Wow Steven! This is a video I missed. I thought I saw every one of your tanning videos and all that is related. The snow shoes are incredible to say the least. I was at The Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan years ago. There was a show case of amazing baskets with unbelievable detail. On the bottom shelf under a magnifying glass were two, what I thought were beads made to look like the baskets. One the size of a pea and the other the size of a BB. There was a Native Grandmother looking beside me and I made the comment that I was amazed by the beads. She said, " Oh honey, they aren't beads they are baskets and made out of different kinds of hair". They had the same intricate detail as the baskets. I ask how it was possible to make so tiny and detailed baskets. She said, "Honey, there is only one way to create such a thing and that's with pure spirit". I was in total amazement! So these snow shoes reminded me of this experience. It like tanning Steven, when you into it and thinking about honoring the animal who's hide you are making into leather, there is a defined spirit in the making. I never consider the time it takes, as the results are not only satisfying but another media of creation. When you do it all it only makes it all a Heart created object. As an old Native Elder told me years back, " We reach perfection when we can create everything we can think". His name was Tlakaelel who passed in 2012. Creating things you need and doing it with spirit is one of greatest wealth. And when you take the time to make it special even better. It is the main thing that lacks in manufactured items made by machines or slave labor. A friend and myself came up with a quote years back when he visited my shop. "I can't afford it so consequently ,I have to make it myself". We were having fun but the satisfaction in creating it yourself is beyond reward. If I had opened land I'd be grafting apple trees, inspired by you and your sharing. But it never stops me from watching and learning. So Many Kind Thanks Steven! You are greatly appreciated! DaveyJO
Thank you for making all that literature available. I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to compile all that information and make sense of it. I have ten rabbit hides I need to get to thanks for the motivation! I hope all is well on the homestead, cheers
Stephen, I'm not even interested in tanning, and yet I watched the whole video and found it quite interesting. I am, however, an avid reader of books of all kinds, especially old forgotten ones, which is why I clicked on the link. Thanks for sharing.
Great video! I walked into a used book store about three weeks ago and found "Tan Your Hide" for $3.00 I can't thank you enough for the ebook links. You're freaking amazing, Dude!
I do like some things abut the dry scrape hides, but more about the wetscrapes. It's good to know both methods for serious tanners. Done any barktanning? It's super fun. Unfortunately the book might not get done for a while. Even if I get my part mostly done, I have to coordinate with my coauthor to get it finished.
Girlfriend bought me Matt Richard's book before I watched this video. It has some good stuff in there. Not super thorough but good beginners book. I did see that he mentioned you in the book. I thought that was pretty cool because I watch you on UA-cam and didn't know that connection so I came to this video. Anyways keep up the good videos. You're easy to learn from.
It's a good book. Early claims on the efficacy of bucking were a little hasty and overstated, but the second edition I believe addresses that through the use of KOH for people that are willing to use it, which is most people. More serious tanners should probably have both books, but either one works. Matt intentionally tried to keep his short and sweet and we intentionally tried to make ours an encyclopedic reference. Both approaches have their advantages. Our choice reflected our bent at the time.
Thanks! I'm just getting into tanning and leatherwork in the last few years. Although I have a few of these books the real gold are the links to the old stuff! I'll be buying your book as soon as it comes out. Can't thank you enough for all your hard work, your advice has been put to good use!
I've found some german tanning videos, that aren't in your playlist in case you're interested. Quite old ones. Some about bark tanning, others about chamois or traditional oil tanned leather.
