Chapter 4
The Projects
When I originally started this packet, I had no idea that these items would take up as much space as they have, or be as intense to write about as they were. I've spent more time with layout, organization, and editing of this chapter than all of the others combined. Despite all of this effort, I firmly believe that it will prove worthwhile as information requests for these items far outnumbered all of the others by the youth of our Lodge during training.
I would like anyone who reads this chapter to at least walk away with one understanding, that you can never go wrong by finding a first hand resource to speak with. Books are good, but a real person is better. Someone with experience can go a long way to clearing up any misconceptions that many books often don't clarify. If I can learn things just from writing this chapter, than I know that you can learn things from reading it.
All information here was collected from interviews done with
the most knowledgeable experts in each field that I could find. I've done the
best that I can to lay everything in a step-by-step fashion so anyone attempting
the projects can do so while reading this chapter at the same time. Where possible,
I've given each expert space to give any tips necessary. Beyond that, any mistakes
I claim as my own as I always end up writing these things way past midnight.
Chapter 4-1 Buckskin Shirts
First Person Resource: John Kranitz
John Kranitz has been a well-known, nearly legendary figure at rendezvous gatherings for over 30 years. He has such status that the mere mention of his name with a local vendor he recommended got me registered as a dealer, making everyone who orders from their store eligible for some nice discounts. He is an expert on what everyone asked about the most, buckskin shirts from the 1800's. Knowing that this was the most popular item requested for this book, we also (with his permission) videotaped the time he spent with the youth chosen for this project, Corey Westgard, while he showed him how to make his very own buckskin shirt. The buckskin shirt that John's wearing in this picture is based from the period of the 1870's and has over 65,000 beads on it.
Part 1: Preparing the hide
Getting hides: There are many hunters in scouting who have an easy time getting deer hides. If you are not one of them or don't know of anyone who is, here are some suggestions.
á Ask your local butchers: In winter, many butcher shops have deer that are brought in by hunters. Some hunters are not interested in saving the hides, so it's possible that the butcher may have some for you to buy. You simply have to ask.
á Ask hunters: They themselves or their friends might not be interested in saving their hides. If you know someone in your troop who goes hunting, ask them if they or their hunting party would be interested in saving their deer hides for you.
á Buy them ready tanned: I've done this before in a pinch when I needed leather quickly and couldn't find anyone who had them. Just be aware that buying tanned hides from any Indian craft supply house is very expensive. They can cost from $70 to $100 whereas bringing hides to a tanner could cost you $30 to $40.
Tanning hides:
Tanning hides yourself can present problems with your neighbors. They smell
horrible and are slimy. John recommends that you flesh out the hides and then
salt them with kosher salt (not iodized salt). Then let them sit until the
fluids flush out. This can take a week or be finished overnight; the key is to
be patient. When no more fluids are visible simply store them in a cool dry
place until ready to be brought to a tanner. Don't freeze your hide, as it will
ruin it. I mention this because I had to learn the hard way not to do this.
What can I say, it was my first deer and no one in my family had ever kept the
hide before. Also try not to fold them before tanning, as you could make the
fold crease a permanent part of the leather.
Soaking hides: After you get the tanned hides back from the shop, soak them in a big pail of water. Let them soak for several hours or overnight to ensure that the hides are fully saturated with water. John recommends two-four days with a change of the water every day. This step is important as hides usually stretch when they get wet. If you pre-stretch them at the start of the outfit construction process, you can save yourself some headaches later on.
Ring the Water out: after soaking, the next step of the process is to ring the excess water out. This goes much easier with two people.
Stretching
out Your Leather: The best way to stretch
out your leather after you've rung out all of the excess water is to use a 4x8
sheet of plywood or press-wood with a simple hand held staple gun. Use regular
staples, not the large construction staples. Start by stapling one corner and
as you go around the hide, stretch it as much as possible. When finished let
the leather sit and dry for two-four days, depending on the heat and humidity
level at the time of stretching. Once the hide has dried and is pulled off of
the wood, don't cut away the staple marks, as most of them will become fringe.
Once you have finished this process you are ready to proceed to part two. A word of caution in caring for you leather from John:
á Never wash a leather shirt or a leather dress in your washing machine, as you'll permanently ruin the garment. For a period correct outfit from the 1870's, the extra dirt and stains only adds to the character of the garment.
á Never eat greasy food in your leather outfit, as the grease will become a permanent part of your leather.
