All you have to do is go to the pet food isle and buy yourself a nice doggy chew bone. These bones are made of rolled up beef rawhide. Pictured below: Small chew bone.
To make the rawhide usable for your purposes just soak the bone in a tub of water over night. Pictured below: Chew bone soaking in water.
The next morning it will be soft and pliable. Untie the knots in the ends and unroll the wet rawhide. You won't have a big sheet of hide like if you made your own, and it won't have that nice brown color, but it is big enough to cut into thongs for attaching an axe head or a spear point. Pictured below: top, Chew bone just removed from water; bottom, this chew bone was made of two small pieces of rawhide.
Use small nails to stretch the rawhide out on a board and let it dry for a day or two. I'm going to use these pieces of rawhide to make a neck-knife sheath. Pictured below: Chew bone rawhide stretched out to dry along with the knife that I will be making a sheath for.
I have also seen some pretty nice bullet pouches made out of chew bone rawhide. This type of rawhide is not good for making bowstrings and other small cordage. It is too thick, and it doesn't seem as strong as deer rawhide. But, maybe this will help you get a few smaller projects done until you can make some of your own rawhide.
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1 comment:
I know this trick. Different size bones will net you different size sheets and pieces of rawhide. There is a point of diminishing returns though. They stuff chopped bits and pieces into the core of these 'bones.' There is so much scrap in the biggest that they are not worth the cost. bigger medium bones I have found the best. Besides the main outer sheath wrap, I generally find a couple or three smaller but usable pieces making these options the most profitable. I came to this page because I am about to make my first rawhide sheath.
One thing you want to do is to seal the sheath when you're finished otherwise the rawhide will still be liable to change if got wet. Try something like ye olde spar varnish (not spar urethane). A blend of blo (Boiled Linseed Oil) and paste wax will rub on/in very nicely. Mind, you'll want to treat both sides of the rawhide so it's best to do it before assembly of your project pieces.
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