Using the whole thing

[Orion283]

Some characters in one of my stories have just brought down a bear, and intend to make use of as much of it as possible (pelt for clothes, bones for armor and weapons, meat for food, etc.) How much work is involved in such a process with a group of six to work on it? Does it require any specialized equipment?

[Sammi]

A knife. A very sharp knife, preferably hard, too. You can skin with anything, but you need iron (or preferably steel) to whittle bone. A regular knife and a serrated knife, both steel, would be the best (I'm assuming they can't afford or wouldn't use diamond knives.) With those two knives, you could skin, saw bones and make large cuts of meat for storing.

For food, one would want salt to preserve it. To make bone into armour, you'd lash it together with twine or something. The hide would be tanned, which requires acid (urine is sufficient) and stretching, mostly. For bear serks (sorry, couldn't resist,) one would need a sharp needle and some thread, both of which can be easily made from bone and intestine, respectively.

So really, all you need is two knives and salt. The rest you can make from the bear itself.

[Aimless]

Dry or smoke :P

[Sammi]

Of course, but neither requires any special equipment. (Smoking would be made easier with matches, though.)

[not_your_pixie]

if you really want to use all parts, rather than twine to string together armor or whatever, the sinew from the muscles is a good use

[girlunquestioned]

No specialized equipment, but a LOT of manpower -- a LOT. They would have to skin the carcass and carry the skin back by itself; it would be heavy. Two or so people could manage carrying that, though, probably. The meat would have to be cut into manageable cubes to be carried back (and there would be a LOT of them), and the carcass sepearately -- assuming, of course, that they need to transport it.

What Brian in Hatchet (or was it Brian's Winter? I think it was that one.), when he brought down the moose, was skin it and put some meat on that and use it as a sled. But, there was snow on the ground. YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK -- it describes perfectly the art of bringing down and making use of a large animal with only primitive tools. It describes making things from the hide and many other very useful things, specifically for the moose part, but also with rabbits. Reading Hatchet, Brian's Winter, and The River would help you learn so much about surviving out there with no modern tools. They're by Gary Paulsen, and well, they're great anyway, even if you don't read them for "research".

I imagine bear hide would be REALLY tough. Also, what squaws did for tanning was rub the brains on the hide, leave it out in the sun, and then scrape it.

[Aimless]

Drying makes the weight more manageable!!!

[AXJ]

A knife. A very sharp knife, preferably hard, too. You can skin with anything, but you need iron (or preferably steel) to whittle bone. A regular knife and a serrated knife, both steel, would be the best (I'm assuming they can't afford or wouldn't use diamond knives.) With those two knives, you could skin, saw bones and make large cuts of meat for storing.

You'll also need a wide scraper to prep the hide for tanning. These could be made out of bone or flint. A basin for tanning would also be neccessary, and they'd need to build a framework to stretch the hide afterwards.

Please note: eating bear meat is usually a rather risky proposition, as bears generally are hosts to unusually large quantities of symbiotic parasites that don't behave so symbiotically to humans, particularly a strain of trichinella that is notoriously hard to kill even with proper cooking. Most outdoor survival guides advise against eating bear meat unless absolutely neccessary, and if neccessary, they advise that you cut it into small pieces and cook the everloving heck out of it.