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bear skins

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terence pinder:
a word to the wise, bear hides when treated improperly will slip. meaning the hair will fall out in spots,the best way to prevent this is as soon as it is thawed is to start tanning/brainning. i was in the process of making my wifes first bear into a rug and i got lazy one night and long story short the hair slipped on me. i tanned it and now use the hide to scare people,the bear head slips right onto mine like a mask.

billy:
To keep the hair from slipping, thaw them out, then flesh them ASAP.  Once they are fleshed and clean, stretch them out to dry them (preferably in the shade). You could even lightly salt them to help speed up the drying.  Drying furbearers will help "set" the hair and prevent the fur from slipping.

I've never done a bearskin, but I have braintanned several furbearers (like beaver and raccoon).  the beaver was absolutely incredible, the raccoon was soft, just not quite as stretchy and supple. 

When you're ready to brain the bearskin, soak it in water till it's fully hydrated (it'll probably require some stretching to get it there).  Then put it over a fleshing beam and use your fleshing bar to gently squeegee the excess water out of the skin.  Mix the brains in very warm water , place into a blender, and hit puree.  Take that brain solution and rub it into the flesh side of the skin.  Stretch the skin, working it over, then add more.  You're gonna want to keep working that solution into the skin to make sure it is totally brained. 

At that point, I would probably roll it up and freeze the skin (freezing it will help the brain to penetrate).  When you've got an entirely open day and you're ready for some exercise, thaw that skin out the night before, then start pulling and stretching that skin in the morning, and don't stop till it's totally dry.  Be prepared for a workout.  But if you do it right, also be prepared for a soft, braintanned bearskin!  I've tanned elk hides that took 9 hours of pulling until they were totally dry, and I don't know the thickness of your skins, but they will probably take several hours at least to get dry.     

Pahinh.Winh:
  The secrets to successful braintanning of bear hides are to get help unless the bear are small, & work fast & keep the hide cool..  You're in for a lot of work.
  I salt every hide before fleshing, & that means literally cover the hide with salt at least 3/8" deep on the 'meat' side of the hide.  Keep the hide cool, ( I have a fridge just for this) let the salt sit for at least 8 hours, then get the salt off & flesh - work fast on this part.  You will need to wrestle the hide, full of salt & rolled into a bundle, into the fridge unless you're doing this during cool weather..  Or have a cool place to work.  That means in the 40F's.  The salting helps 'set' the hair so it tends not to slip, but it's not entirely foolproof - nothing is.  Best time to work on these very thick hides with thick hair is when the weather is cool, because of their thickness, so once they warm, they tend to stay warm longer than you'll want.
  My stretching frame is made of 4X4's & I use heavy black automotive bungee cords to help keep the stretching lines taut when I'm breaking the hide.  You'll know when the hide has broken uniformly, because the whole meat side will have become a nice white shade.  Help is good here, too, because you can take turns, take breaks, & you don't get overwhelmed with the project.
  When you apply the warm brain mix, you want to keep it at 100 - 105F.  No hotter or it will not work right; no cooler or it won't go into the hide enough.  And work it, work it, work it in.  I use the paddles for that, I use for breaking, for this, too.  I use a potato masher to mash & mix the brains.  Have fun..
 

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