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info needed on the steps of how to tan a hide

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littlehunters19862011:
i no there is proble more then one trend. about this .but i have to ask . and hope sum one can  point me in the right path .  can sum one tell me step bye step easy way to do this . i have never try ed it be for  i let my buddy  keep my buck hide from that 8point i killed. . i would really  like to try  this on the nexted one i kill but i don't no wear to start really . i would like to make me a nice back quiver for nexted season  win im able toget back out and bow hunt. the nexted deer i take  i am going to keep the hide myself and give this a shot just want to no what im getting my self in to .. i have plenty of time to work on this as right  now i cant do much.and all i have been doing is hunting . 

aaron:
The short answer is no,there is no easy way to do this. Brain tanning is a complex and multi-step process completed over several days and involving the strictest attention to detail.Even a basic description of how to do it would fill several pages. I reccomend reading up on this forum or paleoplanet. I have tanned a few deer , an elk, otter, nutria, and i mostly use the "wet scrape method" as outlined in Matt Richard's book.
But, ok,ok, i will try to give a one paragraph description.
1. soak for several days in water
2. scrape off hair, and "membrane" (outer layer of the flesh side of the skin)
3. soak a couple days in a lye solution
4. scrape off epidermis- the upper layer of skin
5. soak in neutralising / acidifying solution 1 day
6. rescrape membrane + sew holes.
7. soak in brains, eggs or soap and oil
8. wring.
9. now the hard work starts- continually stretch and manipulate until dry- 4 to 8 hours..
10. sew into a bag shape
11 suspend over a fire of very rotten wood, forcing smoke inside the bag
12 turn bag inside out and smoke again
13 do the last 6 steps over again because it didn't come out as soft as you'd have liked.

well done braintan is so awesome that it's actually worth all the trouble, but it's easily as hard as making a good bow, and like bow making it never seems to come out perfect.

Pappy:
I do a lot of brain tanning,I will try and put a pictorial together with some explanation of what I am doing,I use the dry scrape method so will be a little different than aaron,but he is right,it is a lot of work and very time consuming.
I always allow 2 days ,and that is after the membrain and hair has been scrapped and it is in rawhide form.I tried to figure the time I had in a hide from skinning the deer to brain tanned leather and figure I have about 25/30 hours in a hide. One thing to be careful if you plan on tanning the next hide is be sure to not use a knife when skinning except to get it started,we call it fistting the hide off.Every wheir you put a nick with the knife in the flesh side you will have a spot either thin or rough on the finished leather. Good luck. There are some pretty good books out there for doing this. I had a good friend teach me so have never read  them  :o but have been told they will help. :)
   Pappy

BowEd:
Yes I've done quite a few successful hides brain tanning and the first timer usually does'nt like the elbow grease work it takes to get one done but it is worth it in my book.Pappy's right about the knife slits.STAY AWAY from them the best you can,and there are plenty of books out there too.The one that helped me the most was John Mcphersons'[praire wolf] series.Google it.
It only takes me about 8 hours to do a hide for myself though.I mean actual working time on it.Your at the mercy of the weather for drying unless you do it inside with a fan like say in the winter.One time when conditions were right I took a yearling deer hide to rendezvous.Started at day break.In the frame fleshing it,letting it dry,dehairing it,braining it,and roping it dry by nightfall.Letting it dry to dry scrape dehair after fleshing can take a couple days.I prepare all of mine in a frame and rope it dry out of the frame by hand on a rope.It's a lot like bow making.Be & stay determined you'lll get there.

littlehunters19862011:
thanks for the info guys sounds like a lot of hard work but i am going to give it a shot . on the nexted deer hide i get my hands on . and ,pappy a pictorial would be grate .

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