Re: Ctrl+V
MANY a man has suffered untold privations, and many more have lost their lives, while surrounded with food and
all the necessities of life, merely through ignorance of the woods and wild life, or through inability to wrest a
livelihood from nature.
There are few places in the north where a man can not manage to exist for months when deprived of every aid of
civilization, provided he is skilled in woodcraft, possesses self reliance and determines not to be beaten. Of course
no one goes into the woods or to camp expecting to be stranded without food, garments or the ordinary necessities
of life, but an upset canoe, a fire, or any one of a dozen other accidents, may leave a camper in such a plight and
for that reason one should ever be prepared for any eventuality. Not only should you know how to find your way,
how to signal and follow a trail, how to build a fire without matches and how to make a good camp, but in addition,
you should be capable of getting a living from the woods and streams; you should know how to trap and fish, how to
tan skins and how to make rude but warm and serviceable garments from the hides of the creatures you kill.
A man or boy who is really skilled in woodcraft should be able to go into the wilderness with nothing but the
garments he wears, a knife and his brains and yet live safely, even in comparative comfort, for at least a year.
Several men and a few women have done more than this and have entered the forest naked and without a single
tool, implement or appliance of any sort and yet have lived for months and have come forth to civilization, well,
strong, clad in warm garments and armed with effective weapons.
Few men are proficient enough to accomplish such feats, however, and seldom will it be necessary under ordinary
conditions; but the more you can rely upon yourself and the more capable you are of winning a livelihood from the
woods the more you will enjoy your camping experiences and the less will be the chances of any serious casualty
occurring.
Even if you are not obliged to use the skins of animals for garments or footwear they may often be used to good
advantage when camping out and every camper should learn how to tan hides and skins and how to make
moccasins.
Of course, if you merely wish to preserve the skins of any creatures you catch or kill, it is only necessary to skin the
animals and dry the hides in the shade, for they can be sent to a tannery to be tanned and made into rugs, etc.,
when you return to the city. But it is much more satisfactory to tan your own skins, and by so doing you will have
added to your knowledge of woodcraft, for woodcraft in its broadest sense should always include the ability to wrest
a livelihood, and make oneself comfortable, in the woods.
For ordinary use the easiest and simplest way to skin any animal is to cut a straight line down the under side from
chin to tail, with connecting incisions extending from this line to the sole of each of the four feet, and then peel off
the skin. If the hide is intended for a rug or a trophy the feet and head should be carefully skinned and the claws
and lips left on the hide. The skull should then be separated from the neck, carefully cleaned and scraped and
dried so that, later on, it may be used in preparing the hide with mounted head.
The skin should then be stretched smoothly on a door, board or wall, with the skin side out, — or it may be
stretched on a frame of poles lashed together, — and should be rubbed with a mixture of salt and alum, after which
it should be dried in the shade. If the skins are valuable and are to be sold or used as furs they should be "cased.''
In other words, one incision should be made from the sole of one hind foot down the inside of the leg, and across
the abdomen and up the other hind leg to the foot. The body should then be removed through this cut, turning the
skin inside out like a glove, and the skin should be slipped (still inside out) over a board or shingle whittled down to
the proper size to fit the skin snugly and of somewhat tapered, oblong form. After the hide is stretched on the board
it should be hung in the shade to dry without anything being rubbed upon it. On the other hand, if you expect to tan
your skins and wish them soft and pliable you should be prepared to use plenty of time and elbow grease, for the
secret of tanning a skin soft is to roll, rub, beat, work and scrape it while drying until thoroughly soft and pliable.
There are many different ways of tanning skins and every tanner has his own favorite, — and often secret, —
methods and liquors, but a skin may be tanned by merely rubbing with brains, grease or butter and working and
rubbing until soft. This is a favorite Indian method which is followed by smoking, but it is far easier to use chemicals
of some sort. The old fashioned alum, salt and salt-peter solution; the improved liquor of salt, alum and sulphuric
acid and the various extracts of oak, sumac, mangrove, etc., are all good; but they all require care and time and a
bulky supply of chemicals or liquor. Quite recently I accidentally discovered an entirely new and far better process.
This consists of simply soaking the raw, freshly removed skin in a 10% to 15% solution of formalin. This will
thoroughly tan a small deer skin in twelve hours and all fat, grease, bits of flesh, etc., may easily be removed after
soaking. As soon as the skin turns white and leathery, rinse and wash it thoroughly in fresh water; let it drain;
scrape and pull off the bits of meat and grease; work the skin dry by stretching first one way and then another by
rolling and beating, and you will have a beautifully soft, kid-like piece of leather. If you do not wish to spend the time
and labor to work the hide dry you can let it dry flat and will have no difficulty in making it flexible by working it and
pounding it afterwards.
