2019 Shandaken Primitive Biathlon first prize pouch

[EricEwing]

For the past few years I donate a pouch to serve as first prize for one of the winners of the annual Shandaken Primitive Biathlon:

Pouch No. 157: Materials include bark tan deer, chestnut oak tanned cowhide, and alum-tanned woodchuck, linen, steel buckle.

https://www.shandakenprimitivebiathlon.net

“The Shandaken Primitive Biathlon is an annual winter sporting event using any style snowshoes and black powder muzzle loading firearms. It is held at the Upper Esopus Fish & Game Club, Little Peck Hollow Rd, in the Oliverea Valley, Town of Shandaken, in the heart of the Catskill Mountains of New York State.“

[Greg Pennell]

Boy, someone is gonna win a nice pouch!  Eric, I’ve been meaning to ask...do you tan these hides yourself?  I did a bit of taxidermy and tanning in my younger days, as I remember it’s pretty labor intensive...

Greg

[EricEwing]

Boy, someone is gonna win a nice pouch!  Eric, I’ve been meaning to ask...do you tan these hides yourself?  I did a bit of taxidermy and tanning in my younger days, as I remember it’s pretty labor intensive...

Greg

Thanks Greg. I do alum tan the varmints myself. It is fairly labor intensive at first but you find shortcuts. The small size of the hides of typical varmints makes it somewhat less intense.
The deer was bark tanned by Matt Weatherholz. The cowhide is tanned in chestnut tannins by a local tannery in Montgomery NY called Pergamena. They are one of the few (maybe only?) small family owned tannery using chestnut and white oak tannins instead of quebracho or mimosa wood tannins that I know of.
I do plan on doing some bark and brain tanning myself when I find the time....

[Marcruger]

Cool work sir.  My wife says she really loves that one and chuckhide flap. 

[EricEwing]

Cool work sir.  My wife says she really loves that one and chuckhide flap.

Thanks. The lady's got good taste!

[Greg Pennell]

Back when I used to do quite a bit of taxidermy, we used a “wet tan” method where the hides were fleshed, pickled, neutralized, then “pressure tanned” with a solution in a pressurized container, then oiled and stretched. If we weren’t going to mount the critter right away, we sealed them in ziplock bags and froze them. After thawing, a quick tumble in sawdust, and they were ready to go. I’m getting tired just thinking about it...

Greg