the main steps to making buckskin are?:
fleshing the flesh side
soaking in a base to make the hair slip
fleshing the hair "pores" off after the hair is removed
pickling the skin in an acid
neutralizing the skin
tan the skin
dry, oil, and work the skin till soft
are these the correct sequence of steps? and if so, can I add food coloring to the tan to make different colors?
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Yeah, that's pretty much it for making leather- except you need to delime your hide and bate to replace enzymes lost in the liming
after the hair is removed. You can do this in one step.
Also, you don't want to dry the skin before you oil it. After removing from the tan, rinse in cold water and let it drain for about half hour. Then oil, begin drying and working it.
Good luck and let me know how this turns out. I have made a few pieces of leather, and they all seem to get "dirty" looking on the grain side. Seems like that grain side will absorb any amount of dirt it touches or something. Maybe someone has some input on this phenomenom.
Mike
Thanks for the help! one more question though, are there any house hold products that will delime and bate? Or do you have to get the chemicals from suppliers
Purvis,
Vinegar can be used as a delimer, however I don't think there are any household products that can be used as a bate. From what I understand, there are two kinds of bates- an enzyme bate that works on the akaline side- used after (or during) deliming, and then an acid bate which is used on the low ph side during the pickle. Don't get these confused! I have used the enzyme deliming bate many times-it's called Oropon and it's realitively inexpensive. The other bate has been developed by Bruce Rittel and I have just tried. It's supposed to produce a much softer skin. It's also not too expensive either.
Good luck purvis!
Michael