How To Make Your Own Rawhide

Domestic sheep and goat hides can be used for drum heads, but will produce a very thin skin and are easy to tear. They also wear out faster and produce a very high pitched drum.

Pig is extremely thick, much more difficult to work with, and harder to de-hair but works well where extra strength is needed and can be substituted for moose or buffalo for moccasin soles and works well for heavy pack bags.

Bear is also more difficult for the novice to work with and will require a lot of scraping to remove excess fatty tissue. You probably wouldn't want to waste a bearskin for rawhide, anyway.

The skins from male animals are usually thicker than the females. Elk is generally the preferred hide for making quality Drums producing a head with a rich but mellow sound, but deer hide is often used, particularly for women's hand drums.

Goat hides are an acceptable substitute and will probably be more readily available. They are a bit thinner than deer but are often used as a cheaper substitute by commercial drum producers.

However, goatskin drums won't give you as rich a sound and it's easy to tear them when lacing your drum if you stretch them too tight or cut your lacing holes too close to the edge.

Cow hide would most closely compare to elk, but is slightly thicker. Horse hide would be similar to buffalo, although just a bit thinner.

Prepared rawhide can be purchased. However, it usually comes in large sheets and can be quite expensive. Making your own rawhide is easier than tanning a hide, and quite inexpensive.

Usually the cost for materials needed for a large hide are under $30.00 to $100.00, while a similar hide purchased from a outlet will run around $50.00 to $300.00, depending on the animal, the size of the hide and supply in your area.

The hard part that requires some elbow grease is scraping all visible fat from the under surface of the hide. There are commercial tools for this.

Careful skinning can greatly reduce this chore. Stretch the raw hide out the best you can on a flat surface and stake it down. You can do this outdoors on the ground, or nail it to a piece of plywood or a wall in your garage.

Remove as much of the visible fat and meat as you can, scraping with the grain of the hide and being careful not to cut it. Stretching the hide as tightly as you Possible, this will help prevent nicks and tears in the hide from the scraping process.

Once this chore is done, turning a raw skin into rawhide is a fairly simple process. Simply fill a large container (your bathtub works great for this if you can do without it for a couple days) that is large enough to hold the hide without excessively crowding it with about five to seven inches of lukewarm water.

As you are running the water pour in about two to three pounds of lime (which you can purchase at your local garden center labeled as fertilizer) into the tub or container and stir it around until the lime is dissolved. Add the raw hide and swish it around until it is thoroughly saturated.

 Wear rubber gloves as you do this, since lime is very drying to your hands.

Weight the hide down with a couple rocks, cement blocks, or other heavy object to hold it under the water and let it soak for about twenty-four hours. Every few hours remove the weight and swish the hide around a bit and turn it over to be sure all parts of the hide are being exposed to the lime.

Wait for about twenty-four hours then check to see if the hair is beginning to loosen. When it is ready, most of the hair should pull off easily with a gentle tug. You may have to scrape the hide some more to remove small, fine hairs completely. This is particularly true with pig skin.

Depending on the temperature, size and thickness of the hide, it will take about one or two days for the hair to loosen. On thinner, small hides such as rabbit, it may only take a few hours to get the hair off. Don't leave the hide in the lime solution longer than is necessary because the lime will weaken the hide if you leave it too long.

In warm weather or in a heated house, if the hide is not ready after twenty-four hours, you should drain the water and repeat the process of adding more lime and fresh water, or your hide will become smelly.

Once the hair comes off readily in your hand, scrape the hide with a flat bladed knife or other object with a straight edge, going with the grain of the hide. The hair should come off easily.

Drain the tub and clean up what you can of the resulting mess. Be sure to put a washrag or other barrier over the drain opening as you do this so you don't plug up the drain with excessive hair.

Rinse the hide under a running faucet until all traces of hair are gone and wring it gently several times to flush out the lime residue.

Fill the tub again; adding a small can of cream of tarter and about half a box of baking soda. Let the hide soak a few more hours in this solution, then rinse thoroughly again several more times.

This will give the hide a white almost translucent color and finish removing all traces of the lime, which can break down the cells of the hide.

Wring out as much of the water as you can. Your hide is now rawhide.

You can stretch it out on a flat surface where it will get good air circulation, or fold it over a clothesline and let it dry for later use or use it immediately.

If you want to save it for later use, once the rawhide is dry, roll it gently and tie with a string for storage.

When you are ready to use the rawhide, soak it again in a water tub until it is soft again, usually about twelve to twenty-four hours, depending on the thickness of the hide.

If the hide is taller than the water tub, start by putting one end in the water, and then keep pushing it down as the lower part softens.

Once it is hydrated again, you can cut it into strips or shapes with ordinary scissors. If you don't need it all, you can just dry out the remaining pieces and store again until needed.

If you soak a piece of rawhide, then something comes up and you aren't ready to use it when you planned, you can keep it hydrated for a few days and it won't hurt it as long as you change the water at least once or twice a day, depending on the temperature.

It is best to use it as soon as it is fully hydrated.