Part 2: Skin Shirt Assembly
Materials Needed:
á 3 full deerskin hides (1-front; 1-back; 1 for both arms)
á 1 very sharp knife or a very sharp pair of scissors
á 1 spool of imitation sinew
á 1 leather needle, called a glover. For this project we used curved glovers. They are bigger and more expensive, about $1 for each needle, but they cut sewing time in half.
A Note about Using Knives!
The sharper the knife then the more care must be exercised when using them. If you are a younger scout or are inexperienced with knives, then let your adult leader cut the skin for you. In this project it is John himself who has cut the leather. Always use safe practices, such as cutting away from you, not towards you. Place a piece of scrap wood between the table and the leather to prevent cut marks from showing up on the table. For more information about safe knife handling, consult your Boy Scout manual or ask your Scouting leader about the "Totin' Chip" award.
Putting
Your Buckskin Shirt together
To
Start: you will need to identify the flesh
side (the side that faced towards the meat) of the buckskin. This will be the
dullest or roughest looking side of the leather. If you put the flesh or rough
side next to your skin, the chemicals used in the tanning process will rub off
and discolor your skin. So you will need to put this side of the buckskin out.
The other side will be the hair side, or the side that was exposed to nature's
elements. This is the softer of the two sides and usually feels better next to
your skin. Cory Westguard, one of the youth from our Lodge, was lucky enough to
be chosen as the recipient of the shirt made for this project. You will see him
pictured with John throughout the rest of this Chapter.
Setting the leather up for your first cut:
We will start by making three matching cuts to both your front and back pieces of buckskin. The first cut will be a straight cut for the top of the shirt where the shoulders and head are. Fold the top (not the bottom or the sides) of the buckskin over until you have an even line all the way across. Length isn't that important as buckskin shirts usually go past your waist, and for younger Scouts will go almost to their knees. To measure this, simply hold the buckskin up to the youth until you have the desired length. It's a good idea to leave some extra room for the younger scouts so that their bodies will grow into their shirts as they get older. Finally, make a long even cut all the way across the buckskin.
Cutting the Shoulders: Next make matching
cuts for the shoulders on both the front and back piece of the leather. To get
an accurate shoulder length, simply place the leather next to the shoulders
and make a small mark with a pencil (not a pen as this will be permanent). Be
sure to measure to the outside of the shoulder. For youth, leave an extra couple
of inches on each side for growing room. Then simply cut straight down about
16 inches. When you finish one piece of leather, copy what you've done to the
other piece. Save your scrap leather as this is always used later on all sorts
of miscellaneous projects.
Cutting a hole for your head: The final
cut before we start sewing is to make an oval shaped cut for your head in the
leather used for the FRONT of your shirt only, not the back. I know that this
picture is out of focus, however it's the best one I have that shows this process
and also highlights the difference between the front and the back when they
are lined up next to each other. You'll notice that John didn't make the head
cut for this project very big at all. If you look at your own shirts, you'll
also notice that there isn't that much material missing from the head area.
Begin Sewing: We can now begin sewing the front piece of leather to the back piece of leather. Notice that John has used black binder clips that can be purchased from any office supply store to hold the two pieces of leather together until they can be sewn together.
The Sewing Stitch: Start your sewing at one edge of the head hole,
working your way towards the shouldered edge. The sewing stitch used for this
entire process is called the whipstitch. Simply put, you put the imitation
sinew through the leather just below the top edge. You then wrap it over the
top edge from the back towards the front and start the process all over again
until you reach the end of the leather at the shoulder. When you are completely
finished sewing both top edges together, John recommends that you pull gently
on them to flatten the seam out.
How to Cut Your Sleeves: As Cory was
finishing sewing his front and back leather pieces together; John was already
moving on to the next step, measuring the shirt for sleeves. This is what the
3rd, and last piece of buckskin is for. To do this simply cut the
last piece of leather in half, separating the top from the bottom. Now fold
both of those cut pieces in half. Next, place the new straight edge next to
the front and back shirt pieces to make sure that they are straight cuts that
will fit together. In this picture you can also see that the fold of the new
sleeve is on the top, with the open end on the bottom.
Cut Your Sleeves to Length: to get your desired length, simply place one of the newly cut leather sleeves from the top of your shoulder to your wrist. Make another mark of what this distance is and cut off the extra leather. Again, with younger Scouts, leave some extra room for them to grow into these shirts. One other helpful hint; never cut away the odd looking leather on the bottom edges of your shirts and sleeves as this will all get turned into fringe later on.
