In those times, yes, except in emergency cases you might shave the
fur off but they (shaved skins) were smoother in the water and they didn't
make any noise in the water When they are aged the skin is all smooth and
flat.
After taking the fur off you take the first layer of the skin then you have
to rinse them and you are ready to cut them up. You just don't cut the skins
in any way. You have to cut it from one side of the head to the other side
of the skin towards the lower part of the skin. You had to cut it as straight
as possible by having someone holding onto it or you can tie it onto something
the knife has to be very sharp because you have to cut it with one stroke
so you have no curves on the edges after all the skins have been cut starting from the (USUUJAQ) front of the Qajaq you start sewing them together
starting from the smaller skins. The larger skins are sewn around the middle
part of the qajaq. If the skins were not cut properly additional skins were
required to be added on to the top. Other times if they are cut properly
you didn't need to add any skins to the top.
When everything is ready to be sewn, you have to chew on the edges just
like you would in sewing the kamik soles. You chew out all the water from
the edges. This is so that the stitches will become waterproof. Some young
people would do the chewing around the edges.
Women would have braided sinew together from caribou leg sinew. Also they
would make finger protectors (seal skin pieces sewn as tubes) to fit around
all the fingers of women who were sewing the skins. When you are using the
braided sinew it is very hard on ones' hands.
So after preparing everything, you hang the skins. Then they would start
to sew them. The stitches would be called SUKKAITTULIJUQ when they couldn't
make the stitches tight enough. The stitches would be sewn in a same manner
as you would in sewing waterproof kamiks. Double seam on each stitch line.
The skin edges would be slightly overlapped, and sewn from inside and the
outside just like waterproofed seal skins.
The front of the qajaq cover was sometimes made of caribou skin so that
even if it hit ice, the skin would not be punctured easily. Once the skins
were sewn together, the men would stretch it on to the frame and tighten
it as much as possible using skin ropes to tighten it .