Even old dried skins may be tanned to perfection in this way if first softened by soaking in water. Moreover, skins
tanned in this way are quite free from attacks by moths and other pests; they never become stiff or hard from
wetting, and the method is equally good for hides with the hair on or with the hair removed. As a small bottle of full
strength formalin will make enough solution to tan a large number of good sized skins, one may always go prepared
to tan any hides obtained.
If you should wish to tan skins without the hair on you must first remove the hair by soaking the fresh skins in a
solution of wood ashes and water, or by burying them in mud for a few hours. As soon as the hair starts to come
away, rinse the skins in fresh water, lay them over a log or rounded beam and with a smooth-edged piece of
hardwood, or the back of a large knife, scrape off all the hair. Then wash and tan as described.
Of course many skins obtained by hunting or trapping are useless for garments or footwear, but there are many
others which make excellent leggings, pouches, belts and moccasins. Deer and woodchuck, all the carnivorous
animals, and squirrels, have tough skins which make strong leather, but only the larger species furnish enough
leather to make moccasins or garments of any sort, unless a number of skins are sewed together. If you ever find
yourself in such a predicament that it is necessary to fashion skin garments you will have to use your own ingenuity
and get along as best you may, for it is impossible to describe the method of making clothing from skins in a volume
of this size.
On the other hand, it is a very different matter to make moccasins and as these are the easiest and most useful of
footgear for the woods I advise every camper to practice until proficient in the art of making moccasins for himself.
It's far cheaper and more satisfactory than buying them, even if you have to purchase the leather or buckskin, and
are not fortunate enough to have hides obtained and tanned by your own hands.
Among the Indians, every tribe had its own distinctive form of moccasin, but many of these were so similar that they
were scarcely more than variations of a common type. To describe them all would require a treatise, but there are
three distinct types which are all good and are easily made and each of which is best adapted to certain localities
and purposes. For convenience these may be called the Algonquin Moccasin, the Sioux Moccasin and the
Seminole Moccasin, for the three forms were distinctive of these tribes, although other tribes used moccasins of
very similar appearance and construction.
As these three nations lived in widely separated parts of the country, and under very different conditions, the three
types of moccasins offer a choice of footgear suited to almost any portion of the United States and to almost any
purpose, for you may be sure the Red man, through countless ages of primitive life and experience, has evolved
the moccasin best adapted to his surroundings and purposes.
Thus the Algonquin moccasin is soft and flexible and is high cut and is specially adapted to use in the woods and in
canoes, for trailing and stalking game and, if well made, is almost waterproof except by long immersion and is warm
in winter or cool in summer, depending upon whether it is made of thin or thick hide, or of hide with or without hair
left on it.
The Sioux moccasin, on the other hand, is low cut with a stout hard sole and is just the sort of footgear one would
expect to find among a race inhabiting the plains and mountains of the west, where sharp pebbles, sand and rough
rocks necessitate a protection for the soles of the wearer's feet, but where silent stalking in forests, the use of
canoes and the necessity of waterproof moccasins are unknown.
Very different from either of the above are the moccasins of the Seminoles, a tribe whose hunting grounds and
homes were the deep swamps and everglades of Florida ; a tribe whose journeys were nearly all made by dug-out
canoes and where cold winters were unknown. To make moccasins which would remain dry after continual soaking
in the Florida swamps was impossible; the only requisite was protection for the feet. Warmth was unnecessary, and,
as a result, the Seminoles evolved moccasins of thin, soft leather; high cut and close fitting as a glove; in effect, an
extra thickness of skin to guard against thorns, sawgrass, insect and snake bites; but not intended to withstand long
tramping nor to keep the feet dry.
For the white man, however, either or all of these three types of moccasins will be found useful. The Algonquin is
very neat, it is comfortable and is simple to make; the Sioux requires more time in making, but has the advantage of
a thick sole to protect your feet, while the Seminole is made from a single piece of leather; it may be made without
tools of any sort, other than a knife, and it is the simplest of all. An Indian can make a pair of Seminole moccasins in
less than half an hour, but you will find a great deal of practice necessary before you can make a pair readily and
quickly and yet secure a good fit.
Re: Rogues...and Soldiers...and Assassins...and...Gallery (Dark Champions Art) High skill negates penalties, I guess. Rule of Cool and all that. Edit: i'll be back to scouring for pictures in the near future. However...anyone can contribute!