable. Do not soak too long lest the fur come out. Next flesh the skin. Scrape away the glazed inside surface so the tanning may reach every part.
Stretch the skin inside out and rub brain mash ( the same used in tanning leather ) thoroughly into the flesh side. Do this several times, and then soften the skin by gently pulling, kneading, and manipulating with the hands.

This is a lot of information, but this is the method used by Indians and the trappers from the old Davy Crockett days. Using this method not only works, but creates pelts fine enough to be used, or sold in the most ritzy manufacturers.

- Monterey
Meat is not murder... it's "slaughter", animals are not humans.


----------

