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Smoking

Hide smoking. The beige color is due solely to smoke penetration (bleeding through from the inside).

For speed and simplicity, I used the gluing method pioneered by Matt Richards and detailed in his book, 'Deerskins into Buckskins' to close the hide bag. Quick to do and air-tight. The glued seam forced the smoke to penetrate the fibers of the dermis instead of just venting out through gaps in the stitching. With just minutes on the smoke, color started to bleed through to the outside. particularly at the flanks. Ten minutes into the smoking and the entire outside of the bag was a light beige color, the inside being only slightly darker. It took about twenty minutes before I got a color I could live with.

Last Impressions

I have been told that goat and antelope skins are approximately the same thickness but, to my thinking, antelopes are an exotic to the overwhelming majority of tanners: most will never see an antelope let alone have the opportunity to make buckskin out of one. Goats, on the other hand, are plentiful and available nationwide. Both make great warm weather clothing.

For teaching, goatskin seems ideal. Being so thin. it dries quickly yet not so fast that you can not keep up with it, and the grain is easily differentiated from the dermis by its color and chicken skin texture. And because it is available during the spring and summer, not only does it cut down on the need to store a year's supply of deerskin, but it cuts short the frantic race to get all of your hides during a brief hunting season. Overall, goats would seem to be a great untapped resource for the brain tanners of the world.

The finished goatskin buckskin

For more information on goats contact: The American Meat Goat Assoc., POB 498 Mertzon, TX 76941

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