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[m38mike]

I used your buffalo hide kit last fall on a young bull hide and it worked great!  I had a really dirty hide to start with.  I used your advice and soaked it twice in Dawn dishwashing soap, one day for each soak.  In between soakings I sprayed it down with the garden hose to loosen and remove as much dirt as I could.  I draped it over a tall saw-horse each time I took it out of the stock tank.  I made a stretching frame out of 2x4s that measured 8'x10', and tied the hide in that.  Then I pasted it.  I left the alum paste on for 7 days, then oiled it.  I let it dry for 1 day, then oiled it again.  I let it dry for about a week before I sanded it.  Hand sanding was hard and tedious, so I put a flapper-disc on my 4.5" grinder and went after it.  That made it much easier to sand that large of a hide, but I had to be very careful not to use too much pressure.  That sanding disc really cut into the leather.  I draped the hide over a 2x8 and worked on one section at a time. 

Now I have a beautiful white-leather hide with thick clean hair on the top side.  Between the sanding and the oiling the hide is now very flexible, almost like a cloth blanket.  It makes a very comfortable robe. 

I'm now working on a second buffalo hide.  This one we shaved all the hair off it to make wool yarn with.  That and a buffalo hair rope.  We'll see how those turn out.  The clippers we used left about 1/4" of wool on the hide.  Can you recommend a good way, besides soaking the hide in Lime, to get the wool off? 

Do you ever have any buffalo wool that you have removed from hides?  Could we get some from you?  Thanks.

Mike

[The Tanner]

First, it's always nice to hear someone have a good result.

Next, even though it is mostly under-wool, there are still hair follicles that need to be dissolved.  The lime is the best option for dissolving the follicles.

[m38mike]

On the buffalo hide I'm working on now, I've already applied the alum paste to the meat-side of the hide.  It still has the 1/4" wool on it.  If I go ahead and let the paste cure for 7 days, then soak it in lime to remove the hair, will I wash out the alum tan? 

I was hoping there would be an easy way to remove the wool without soaking it in lime.  I guess I needed to get the wool off BEFORE I started tanning the hide.  I did try scraping the hide with a razor to see how that would work.  I got an area about 4"x6" scraped and the blade was dull.  At that rate it'll take me hundreds of razor blades and about 2 years to finish cleaning that hide.  Gotta be a better way.

[The Tanner]

Yes, you need to remove the hair before applying the tanning paste.  Soaking it with the lime solution now will wash out the tan.

Many drum makers use the razor method but they are doing an area about one square foot.  It is very time consuming.  The lime is the best method for the larger animals.