Green Buckskin..?

[TTNZJaydon]

Hey guys.

I'm new to the site, my brothers been following it for years & has learned so much about bow making.  I'd like to share what I do & hopefully learn from others as well.  At the moment I'm almost at a stage where I can confidently turn fallow & red deer hides into lovely soft buckskin everytime.  Just have to refine the method down so as to get a more consistent result, sometimes those spines go ever so slightly stiff on me.  I figured allowing the hides to soak in the brains over a night or two, in combination with wringing & stretching by hand should remedy this for the most part?  If it doesn't soften first time, a good pre-smoking should no doubt do the trick.  Pre-smoking is such a game changer for those larger more stubborn hides, red deer are seriously like small elk.

I've seen people produce green buckskin via smoking.  No doubt there are many different colors of buckskin out there that have been acquired with dyes, however I'm wanting to endeavor & see if I can't discover what kind of punk or natural resource I can use to create green buckskin via smoking.  Or at the very least just learn if it's possible, which I'm sure it is.. right? 

Keep in mind, I'm in New Zealand.  Pretty much no one makes buckskin, most people don't even know what it is, let alone how to make green buckskin bahaha.  Ah man, pretty tricky stuff.  But perhaps if I knew what was used in other countries, I could perhaps find similar, if not identical species here?

Thanks guys, keen to hear from anyone & see photos of buckskin being produced.  Pretty rare to see people online making it.  There is another FB group called "Brain Tanning."  got some legends in there.

I have a FB group called "Traditional Tanning NZ".  It's doing pretty well with over 5k members now.

FB Group - https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CSFR4tBUK/ (just if anyone's interested to see the occasional kiwi posting about natural tanning or my stuff more consistently.)



buckskin softened with brains, pre-smoking.


smoked buckskin

[sleek]

Fist off, WELCOME! And, thank you for joining and posting! This is a skill lots of folks have an interest in, and any knowledge you can share will be appreciated. As for your questions, i have no clue, but im interested as well, so hopefully someone will come along with an answer.

[TTNZJaydon]

Thanks man, appreciate that.  Well in that case I'll share an article I wrote for Rods&Rifles, they're one of the largest hunting n fishing mags in nz.  Thankfully lots of people are taking an interest in buckskin/braining here due to the information seriously getting out there.  It's absolutely criminal how much waste there is of animal hides here in New Zealand. 

I'll make another post about my buckskin process in that case.  It's similar to Ron Nails method, he was taught by Nez Pierce grand mothers & women decades ago & has continued it since.  It's very straight forward & lends a very high quality leather.  Appreciate it man.