Making Rawhide

[bigcountry]

Well, I figured out what happens when you don't demembrane after rinsing.  

One on the right is membraned after rinsing
 

One on the right is not membraned at all and one on the left is half way scraped of the membrane after rinsing.  I just had a tough time getting it all off.
 

[bigcountry]

Even though, should get a few rawhide strips from em.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

you can always make dog chews out of the stuff that didn't turn out right if'n you got a pooch.

 Stiks

[Osagetree]

That's hard core!  

[Pat B]

Those should work fine for backing. Be sure you cut your backing strips from head to tail and not across the hide. Any hide stretches more across the hade than along the hide. The irregularity of the colors in your rawhide will make an interesting camo pattern on the back of your bow. Some of it will be transparent and some translucent and the combo makes for cool camo.

[John Scifres]

Cool.  I like your fur shack  

I never did anything other than slip the hair and stretch and dry rawhide.  I thought that's what made it "raw".  It works fine.  I haven't made any for years since one hide makes a lot of backings.  Now if you want a nice soft tanned hide, the membrane has to come off.

[bigcountry]

Originally posted by John Scifres:
Cool.  I like your fur shack    

I never did anything other than slip the hair and stretch and dry rawhide.  I thought that's what made it "raw".  It works fine.  I haven't made any for years since one hide makes a lot of backings.  Now if you want a nice soft tanned hide, the membrane has to come off.

My original plan was to braintan two of em.  But I need some backing, strips.  Thanks

[ChristopherO]

Sandpapering the flesh side when dry will take care of the rough membraine before gluing it to the back of a bow.  
That's a lot better than thinning dog chews!

[camoman]

Thats some hard work you are doing there. I did one a couple months ago. Almost wore me out. Make sure you work it until its dry on the last stage. I stopped when I figured it was close enough and the hide got stiff again. Good luck to you.

[bigcountry]

Originally posted by camoman:
Thats some hard work you are doing there. I did one a couple months ago. Almost wore me out. Make sure you work it until its dry on the last stage. I stopped when I figured it was close enough and the hide got stiff again. Good luck to you.

Honestly, it was alot more work than I thought it would be.  Next time, I think it will be easy to work with just one hide, not 3-4.  Second, doign this in 10F temps is not fun.  Would have been alot easier in the spring or early summer.

[bigcountry]

Originally posted by ChristopherO:
Sandpapering the flesh side when dry will take care of the rough membraine before gluing it to the back of a bow.  
That's a lot better than thinning dog chews!

I cut that one with all the membrane into strips and found out this.  I took it to my belt sander, because it was alot thicker than the rest, and came right off.