Buckskin is the soft, pliable, porous preserved hide of an animal, usually deer, such as elk, moose, or even cowhide tanned to order, but potentially any animal's hide. Modern leather labeled "buckskin" may be made of sheepskin tanned with modern chromate tanning chemicals and dyed to resemble real buckskin. Leather is another product made from animal hide, but with a different chemical process to preserve the hide. Buckskin is preserved with a dressing of some kind of lubricant, physically manipulated to make it soft and pliable, and usually smoked with woodsmoke. Smoking gives buckskin its typical dark honey color, and is highly recommended. Smoking prevents the tanned hide from becoming stiff if it gets wet, and deters insects from eating it as well. Unsmoked buckskin is lighter, even white, in color. Coincidentally, the alkali soaking process is called bucking (from a Latin verb of the type *bucāre "to steep in lye, wash clothes");buckskin itself is simply "the skin of a buck (deer)."Clothing made of buckskin is referred to as buckskins.
Buckskin may refer to:
Buckskin is an American Western television series starring Tom Nolan, Sally Brophy, and Mike Road. The series aired on the NBC network from July 3, 1958 until May 25, 1959, followed by summer reruns in 1959 and again in 1965.
The show depicts life in fictitious Buckskin, Montana, in the 1880s as seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Jody O'Connell, played by Nolan. Jody's widowed mother, Annie, played by Brophy, runs the town's boarding house. The lives of Jody and Annie interact with the townspeople and strangers passing through Buckskin. Another constant is Marshal Tom Sellers, played by Mike Road, who keeps the peace. Young Nolan narrates the series while on a corral fence playing a harmonica.
Buckskin (1968) is a western film, released by Paramount Pictures, released on a low budget and starring an all-star cast. The main stars were Barry Sullivan and Joan Caulfield. Lon Chaney Jr. plays the role of Sheriff Tangley and Richard Arlen plays a townsman. The other stars were Barbara Hale, John Russell, Wendell Corey, Bill Williams, Leo Gordon, George Chandler, Aki Aleong and Barton MacLane. The film was also known as The Frontiersman. It was the last of the series of A.C. Lyles Westerns for Paramount. The screenwriter Michael Fisher was the son of the series screen writer Stephen Gould Fisher.
Betty Hutton was originally selected to play the role of Nora Johnson, but she was fired.
The film also has a small racial twist, common in films of the late 1960s. Sung Lee (played by Aleong) is a Chinese worker who is a victim of prejudice, Chaddock (Sullivan) fights for him during the film.