Sure. This is about oil tanning(same tannery at two different times): ua-cam.com/video/ycp0n9r32C0/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/hwDh-kzQsBI/v-deo.html These about bark tanning: ua-cam.com/video/-azO45IGNtU/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/m8oo7cykSOA/v-deo.html
I wasn't able to find those two videos last time. Those were the old ones that i was referring to. They show a bark tanning process: ua-cam.com/video/cb0WEMCTvO8/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/LHwVdfKo4zw/v-deo.html
If you mean Aboriginal skin Dressing by Otis Mason, I feel like we couldn't get that before, but maybe got a copy eventually. I don't remember now, but Tamara would probably remember. I might have a xerox copy, it's been too long and I didn't dig into all those binders. I missed some probably important stuff, but it would have just make it too much longer anyway. I could potentially do a second video on some of the actual content in some of the obscure references like King. I have been recommended Rural Tanning Techniques and I think the other as well, but have read neither. If you think they are must reads, I'll look into getting them though. Someday I'd like to scan a lot of the research material I have and put it online. Actually, I'd like to make someone else do it lol. I'm not sure of the legal issues with reproducing some of the ethnographic stuff.
The book I'm referring to is books.google.com/books/about/North_American_Aboriginal_Hide_Tanning.html?id=Cey2cQAACAAJ I actually wouldn't recommend this book except for the last two chapters are amazing.
I just got that a couple of months ago and it's one of the books I forgot about. It's neat for people like us, not sure about it being an effective way to learn tanning, though I only leafed through it. I think the way it looks at a bunch of tanner's methods.
You can read all that stuff for a year and be really confused lol. It's quite the rabbit hole. It's a fun one though for sure. there is nothing like producing a good piece of leather. It's fascinating and fulfilling.
I gave your book a stellar review on amazon. I liked it, but I too am currently more interested in a vegetable tanning process. I like both of Lotta Rahme's books. I would also like to be able to make my own furs. I can't keep adding more experiments to my hobbled backyard laboratory though. I'll stick to vegetable tanning for now. I don't have access to any oaks except a few scattered bur oaks. So I need to find other plants that will work. Thanks for the great tanning resources.
You can use veg tanning on furs, though it is not very common. Most common perhaps is to apply to the flesh side repeatedly, or as finely ground material left on the flesh side.
Thanks for such a great info download! Half of learning off the interwebs is finding out where to look for the info. I did buy the Richards book quite a few years ago, too bad about the two books competing with each other, sounds like some hard feelings resulted. I'd be interested to understand more about the issues with bucking with ashes, specifically. I have dissolved a hide completely once! Whoopsy. But I left it for weeks, and weeks. I'm attracted to tanning, but I keep doing this lame thing where I start a hide and then never finish. I think I've got too many competing demands on my time, and hide tanning gets the shaft. I'm so impressed with how far you've gone down this rabbithole. Rawhide stuff is probably the most productive direction for me to play with. Along the lines of the handle protector etc.
I don't think fear like that is a good motivator to act on, but I'm always in for the long game and concentrate and being who I want to be and not worrying overly much about other people doing what they do, or about their motivations. While I wouldn't use the same marketing tactics personally, Matt's success is largely from hard work and his book is good. There are a lot of converts to his methods, but I've also met a lot of people that tried it and went back to soaking in water. That could partly be due to the messiness of ashes and removing them after, and the difficulty of sourcing them, along with inconsistent results. I did hear of a couple people using lime, but it just seems like almost everyone is in love with KOH now and that's what Matt recommends for ease and consistency. It doesn't interest me, because I can't make it, or if I can, I'm sure it's not easy. If I can't make it, or gather it, it doesn't qualify as meet my criteria for a tanning material. If I designed a qualification for a natural traditional leather certification, it would not include KOH, but it would include lime and ashes. I cut out the whole spiel on ashes being a combination of calicum, sodium and potassium hydroxides and carbonates, which varies with species and burn temp, and no doubt by location etc. It is very complicated and highly variable, as well as immeasurable by mere mortals. You may have seen an article on temperature effect on ash mass and composition in your research on ash as a pozzolan. It's easy to