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info needed on the steps of how to tan a hide

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richardzane:
I'm no expert, but having some good successes with no special tanning formulas but just brain itself.
There's no need to wait till the hair slips if you scrape it stretched dry.
you scrape off the epidermis (or scarf skin whatever you want to call it) along with the hair.

richardzane:
if you want to stretch soaked hides, you can take one out and lay it on a concrete surface and squeegie the water off  .

I may be crazy, but i lace the entire hide loosely(about 2" apart) with cord before stretching it on the frame. this way cord is being tugged against cord, not hide.
 
lay it out flat as possible and use short pieces of bailing twine to stretch-out and tie the neck and the legs int he right directions before doing any stringing (otherwise it might bunch to one side)
I like using the bailing twine because its different in color than the stretching cord. once its all stretched taut, you can cut the twine loose if you want.

n8tr boy:
Thanks richardzane. The instructions say to soak to get hair slip, scrape, then place in a salt solution for 8-10 hrs. rinse in cold water. Thin skin where needed and hang to dry.Then warm up tanning solution and apply to hide  evenly massaging into all areas. Let stand for 12-16 hrs then over the next 2-3 days pull and stretch as it dries to "break" the grain.

primitivepaulette:
The only time you really NEED to soak a skin that you wish to make leather with is when it is totally dried out and that would be to fully rehydrate the skin. THAT is usually done with a saltwater brine.

I don't soak my skins any more than I have to. I just scrape them. I like scraping them best when they are right off the deer, but this isn't always possible or practical when you have lots of deerskins to do. People drop off their deerskins here and well I collect a LOT of them.. so now I use a powerwasher to flesh them and then I take an animal shears to clip the hair real short. The reason I do that is that they all bag and freeze in a much smaller size.. so that is good.. I can squeeze more in a smaller space. I bag them after salting and then freeze.. usually they stay damp.. Damp, the skin is already ready to scrape.. I usually scrape all the loose hair off the flesh side, then flip over and 'grain' them. I grain them over a narrow beam. Wood is best. Anyway, they all scrape different. Some times on the bigger hides they'll scrape JUST super.. I am talking absolutely no soaking.. of course I've used the washer to both flesh and wash the blood and dirt off the fur side anyway.. so I've gotten the skin side WET. and simply frozen it. If I salt them the skin doesn't readily freeze together.. well salt and freezing is kinda odd anyway but salt will pull some unwanted elements out of the skin anyway.. well anyway, If my skins are simply too difficult to BRUTE strength the hair and grain off of. I simply soak the skin so that it is relaxed and then hang it up to drip the excess water out of.. , you wouldn't want this hanging in the wind or anything because then the flesh could dry out and then you'd have to rehydrate it to work it.. lol.. (don't ask me how I know this).. anyway I work lots and lots of skins and I can get a wet scraped skin to soften and appear like a dry scraped one, see??



this is me the braintanner.. with brawn AND brains.. lol.

n8tr boy:
Thanks paulette, that's Awesome> That is good lookin buckskin. I will maybe be changing the way I do this one. I need to look at the manufacturers website to see what else they recommend before I change it. I have another one to do and will brain that one and see the difference

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