Living primitive?

[longshot]

Earthpeace

I think a cow hide may be too thick to tan hair on with tannins. It needs so long soaking time that the hair will slip. But it should still make excellent leather though.

I have tanned very little, but alder is said to produce the softest leather, while oak the hardest. With a weasel pelt (alder tan) and a roe deer hide (braintan, wet scrape) as my only real tanning experience, I would crossreference a little.

What you need to tan hair on primitively is probably to use the braintan, dry scrape technique. That will thin it too. Never tried dry scraping, but there are some books on the subject.

slightly OT appologizies
torjusg, do you have any recepies for veg tanning, especially using alder as i have tonnes of the stuff.

thanks
dean

 

[torjusg]

slightly OT appologizies
torjusg, do you have any recepies for veg tanning, especially using alder as i have tonnes of the stuff.

thanks
dean

On the weasel pelt I soaked the pelt in a mixture of chopped up alder bark and water for perhaps a week (doesn't really remember). It seems like predators (or maybe fur animals in general) hold better to their hairs than herbivores. The saami used to apply the solution to the flesh side only, to prevent slippage of the hairs. That probably only works with thin skins, like reindeer.

For thick hair off hides, just soak it in a container with water and bark. Equal weight of bark and hide they say. Remove the hairs first (by soaking a week or so before), otherwise they will also soak up some tannin. Leave the hide in the solution for a couple of months.

 

[longshot]

thank you

much appreciated.

dean

 

[Earthpeace]

torjusg Thanks for the info.

Sheep skin rugs ( alum tawed) I sell these at local fairs.

 

[longshot]

earthpeace,

those are lovely man.

dean

 

[bushman762]

Hi all,
Attached are a few links to pics of making sausages at home...

Not particularly bushcrafty, but certainly useful! I made these today!

Preparation

Bag of Pork

Pork diced to feed the mincer

First mincing

Minced twice

Stuffing sausages

Finished Product...alsmost 9lb of Homemade Sausages...Hmm!

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I will enjoy the BBQ!

Best Regards,

 

[Snufkin]

nice looking bangers, where they from your own pigs?

 

[bushman762]

Hi Snufkin,

I have reared my own pigs in the past..saddlebacks, gloucestershire old spots, and Landrace / Duroc cross, all reared in arks in the garden, but these sausages were just made from commercially available pork.

 

[Tony]

HI bushman, I hope you don't mind but I changed the tags on your pictures so they'd display

Nice looking bangers

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Im hungery again now

 

[Earthpeace]

Nice photos bushman762 very clean.

Getting back to the subject, I was thinking how did the cave people in Perigord in France get on. I don't think they were nomadic, they lived in the caves all year long.
I think they were the only cave people in France. May be wrong

 

[torjusg]

Nice photos bushman762 very clean.

Getting back to the subject, I was thinking how did the cave people in Perigord in France get on. I don't think they were nomadic, they lived in the caves all year long.
I think they were the only cave people in France. May be wrong

They may or may not have been semi-nomadic. With the wast herds of reindeer and other large ungulates that crossed the tundra of Europe, people residing along important migratory routes probably could stock up food for a long time during the various seasonal migrations. Because of that, they may very well have lived in permanent settlements.

That changed in the Mesolithic though. A more forested landscape no longer supported the big herds the tundra and steppe could. Much more of the biomass became tied up in vegetation. Smaller animals became more important and as forest animals tend to be more bound to one area, they had to move once they had depleted the game-stock of an area.

The Paleolithic environment is no longer relevant, except a very few places in the far north. Today we are in essence living in a badly degraded Mesolithic environment.

 

[bushman762]

What no more pics? I would like to see more of the horses being worked and also the firewood being split with the tractor and log splitter, thanks...in fact any pics of things done in a style of yesteryear!

Best Regards,

 

[bushman762]

Nice one! Is the llama kept for meat? is there much demand for them?

what price is firewood in France? I have been cutting some fallen timber myself, but having to split it with a maul, but thats much easier then with the axe I used to use!

Firewood at rear of house 2006

We tend to have to buy firewood by the bag (fertiliser bag) and there can be a huge difference in weight between different suppliers! I like the way most countries sell it by the cord much fairer method!

Best Regards,

 

[Simon E]

I bet you a pint of the black stuff you spent a good 30 minutes out there admiring your handywork when it was all done and the missus brought you a big mug of tea and gave you a pat on the back.

was I close?

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

I want an Alpaca, but the landlord says NO !!!

 

[Snufkin]

I bet you a pint of the black stuff you spent a good 30 minutes out there admiring your handywork when it was all done and the missus brought you a big mug of tea and gave you a pat on the back.

was I close?

The wife of a mate actually caught him sneaking out with a spirit level to check on his woodpile

 

[Earthpeace]

bushman762 Yes you can eat llama it taste's like mutton ( although I have not tried it myself), We have only started breeding them this year so we will not know how well they will sell until next year. We hope to use them for meat and milk ( taste like marshmellows). The Inca used them for to carry heavy loads, tallow for candles, meat, milk, hide rug or leather, sinew and dried there dung for fuel plus it is the best you can get for the garden, you can put it straight on the plants it does not burn the plant like other manure.

We sell our fire wood the local going price, which is 30Euro ( £20 ) a metre square of hardwood. We used to split by hand but after doing 24 metre square just for one year wood for us, its a bit differant.


Spikey DaPikey I don't see why your landlord should say no, they are very quite and clean animals.

 

[Simon E]

The wife of a mate actually caught him sneeking out with a spirit level to check on his woodpile

Sounds like my dad!

 

[Snufkin]

Sounds like my dad!

Found a pic I took of his wood pile (He couldn't bring himself to burn it and it was still there a year later).