find. Over certain temps conversion from carbonates to oxides can happen. For instance, Calcium hydroxide goes up and eventually total potassium content actually goes down. I've had a hide be completely ruined in ash solution overnight, even when the egg was not floating as high as matt recommends. Probably high in Sodium Hydroxide is the only thing I can think of. I think that is very rare, but anyway, it's inconsistent, especially when you add the age and storage condition of the ashes on top of all those other factors. I can't imagine that people have that much inconsistency using lime, but they don't seem to like it as much as KOH. I think partly because it's harder to get out of the hide, but I'm not really up on all that. I've heard of a few braintanners now using drenching and bating. eventually more and more people will start thinking outside the box and combining tanning traditions and different tans. That is how traditional tanning really is. Mel Beatty thinks that bucking weakens the hides. I've never seen hides nicer than his. Equal, but not nicer for solidity and feel combined. He is a true artisan of braintanning with unwavering enthusiasm. He just loves braintanning hides. He has some new ideas about removing what Matt calls ground substance, without bucking, essentially scudding it looks like. If you read through his stuff on braintanbuckskin.com he talks about it. He also posts quite a bit on his facebook page. I honestly have not thought a lot about braintaning since finishing the book and have not done all that much of it. Seriously, I procrastinate tanning projects all the time. I've ruined countless hides lol. I learned a lot doing that though, ironically enough.
Yeah, I know all about the highly variable nature of wood ashes. I mess with them a lot with nixtamalization of corn, and it seems like every batch I sift I have to do a test batch to figure out how strong it is to get the normal results. Definitely easy to see why folks use cal instead, its so consistent, even though I feel like ash nixtamalized corn is nutritionally superior due to the additional micronutrient minerals it has (nuance). I've also been messing with wood ash lye with my Homebrew Geopolymer experiments, trying to use them for activating the pozzolan instead of using commercial sodium hydroxide. It definitely works, but it ends up being a process where its an art vs a science because you can't just use a set recipe, you have to adjust for the individuality of your alkali due to all those factors, mineral content of the wood, heat of fire, length of storage etc.
The pozzolan is the other side of the equation, you combine the pozzolan (mostly alumina and silicates or both) with the calcium/potassium/sodium hydroxides from the ash to make the cement/geopolymer. At least in theory. So I'm trying to figure out a homebrew method of turning my clay into pozzolan ( using something like your lime kiln, which is how I found you in the first place) and combining it wish ashes or leached wood ash lye to create the geopolymer binder/cement and then using that combined with aggregate to form some sort of homebrew low-tech geopolymer concrete sort of thing. Almost certainly not for stuff like poured shapes like purchased Sakcrete or something, but maybe for making like poured in place bricks or blocks? The idea being a way you could make a brick with farm produced materials using less energy than a traditional kiln fired brick would take, that would hopefully be as or more durable. Its been fun to play with, but you might notice I've never produced a video about it, I've never gotten any farther than little test bricks.
I found out that there is a source of pozzolan near here, but I haven't been to check it out. It was a commercial mine though. I can't remember what it is, possibly volcanic as it's in a volcanic area, but there is also diatomaceous earth around there.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge so generously. I would like to buy your book when reprinted, not to hassle you, but thought I would ask if you have an eta, no pressure if not. If I bought one of your previous editions, is there much difference in the content of your originally (technical) titled version and the "ancient art" version? Thank you also for sharing the free tanning books online.
They are not much different and at this point I've pretty much decided to leave it as is and reprint it. If I start doing revisions it's not going to get done and it will be changed too much. I'll want to change style and all kinds of stuff once I start. Hopefully it will be out by spring.
Funny they are myth busting, since it sounds like they don't really know what they are talking about lol. But I think they are probably right. There maybe have been a place for saliva or chewing, but it so, it's not common in old braintanning accounts if it's there at all.
This book is selling for $300 on eBay used. For the updated copy on Amazon it’s $345 used. Hallelujah, I just found someone who didn’t know what they had and got it and two other tanning books for $60!
