Coonskin caps!

 September 2020 

A small group started production of coonskin caps.  In total 12 were begun 

 

Each family was provided a bucket of tools which they used throughout the process 

Outline of Process;

Name tags;

Each youth chose a hand made hardwood mallet for the leather stamping 

   Everyone chose a piece of vegetable tanned leather to make a name tag.  Stamps and wood burning pencils were employed to add names to the name tags.  

 

Cut the pelts;

  Next the raccoon pelts were turned inside out and carefully slit open using razor blade knives (along with a leather glove).  In order to not cut the fur, we used knives and cut the leather side with 3 or 4 strokes.  By only penetrating just a smidge past the leather you are typically able to avoid cutting the fur.    

Pattern creation;

  Each boy and girl created a cardboard hat, in order to make a working pattern.  Once the hat fit was confirmed, the cardboard hats were disassembled.  These patterns were laid out on the coon pelts, and the outline of the patterns drawn with pen on the leather side.  

Cutting pieces;

  Razor blades were again utilized to cut out pieces from the coon pelts.  The pattern pieces were placed on the pelts to optimize the beauty of the fur.  The raccoon's back fur tends to be darker, with the belly side fur tends to be a lighter color and a more inconsistent pattern.  

 

Assembly;

  In order to easily sew the pieces together with a special leather needle (these are dull), holes were punched in the fur pieces.  A hardwood mallet and several leather punches were used.  The 3 prong punch works best on the curved piece which makes the top of the hat.  A 6 prong punch makes punching long straight pieces easy.  

  The youth lined up the 2 strips of fur that will make the sides of the hat.  The 2 short ends were aligned, fur side in, and held in place with clothespins.  Waxed thread was used in the leather needles and along with loop stitch to keep the sewing in place long term.  

    After the 2 side pieces were connected, this circular "band of fur" was sewed onto the top piece.  The alignment can be a little tricky, but the fur hides quite a bit.  These are youth and I want them to do the work and be proud of their craft.  (We are not building kitchen cabinets, so we do not have to be exact.)

   Add the face!  Several youth wanted to add the coon's face to the front of their hat.  

   {This is the standard for West Virginia University, whose mascot, for decades, has been The Mountaineer!}. 

  

Another completed coon hat 

Dark thick pelt