silk purse out of a sows ear

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bloodline

Settler
Feb 18, 2005
586
2
65
England
There s an old saying " That you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear" did pigs ears used to be used to make purses and pouches. The size of some sows is pretty impressive and when butchered needs to be quartered like beef. The pigs ive seen that are not slaughtered grow to a great size ears included and as nothing was wasted was this an easy way to make a purse?
 

jdlenton

Full Member
Dec 14, 2004
3,002
7
50
Northampton
I don’t see why not. I have a pouch that the aboriginals in Australia used and that’s made out of male kangaroos dangly bits!!!!! A Pigs ear wouldn't look like much, I guess that’s where the saying comes from but it would be practical and you could keep really fine things in it as it would not have a seam the pouch I have was also used buy the gold prospectors in Oz for this very reason there gold powder could not escape through the seam.

James
 

ilovemybed

Settler
Jul 18, 2005
564
6
43
Prague
Kangaroo "pouches" are very soft indeed. Mmmmmm soft!
Not sure how other animals compare. Anyone had any experience? ;)
 

torjusg

Native
Aug 10, 2005
1,246
21
41
Telemark, Norway
livingprimitively.com
jdlenton said:
I don’t see why not. I have a pouch that the aboriginals in Australia used and that’s made out of male kangaroos dangly bits!!!!! A Pigs ear wouldn't look like much, I guess that’s where the saying comes from but it would be practical and you could keep really fine things in it as it would not have a seam the pouch I have was also used buy the gold prospectors in Oz for this very reason there gold powder could not escape through the seam.

James

Maybe sex-change clinics could offer a lot of cheap raw materials. On the downside, maybe thay shave them before the operation. If you want hair on tan that is. :lmao:

BorderRiever

In Norway at least, they used the penile bones (little chance of impotence there by the way) of bears as crochet hooks. A real man was supposed to give his bride to be a crochet hook of a bear he had killed himself.

Don't really know if the dangly bits of males were used (probably were by some), but the dangly bits on females (mostly teats of cows) were used as tinder pouches.

Torjus Gaaren
 

Buckshot

Mod
Mod
Jan 19, 2004
6,466
349
Oxford
Ears are basically 2 bits of skin with nothing in between so it would be a little like opening up a kebab ready to stuff it with food.

Sounds fairly easy. :rolleyes:

The only pigs ears I see nowerdays is the ones you give to the dogs as chews.

Mark
 

tomtom

Full Member
Dec 9, 2003
4,283
5
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Sunny South Devon
the skin is pretty stiff.. it was deem that there was not much use for the saying suggests making something essential useless and not very attractive in to something soft beautiful and useful.. its due to their tough tecture they are general given to dogs to eat.
 

BorderReiver

Full Member
Mar 31, 2004
2,693
16
Norfolk U.K.
fa11en ange1 said:
Strictly speaking the phrase is wrong, as it has been proven that you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, as shown HERE. :D

Admittedly not a very practicle process but still possible and also makes a good point of don't just take someone else's word for it.

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

I liked that :cool: Thanks. :)
 

pierre girard

Need to contact Admin...
Dec 28, 2005
1,018
16
71
Hunter Lake, MN USA
BorderReiver said:
The dangly bits of other animals should be the same.

Any record of their use in europe?

At the risk of being grotesque, a friend of mine has a rather ancient pouch said to be made from a Sioux scrotum. Seems to work quite well. A relation has a knife sheath quite obviously made from human skin, unknown which tribe. Very nicely tanned. 18th and 19th century Indian wars stuff.

PG
 

shona

Tenderfoot
Sep 10, 2004
88
0
Scotland
Buckshot said:
Ears are basically 2 bits of skin with nothing in between so it would be a little like opening up a kebab ready to stuff it with food.

Buckshot - some of us like to think we have something between our ears.....!

Sorry , couldn't resist that one :lmao:


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