Thanks Steven. I've been interested in leathers for quite a while but I havent hunted in over 20 years. I'm going to try to harvest a few squirrels this summer and start practicing. Found your book on Amazon but it's still in the mail--does it cover doing any pelts/hair on hides or is it strictly traditional buckskin?
I have a short chapter on tanning deer skins with the hair on, but not a lot. There are other resources and videos though. Definitely take a look at the free downloads for info on fur skinning handling, fleshing etc. That will help a lot. Also, just accumulating general tanning knowledge..
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely check your website before I do anything. That was my hope in getting the book. I really don't think I'd like jumping straight into buckskin but I have everything to learn in the process after the skin is off.
I really don't want to be one of those needy video request people. BUT if at any point you were to do a fur tanning video I'd watch the shit out of it. Just throwing that out there :)
You and everyone else lol. I"ll think about it, but I honestly lack the motivation. Furs are tricky and it's a big subject. people try to make it sound simple, but then shit starts going wrong. It's easier if you use alum, but handling up to that point, fleshing and membraning, dealing with different species all are important. And, living in a fairly salubrious climate, I don't do a lot of fur tanning or think about it much. Everyone else is fascinated by it though.
",, can you spare some change so I can buy a book?" Admirable,,, really,,, but,, not sure I can resist making up a hippie-character, holding a sign "will do brainjobs for change" I keep getting more interested in tanning, and leatherworks, but I don't have any critters I can legally flail into something useful (except maybe a pouch for holding birch bark, tanned with birch tar, from rodents,, maybe some birds). If anything, it would have to be a domestic livestock like cow, pig, or sheep,, or in self-defense against a moose (very, very unlikely to be an issue), but I am not sure if it would be legal to utilize even then. Will your book by any chance be covering methods that are good for conventional livestock?
for sure. The same methods generally apply. cattle hide can't hardly be beat for density and quality. goat is excellent. Sheep, meh, but depends on the breed and the wool is cool. Squirrels often have excellent skin, depends on the species.
Squirrels! Of course,, at least for starters. Pretty strict laws regarding livestock (as in, can't just ask a farmer. They're obliged to ship the animals to the slaughterhouse) Thanks!
Unless you have some thin skinned sissy squirrels, they are absolutely perfect for learning to tan. The skin is excellent with the hair off and the hair on is great too. They are easy to source, usually abundant and mercifully small, which makes learning mistakes not a big deal. I'm forever recommending squirrels to learn on. They're tasty too.
omg while watching this video I kept smelling that old book smell ..it's so cool ...it's smells like history lol
cool :)
Im about to get into making buckskin. I really appreciate such an honest review video. Lots of good information, thanks
Wow Steven! This is a video I missed. I thought I saw every one of your tanning videos and all that is related. The snow shoes are incredible to say the least. I was at The Museum of the American Indian in Manhattan years ago. There was a show case of amazing baskets with unbelievable detail. On the bottom shelf under a magnifying glass were two, what I thought were beads made to look like the baskets. One the size of a pea and the other the size of a BB. There was a Native Grandmother looking beside me and I made the comment that I was amazed by the beads. She said, " Oh honey, they aren't beads they are baskets and made out of different kinds of hair". They had the same intricate detail as the baskets. I ask how it was possible to make so tiny and detailed baskets. She said, "Honey, there is only one way to create such a thing and that's with pure spirit". I was in total amazement! So these snow shoes reminded me of this experience. It like tanning Steven, when you into it and thinking about honoring the animal who's hide you are making into leather, there is a defined spirit in the making. I never consider the time it takes, as the results are not only satisfying but another media of creation. When you do it all it only makes it all a Heart created object. As an old Native Elder told me years back, " We reach perfection when we can create everything we can think". His name was Tlakaelel who passed in 2012. Creating things you need and doing it with spirit is one of greatest wealth. And when you take the time to make it special even better. It is the main thing that lacks in manufactured items made by machines or slave labor. A friend and myself came up with a quote years back when he visited my shop. "I can't afford it so consequently ,I have to make it myself". We were having fun but the satisfaction in creating it yourself is beyond reward. If I had opened land I'd be grafting apple trees, inspired by you and your sharing. But it never stops me from watching and learning. So Many Kind Thanks Steven! You are greatly appreciated! DaveyJO
Thank you for making all that literature available. I appreciate the time and effort it must have taken to compile all that information and make sense of it. I have ten rabbit hides I need to get to thanks for the motivation! I hope all is well on the homestead, cheers
You're welcome.