Sew the Sleeves to the Shirt Torso: We were running later than I hoped at this time of the night so you can see me here helping Cory sew his sleeves on. This is done with the same whipstitch that was mentioned earlier while putting the shirt torso together. Start from the top (be sure to hide from view the knot at the end of your string!) and sew 1/2; to 3/4; of the way down the sleeve, not the whole way. Repeat this same step for the other side of the sleeve.
Here
is a picture of what the shirt looks like before the extra leather on the
bottom of the arms is fringed (yes, Cory blinked in this picture). Notice that
you can see that the sleeves are sewn on only halfway down. Making fringe is
the very last thing that we will do. We still have two things yet to accomplish
before we can get to the fringing stage. One involves the sleeves and the other
the bottom sides of the torso that aren't touching the sleeves.
To
The Torso: I've tried
to enlarge for you how the sides of the shirt torso are fastened together. This
is done with leather strips cut from the scrap we made earlier in the project.
Make these leather strips about seven to ten inches long and about a 1/4; of
an inch wide. You want them to be strong since they will be holding the sides
of your shirt together. Starting a couple of inches above the waist, cut a single
hole, no bigger than the width of your knife blade about 1 inch in from the
outside edge of the torso section of your shirt. Then make another hole about
a 1/4; to 1/2; an inch below it. We are now going to use the leather strips
in this new set of holes to lace the shirt together. From the front of the shirt,
insert one end of the lace into the top hole, and then the other end of the
lace into the knife hole just below it. On the back if the shirt, tie the two
lace ends together in a simple overhand knot. Repeat this entire process every
three to four inches until you get to the bottom of the shirt. Then repeat this
for the other side of the shirt as well, lacing the 2 hides together every four
inches or so until you get to the bottom of the shirt. The way that you can
tell that this has been done in Cory's shirt, even if you can't see them, is
that there seems to be a crease that goes down each side about two to three
inches in. This is where these ties are placed, as they appear to visually make
a seam.
To the Sleeves: We have two things to do here.
First: Each sleeve has two pieces of leather strips placed in them to hold them together. We do this by using the same process we attached the sides of the torso together. These strips are placed:
Here (visible from the darker indentation).
And here. You can actually see the leather strip hanging
down from the back of the garment in this picture. Neither sleeve will have
this portion of the leather fringed from the leather strips to the torso.
To the Sleeves:
Second: You will have to sew a small line under the arm, about two-three inches in from the wrist, down at an angle until it is two or three inches above the elbow. You can see in this picture that there is a seam that is clearly visible in the leather about an inch in from the wrist to just below the elbow.
At Last, Making Fringe: We are now
finally at the stage where we are able to start fringing the sleeves of our
shirt. We found that it was easier to cut the leather sleeves one piece at
a time instead of both pieces of the sleeve together. This can be done with
either a good pair of scissors or your knife, which ever is most convenient
for you. Remember to avoid the seam sewn into the arms and the leather straps
in the arms that are towards the torso.
FINISHED!
Here is a final look at the buckskin shirt that Cory got to make. The only thing that he has left to do is to decorate his shirt, with beadwork for example, in a way that he chooses. Notice also that this shirt looks big on him. We did this on purpose so that it will fit him for many years to come.
John Kranitz recommends the following books and vendors:
Books:
á
American Indian Beadwork. W. Ben hunt
and J.F. "Buck" Burshears
á
The Book of Buckskinning. Muzzleloader
Magazine. Volumes 1 – 9.
á
Ojibwa Crafts. Carrie A Lyford
á
Circles of the World. Denver Art Museum.
á
A Pictorial History of the American Indian.
By Oliver La Farge. Revised by Alvin M. Josephy Jr.
á
Glass Beads From Europe. Sibylle Jargstorf
á
Crafts of the Northern Americas: A Craftsmen's
Manual. Richard C. Schneider
Vendor:
Track of the Wolf, Inc
Just the mention of John's name when I visited this store
got me two things on file for all of you. 1) Viking Council was given dealer
status, meaning everything that we purchase is done at a discount. Our customer
# is 55527. 2) They have our Tax ID Number on file, which means all of our
purchases are tax-free. They specialize in Muzzle Loading supplies and Civil
War era camping supplies and crafts. Their catalog is over 430 pages long.
Address: 18308 Joplin St. NW. Elk River, MN. 55330-1773. Tel: 763-633-2500.
Web: www.trackofthewolf.com
email: sales@trackofthewolf.com
For Tanning Buckskin:
Cosmo's: This particular
store was recommended from both John and the owners of Track of the Wolf.
Address: 353 Milky Way St. S. Cosmos, MN. 56228. Phone: 320-877-7297. Ask
for Chuck. They also have a catalog, although I didn't get one to show all
of you.