errantember

After failing to dissect the last remaining rawhide chew toy to distribute to Loki and Louie with both a hack saw (too slow) and tin snips (too little torque) I finally resorted to a Dremel with a metal cutting disk. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma I wasn't planning on buying any more industrially produced meat products, anyway, but the smell produced by this operation combined with my disbelief that any organic substance could be so strong has sealed the rawhide's fate.

Ew.

However, this makes it very clear why various types of armor worn throughout history were made of boiled leather. The chew toy I just cut apart would have handily deflected both a razor-sharp katana or a 30 lb. two-handed broadsword wielded by subject-matter experts. It's also ridiculously light for it's strength, certainly better than most metals and somewhere equivalent to polycarbonate.