I love open source free things! Thank you. I will probably buy your new book when it comes out.
thanks :)
Stephen, I'm not even interested in tanning, and yet I watched the whole video and found it quite interesting. I am, however, an avid reader of books of all kinds, especially old forgotten ones, which is why I clicked on the link. Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome. Online book archives are amazing.
Great video! I walked into a used book store about three weeks ago and found "Tan Your Hide" for $3.00
I can't thank you enough for the ebook links. You're freaking amazing, Dude!
Have fun :)
Oh Doug Elliot. What a great soul. He has sold me books for cheap too.
Yes, a fine human being.
I have both Matt Richards' and Jim Riggs books. I only do dry scrape, but started with wet scrap. I learned a lot from both.
I started with dry and went to wet. Advantages to both, but I like the wet product better or I might still be dry scraping.
@@SkillCult I like the dry pruduct better. To each their own. Any idea when the new edition of your braintan book will be out?
I do like some things abut the dry scrape hides, but more about the wetscrapes. It's good to know both methods for serious tanners. Done any barktanning? It's super fun. Unfortunately the book might not get done for a while. Even if I get my part mostly done, I have to coordinate with my coauthor to get it finished.
No, I haven't tried bark tanning yet. It's on the list though.
Girlfriend bought me Matt Richard's book before I watched this video. It has some good stuff in there. Not super thorough but good beginners book. I did see that he mentioned you in the book. I thought that was pretty cool because I watch you on UA-cam and didn't know that connection so I came to this video. Anyways keep up the good videos. You're easy to learn from.
It's a good book. Early claims on the efficacy of bucking were a little hasty and overstated, but the second edition I believe addresses that through the use of KOH for people that are willing to use it, which is most people. More serious tanners should probably have both books, but either one works. Matt intentionally tried to keep his short and sweet and we intentionally tried to make ours an encyclopedic reference. Both approaches have their advantages. Our choice reflected our bent at the time.
Amazing info. Thank U for sharing your time and knowledge.
Thanks for the free stuff. Would really appreciate if you can upload the Tan your Hide by Phyllis Hobson PDF.
That is still in copyright. I think copyright law is the life of the author + 50 years.
Thanks! I'm just getting into tanning and leatherwork in the last few years. Although I have a few of these books the real gold are the links to the old stuff! I'll be buying your book as soon as it comes out.
Can't thank you enough for all your hard work, your advice has been put to good use!
Thank you. There is a lot of amazing stuff in there!
Can't wait for the book!
Thanks for this... Time to nerd out for a bit!!
Go! :)
I've found some german tanning videos, that aren't in your playlist in case you're interested. Quite old ones. Some about bark tanning, others about chamois or traditional oil tanned leather.
Thank you. Can you just list the links right here? I've seen one on chamois before that was really interesting.
Sure. This is about oil tanning(same tannery at two different times):
ua-cam.com/video/ycp0n9r32C0/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/hwDh-kzQsBI/v-deo.html
These about bark tanning:
ua-cam.com/video/-azO45IGNtU/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/m8oo7cykSOA/v-deo.html
Iv'e seen the two on the chamois before. I'll watch the others later, thanks!
