On 2011-06-23, Ed Huntress wrote:
The idea sounds good in theory, but proper leather making probably
involves some disgusting processes.

i

There are some that are less disgusting than others. g The _Boy's Life_
pattern may have just involved drying the skin, or drying it in borax. I
don't recall. You don't need much flexibility. I've done that with small
animals when I was a kid. It's also the way I preserve squirrel tails for
making streamer flies.

BTW, they have _Boy's Life_ on microform at the Naperville Public Library,
but only back to 1980. I'll be in DC this weekend. I'll be busy, but I'll
see what I can do.

Sounds interesting.

Also BTW, if you want to know about a REALLY disgusting way to make leather,
I have an American Indian recipe recorded in an Ernest Thompson Seton book
from the 1920s. It involved cooking and mashing the brains and liver and
smearing them on the skin, then rolling it up and burying it underground for
a couple of weeks. If I recall correctly, it makes the hair fall off, so
it's for leather only.


Exactly what I meant. This is pretty much the standadr approach.

Doubtfully a raccooon has enough brains to smear no his own skin.

i