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The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather | 
 enlarge | Author: Monte Burch
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.71
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 494975
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 1585746703
Dewey Decimal Number: 675.2
EAN: 9781585746705
ASIN: 1585746703
Publication Date: November 2002
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Book Description
From a master, a comprehensive guide to preserving skins and pelts.
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| Customer Reviews:
Not for survivalists November 18, 2005
59 out of 66 found this review helpful
This book is written by a professional book writer, not a tanner. He seems to be getting most of his information from hide tanning kits and some tanning he has done himself. Since the book has no bibliography or footnotes, it is hard to say where he gets his information. He does refer to a Bruce Rittel of 'Rittel's Chrome Tan Products' a few times, as if having consulted with him.. He doesn't appear to have worked with or interviewed any professional or advanced amateur tanners along the way while writing this book.
There are several pictures in the book of someone skinning, fleshing and working with hides. I don't know if this is the author or not. It could be more than one person as the face is usually not visible. From the text, the author describes his working with hides, but I do not get the impression that his work with hides is extensive.
He refers to the 'Native American' several times, as if to suggest that they were some sort of authority on hide tanning. This would be absurd because when the English landed at Jamestown in 1607, they were much more advanced than the 'Native American' in tanning hides. The only method that he connects to the 'Native American' is the buck skin making process that he shows.
He gives some good drawings and pictures of how to make some of the tools needed for skinning, fleshing, stretching and so forth. This is perhaps the most instructive part of the book. There are also pretty detailed drawings and explanation of how to skin animals. There are some pictures that look rather gruesome. (Well, if you can't stand to look at the pictures, you had best forget about tanning hides anyway.)
He makes an attempt to explain some of the chemistry, but it is weak. I would have preferred a more in-depth discussion of the chemistry involved. There seems to be some gaps and some puzzling things. He tells you to get ph paper testing strips, but doesn't give details on what they are, how to use them, or what 'ph' means. A salinometer is also necessary, he says. So where did the 'Native American' get his salinometer and his 'ph' paper strips from? And how did the 'Native American' use them? The title 'Ultimate' is a bit presumptuous.
He discusses 'bark tanning' a bit, but more so it seems to discourage the practice rather than to describe how to do it. He ultimately has you grinding the bark through a coffee mill. (I guess the 'Native Americans' didn't have leaf shredders.)
He does give some formulas for mixing your own tanning chemicals. I think it might be hard to buy some of those chemicals, especially with all the regulations these days. But it is good information to have.
The only method he gives in the book that might not require you to run to the store or the mailbox, is the 'brain tanning' method, or making 'buckskins'. The same method is described in the Foxfire 3 book. Foxfire describes making different furs and skins while this book only discusses deer skin. Foxfire has more pictures, also, and doesn't mention 'native americans'. (Foxfire 3 was evidently written before Political Correctness had permeated everything.)
I was hoping for a book that would tell me how to tan leather without the chemical companies, and Tandy, Cabella's, and Rittel getting involved. More self sufficient, in other words. This book is pretty much a disappointment in that area.
This book lacks the heart and soul of a craftsman. It is a lot of technical information. But I don't feel inspired to go out and tan a hide, and I don't feel that I have been given enough knowledge to feel confident that I could tan a hide if I wanted to.
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