I wasn't able to find those two videos last time. Those were the old ones that i was referring to. They show a bark tanning process:
ua-cam.com/video/cb0WEMCTvO8/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/LHwVdfKo4zw/v-deo.html
Love this video! Have you read: North American Aboriginal Tanning, Rural Tanning Techniques, or Environmentally Sound Tanning?
If you mean Aboriginal skin Dressing by Otis Mason, I feel like we couldn't get that before, but maybe got a copy eventually. I don't remember now, but Tamara would probably remember. I might have a xerox copy, it's been too long and I didn't dig into all those binders. I missed some probably important stuff, but it would have just make it too much longer anyway. I could potentially do a second video on some of the actual content in some of the obscure references like King. I have been recommended Rural Tanning Techniques and I think the other as well, but have read neither. If you think they are must reads, I'll look into getting them though. Someday I'd like to scan a lot of the research material I have and put it online. Actually, I'd like to make someone else do it lol. I'm not sure of the legal issues with reproducing some of the ethnographic stuff.
The book I'm referring to is books.google.com/books/about/North_American_Aboriginal_Hide_Tanning.html?id=Cey2cQAACAAJ I actually wouldn't recommend this book except for the last two chapters are amazing.
I just got that a couple of months ago and it's one of the books I forgot about. It's neat for people like us, not sure about it being an effective way to learn tanning, though I only leafed through it. I think the way it looks at a bunch of tanner's methods.
Nice collection. Thanks
Amazing work! Im looking at the collection now. Time to start tanning i guess.
You can read all that stuff for a year and be really confused lol. It's quite the rabbit hole. It's a fun one though for sure. there is nothing like producing a good piece of leather. It's fascinating and fulfilling.
always good info ..
I gave your book a stellar review on amazon. I liked it, but I too am currently more interested in a vegetable tanning process. I like both of Lotta Rahme's books. I would also like to be able to make my own furs. I can't keep adding more experiments to my hobbled backyard laboratory though. I'll stick to vegetable tanning for now. I don't have access to any oaks except a few scattered bur oaks. So I need to find other plants that will work. Thanks for the great tanning resources.
You can use veg tanning on furs, though it is not very common. Most common perhaps is to apply to the flesh side repeatedly, or as finely ground material left on the flesh side.
Is the book done yet ?
No, don't hold your breath waiting on that :)
Thanks for such a great info download! Half of learning off the interwebs is finding out where to look for the info. I did buy the Richards book quite a few years ago, too bad about the two books competing with each other, sounds like some hard feelings resulted.
I'd be interested to understand more about the issues with bucking with ashes, specifically. I have dissolved a hide completely once! Whoopsy. But I left it for weeks, and weeks. I'm attracted to tanning, but I keep doing this lame thing where I start a hide and then never finish. I think I've got too many competing demands on my time, and hide tanning gets the shaft. I'm so impressed with how far you've gone down this rabbithole.
Rawhide stuff is probably the most productive direction for me to play with. Along the lines of the handle protector etc.
