Hide Scraper

Item number Na1683 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Stone hide scraper with wooden handle. A pink J-cloth is wrapped around and tied onto the end just below the blade.

History Of Use

Scrapers were used to soften moose-hides before they were smoked, as part of the hide-tanning process.

Narrative

The maker, Baptise Betsedea, found the stone flake while walking along a river in the Northwest Territories. Over the four years he had it, it was used on ten moose hides and was sharpened regularly. Collected by Pokotylo at Betsedea's summer camp, at the confluence of the Willowlake River and the Mackenzie River, 1985.

Specific Techniques

The maker chipped the edges of the stone flake, to create an appropriate angle for scraping, and attached it to a spruce pole with a metal nut and bolt, nylon cordage and a cloth. Betsedea described his wife’s use of the scraper this way: “She wrings the hide with a wooden torque…and leaves it for a long time. It’s left in a knot [to remove excess water]. After it stops dripping she undoes it and does this real hard [scraping it]. She stretches it soft [until it is pliable]. When you use a metal scraper, it really is not very good. This one is very good.”