Main Discussion Area > Around the Campfire

Brain tanning hair on elk hide...how am I doing thus far?

(1/2) > >>

Mesophilic:
Currently about 85 to 90 percent dry, the sun is fading so the pic below is low light. 

Stsrted this yesterday afternoon.  I tried to follow a tutorial posted by Ed, but my gosh this hide is thick and when wet, with the hair on, very heavy.  So I applied the brains about 7 or 8 times.  Each time I made the doughnut and twisted.  With this thickness of hide it was like trying to wring a soaking wet shag carpet.  Following each wringing I stretched laterally by hand.  Brained it and let it sit overnight as it was getting late.

We had a good sunny day today so I finished up the last couple of braining and stretchings about mid morning and put in the sun to dry.  Continued stretching throughout the day.  Now it's dry enough that I can't really get a noticeable stretch when I try to work it.  Feels somewhere between rawhide and factory tanned leather.

The whole hide looked like the blue-ish splotches in the pic but most has gone away as it dried.  Will the rest of the splotches go away as it dries further?  Or did I screw up in one of the steps?

It's also a bit greasy feeling on the leather side, I guess not so much greasy but like dried dried hand lotion...hard to describe.  Will this subside after smoking?

Zuma:
Kudos brother,  :)  You are getting a work -out. I surly hope all goes well.
That should be gorgeous when finished,
Zuma

bjrogg:
Hoping Ed sees this. I've never brain tanned but I'm thinking maybe could
Have been scrapped and thinned more. Are dark spots membrane? It may be those spots have a bit of membrane and need to dry more. Do you have hair on I don't think rain tan is preferred method for hair on tanning deer hides. It's possible but more difficult. Hope all works out for you. I know you have a lot of time invested already.
Bjrogg

Mesophilic:
I was hoping I got all the membrane off but quite possible I did not.  I figure I've got to start learning somewhere, right?  The plan is to make a quiver with the hair on the inside, so if the final product isn't  soft and flexible It'll be alright I think.

I found a couple of good vids online, and after working this hide, a hair off deer hide seems like a walk in the park
 Every time I try out one of these old days skills I gain more respect for the people that depended on these skills.  I can't imagine going through this process on 10 buffalo hides to make a teepee.  My new saying is: back when the women were men and the  men were sasquatchs. 

ETA: after thinking about it, Bjrogg, I think you might be right about.the membrane.  When it was fresh, during fleshing,  I distinctly remember getting membrane off to at least the point of the capillaries in the hide.  I remember seeing the little blood vessels popping as I scraped further in to the hide.  Believing I had gotten the membrane already, I think gave me a false sense of accomplishment.  Before I reconstituted the hide I scraped off the salt with a dull knife.  Little bits of papery stuff lifted so I just peeled them off with my fingers.  I'm guessing.thsts the striations showing in the gray looking patches in the hide.  Some of them were long strips, which looking at the middle of the hide may account for an almost stripe like effect.

If this is the case then I've learned something for next time and will work it down more...and probably do hair off  ;)

Outbackbob48:
Diesel, the dark places look to me like membrane that didn,t get removed and therefore didn,t  get thoroughly  brained and are drying stiff. Braintanning definitely has a learning curve, Your doing good and learning a lot. Bob

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page