I don't think fear like that is a good motivator to act on, but I'm always in for the long game and concentrate and being who I want to be and not worrying overly much about other people doing what they do, or about their motivations. While I wouldn't use the same marketing tactics personally, Matt's success is largely from hard work and his book is good. There are a lot of converts to his methods, but I've also met a lot of people that tried it and went back to soaking in water. That could partly be due to the messiness of ashes and removing them after, and the difficulty of sourcing them, along with inconsistent results. I did hear of a couple people using lime, but it just seems like almost everyone is in love with KOH now and that's what Matt recommends for ease and consistency. It doesn't interest me, because I can't make it, or if I can, I'm sure it's not easy. If I can't make it, or gather it, it doesn't qualify as meet my criteria for a tanning material. If I designed a qualification for a natural traditional leather certification, it would not include KOH, but it would include lime and ashes. I cut out the whole spiel on ashes being a combination of calicum, sodium and potassium hydroxides and carbonates, which varies with species and burn temp, and no doubt by location etc. It is very complicated and highly variable, as well as immeasurable by mere mortals. You may have seen an article on temperature effect on ash mass and composition in your research on ash as a pozzolan. It's easy to find. Over certain temps conversion from carbonates to oxides can happen. For instance, Calcium hydroxide goes up and eventually total potassium content actually goes down. I've had a hide be completely ruined in ash solution overnight, even when the egg was not floating as high as matt recommends. Probably high in Sodium Hydroxide is the only thing I can think of. I think that is very rare, but anyway, it's inconsistent, especially when you add the age and storage condition of the ashes on top of all those other factors. I can't imagine that people have that much inconsistency using lime, but they don't seem to like it as much as KOH. I think partly because it's harder to get out of the hide, but I'm not really up on all that. I've heard of a few braintanners now using drenching and bating. eventually more and more people will start thinking outside the box and combining tanning traditions and different tans. That is how traditional tanning really is. Mel Beatty thinks that bucking weakens the hides. I've never seen hides nicer than his. Equal, but not nicer for solidity and feel combined. He is a true artisan of braintanning with unwavering enthusiasm. He just loves braintanning hides. He has some new ideas about removing what Matt calls ground substance, without bucking, essentially scudding it looks like. If you read through his stuff on braintanbuckskin.com he talks about it. He also posts quite a bit on his facebook page. I honestly have not thought a lot about braintaning since finishing the book and have not done all that much of it. Seriously, I procrastinate tanning projects all the time. I've ruined countless hides lol. I learned a lot doing that though, ironically enough.
Yeah, I know all about the highly variable nature of wood ashes. I mess with them a lot with nixtamalization of corn, and it seems like every batch I sift I have to do a test batch to figure out how strong it is to get the normal results. Definitely easy to see why folks use cal instead, its so consistent, even though I feel like ash nixtamalized corn is nutritionally superior due to the additional micronutrient minerals it has (nuance).
I've also been messing with wood ash lye with my Homebrew Geopolymer experiments, trying to use them for activating the pozzolan instead of using commercial sodium hydroxide. It definitely works, but it ends up being a process where its an art vs a science because you can't just use a set recipe, you have to adjust for the individuality of your alkali due to all those factors, mineral content of the wood, heat of fire, length of storage etc.
Can't you also just use the ash as the pozzolan? or is another mineral required.
The pozzolan is the other side of the equation, you combine the pozzolan (mostly alumina and silicates or both) with the calcium/potassium/sodium hydroxides from the ash to make the cement/geopolymer. At least in theory. So I'm trying to figure out a homebrew method of turning my clay into pozzolan ( using something like your lime kiln, which is how I found you in the first place) and combining it wish ashes or leached wood ash lye to create the geopolymer binder/cement and then using that combined with aggregate to form some sort of homebrew low-tech geopolymer concrete sort of thing. Almost certainly not for stuff like poured shapes like purchased Sakcrete or something, but maybe for making like poured in place bricks or blocks? The idea being a way you could make a brick with farm produced materials using less energy than a traditional kiln fired brick would take, that would hopefully be as or more durable. Its been fun to play with, but you might notice I've never produced a video about it, I've never gotten any farther than little test bricks.
I found out that there is a source of pozzolan near here, but I haven't been to check it out. It was a commercial mine though. I can't remember what it is, possibly volcanic as it's in a volcanic area, but there is also diatomaceous earth around there.
Have you released the new book yet?
No.
For buckskin, would you recommend a complete beginner start with dry scrape or wet?
either with good instruction or a good book.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge so generously. I would like to buy your book when reprinted, not to hassle you, but thought I would ask if you have an eta, no pressure if not. If I bought one of your previous editions, is there much difference in the content of your originally (technical) titled version and the "ancient art" version? Thank you also for sharing the free tanning books online.
