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Dry hide scraping

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JW_Halverson:
Do you scrape down from the neck to tail. Or up from tail to  neck?

Outbackbob48:
JW, I am a wet scraper but have done a few dry also. Either way I always go neck to tail or follow the way the hair grows. Maybe Ed and Pappy (dry scrapers ) will chime in , Bob

JW_Halverson:
It's done.  It wasn't pretty, but it is done now.

I remembered too late what I learned too late on the last hide I scrapped....namely, you cannot put enough lacings on a hide and stretch from too many directions at once. 

A friend wants to learn brain tanning, so I saved this year's doe hide and the head for her. Using the old saying that every animal has enough brains to tan it's own hide.  We will see, I guess.

Hawkdancer:
Sounds reasonable!  Mostly neck to tail, except when you got to do it different!  In fact, even wet scrape works better that way.  Either way there is a lot of hair to get rid of!  With the hair off, the easy part is done!  Time for a zen brain tanning party!  Every critter does have enough rains to tan his own hide, unless you use another Critters brains!  Btw, where in the Black Hills are you?
Hawkdancer

BowEd:
JW....The hair removal itself is'nt hard at all,and as a general rule with the grain is best.Main thing too is that your hide is good and dry.Fleshing it first of course.It's the epidermis that the hair roots are in that needs to be removed too for good brain oil penetration to happen and a nice soft product afterward.Like a flannel shirt really.From all the people I've taught brain tanning it's the biggest factor for stiff hides.A very sharp scraper does the job well.Helps very much in the thinner areas too.If too thin in the flanks etc. using 80 grit sand paper will do the job there too.You'll get a feel for the whole process as time goes on.Check this out....
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,56929.0.html
There are many new school type ways to get these steps done.This is old school.I guess if you want really older school you can use flint & bone scrapers too but the end result will still be the same.

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