FOREST AND STREAM 
549 
December, 1921 
Next, cut two sapling-poles about ten 
feet long and three inches through at 
the butt. In trimming these leave a limb 
or two sticking out, say four to six inches 
long, near the top for a sort of crotch to 
straddle over the top of the hanging-tree 
just ahead of the gamble-stick. 
Place these two shoving-up poles with 
tops or crotched ends close to your buck, 
and at right angles with the hanging- 
tree. Then put your right forearm under 
the tree and gamble-stick and between 
the buck’s hind legs, and lift up say fifty 
pounds until the gamble-stick is at your 
waist-line, then place the crotch of one 
shoving-up pole astraddle your hanging- 
tree and swing the whole thing over to 
one side a little, before prodding the butt 
end of the shoving-up pole into the soft 
leaf-mold and ground. 
Now pick up the other shoving-up pole 
and do likewise on the other side. Then 
step away to about the middle of one 
shoving-up pole and raise the buck say a 
foot or eighteen inches. Then step 
around to the other side and do the same, 
and so back and forth a few times until, 
without lifting more than fifty pounds at 
any one time, you have a two hundred 
and forty pound buck hanging high with 
his nose a foot off the ground, so that a 
bob-cat or small woods prowler will not 
be so apt to take toll on your kill. 
If you intend to leave the deer hang- 
ing any length of time it is well, just be- 
fore you hang him up, to wedge a bunch 
of hemlock boughs, willows, alders, or 
whatnot, in between his hind legs — this 
will keep away any raven, jay or owl that 
otherwise might perch on the buck’s 
hind-quarters and peck a meal therefrom. 
Always hang a deer head-first, so that 
any drippings resulting from the dress- 
ing-out or wounds will work ahead and 
not back toward the hind-quarters and 
tenderloin. And in dressing a deer, see 
that his hindquarters are elevated a bit 
on a little knoll or something, so that the 
blood will always run forward and not 
soil the hind-quarters. 
Almon H. Gardiner, 
Wisconsin. 
HOME-MADE SKIS 
A PAIR of skis can be made at home 
with a very simple equipment. The 
best stock is white ash of straight grain. 
In case this wood is not available you 
can use yellow birch or southern pine 
with very good results. Procure either 
of the above woods from your lumber 
dealer in strips of six or eight-foot 
lengths for adults and four to six-foot 
lengths for children’s or women’s skis. 
The width of the strip should be four 
inches for the smaller skis. Care should 
be taken to select the best quality, 
straight-grained strips, one inch to one 
and a quarter thick. 
The strip should first be planed off 
Lace and buckle frogs 
smooth on all sides and one end pointed 
to a taper about a foot long which forms 
the tip point of the front end of the ski. 
The top side of the ski is now ready to 
taper from the center towards the two 
ends. If you use the above thickness of 
stock you can leave the center section 
of each ski the original thickness for six- 
teen inches at the center of the length 
of the strip and taper down to each end 
so that the front and back ends of the 
ski have one-half the thickness of the 
center section. A standard rule for the 
width of a ski in proportion to its length 
is to allow one-half inch in width for 
each foot in length that you intend to 
make the ski when finished. For in- 
stance, a six-foot ski would be six times 
one-half inch or three inches wide. This 
rule applies for the adult sizes only. 
For the shorter lengths of skis allow one 
inch for each foot in length. 
The bottom of the ski should be 
grooved in the center with a half-inch 
groove one - eighth inch deep. This 
groove should be brought to a point just 
in front of the taper of the tip of the 
ski. The rest of the groove can con- 
tinue down the entire length of the ski. 
The value of the groove lies in the fact 
that it makes it much easier for the 
wearer to keep his skis in a straight 
course over the snow. 
Having shaped the ski as above, the 
next step is to steam the strip so that 
the front tapered end can be turned up 
without splitting the wood. Build a box 
about two feet long and a little wider 
than the width of the ski, with one end 
of the box closed and the other end 
open. Over the open end of the box 
hang a piece of heavy cloth to keep the 
steam in during the process of steaming. 
Place a tea-kettle half full of water on 
the stove and connect up the end of the 
spout of the kettle with a rubber hose 
long enough to allow one end to enter 
the box half way. Tie the other end 
firmly to the tea-kettle spout. As soon 
as steam begins to come from the kettle 
place both tapered ends of the two skis 
in the box and steam for at least half 
an hour. At the end of this time the 
skis can be bent on a form or in a vise 
to the desired shape and held in place 
with a rope until cool and dry. It is 
well to allow the steamed skis to set over 
(Continued on page 564) 
Ski pole and pair of 7-ft. ski made by author 