They are not much different and at this point I've pretty much decided to leave it as is and reprint it. If I start doing revisions it's not going to get done and it will be changed too much. I'll want to change style and all kinds of stuff once I start. Hopefully it will be out by spring.
Any risk of prion disease from chewing on brain tanning? I heard was traditionally chewed to soften.
I don't know any braintanner, or other tanner that chews on skins. If it was every done, it wasn't probably very common.
@@SkillCult myth maybe. www.mman.us/mythsleathersoftening.htm
Funny they are myth busting, since it sounds like they don't really know what they are talking about lol. But I think they are probably right. There maybe have been a place for saliva or chewing, but it so, it's not common in old braintanning accounts if it's there at all.
Maybe a footnote for a future book edition if you find enough references
This book is selling for $300 on eBay used. For the updated copy on Amazon it’s $345 used. Hallelujah, I just found someone who didn’t know what they had and got it and two other tanning books for $60!
Cool :)
Thanks Steven. I've been interested in leathers for quite a while but I havent hunted in over 20 years. I'm going to try to harvest a few squirrels this summer and start practicing. Found your book on Amazon but it's still in the mail--does it cover doing any pelts/hair on hides or is it strictly traditional buckskin?
I have a short chapter on tanning deer skins with the hair on, but not a lot. There are other resources and videos though. Definitely take a look at the free downloads for info on fur skinning handling, fleshing etc. That will help a lot. Also, just accumulating general tanning knowledge..
Thanks for the reply, I'll definitely check your website before I do anything. That was my hope in getting the book. I really don't think I'd like jumping straight into buckskin but I have everything to learn in the process after the skin is off.
It contains a lot of good general tanning info too. I'm never sure what book or source to recommend the most for tanning furs.
I really don't want to be one of those needy video request people. BUT if at any point you were to do a fur tanning video I'd watch the shit out of it. Just throwing that out there :)
You and everyone else lol. I"ll think about it, but I honestly lack the motivation. Furs are tricky and it's a big subject. people try to make it sound simple, but then shit starts going wrong. It's easier if you use alum, but handling up to that point, fleshing and membraning, dealing with different species all are important. And, living in a fairly salubrious climate, I don't do a lot of fur tanning or think about it much. Everyone else is fascinated by it though.
"i would recommend my book more." hahahahah tru
",, can you spare some change so I can buy a book?"
Admirable,,, really,,, but,, not sure I can resist making up a hippie-character, holding a sign
"will do brainjobs for change"
I keep getting more interested in tanning, and leatherworks, but I don't have any critters I can legally flail into something useful (except maybe a pouch for holding birch bark, tanned with birch tar, from rodents,, maybe some birds). If anything, it would have to be a domestic livestock like cow, pig, or sheep,, or in self-defense against a moose (very, very unlikely to be an issue), but I am not sure if it would be legal to utilize even then.
Will your book by any chance be covering methods that are good for conventional livestock?
for sure. The same methods generally apply. cattle hide can't hardly be beat for density and quality. goat is excellent. Sheep, meh, but depends on the breed and the wool is cool. Squirrels often have excellent skin, depends on the species.
Squirrels! Of course,, at least for starters. Pretty strict laws regarding livestock (as in, can't just ask a farmer. They're obliged to ship the animals to the slaughterhouse) Thanks!
Wow, it sounds like it sucks there. At least you can cut down trees and burn stuff. Go to the slaughterhouse I guess.
If I end up having fun with the squirrel, yep, I'll probably do just that :)
Unless you have some thin skinned sissy squirrels, they are absolutely perfect for learning to tan. The skin is excellent with the hair off and the hair on is great too. They are easy to source, usually abundant and mercifully small, which makes learning mistakes not a big deal. I'm forever recommending squirrels to learn on. They're tasty too.
You can get almost any used book from BookFinder.com. They have the Sioux book: goo.gl/TQe9Ff
Ill try that sometime. Ive used Alibris, which I think is similar.