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BowEd:
Cool...Fur-on brain tanning especially beaver can be tough for a nice soft outcome.They are thicker hided than a person thinks.
Bulkier because of the hair to rope dry also,but not too bad compared to a roping deer hide.Smaller hide altogether makes up the difference in difficulty.
They can take some time though.Same with otter.They are thicker than a person thinks also.I use a wooden stretching frame for them after fleshing.
For beaver after fleshing well and lacing it in a hoop and left to dry I suggest using a palm sander with 40 grit paper to thin the hide some.Spine,neck and rump areas mostly.It'll make softening a lot easier and more successful the first time braining.
I made or welded up a 1/2" rerod hoop years ago.Robin uses the steel hoop to make round finger woven rugs now.
Made many a large willow hoops from the steel hoop tieing them onto the steel to let dry.Blanket beaver measure 32" by 32".That's the size I made the steel hoop or a little larger really.It takes a 13 to 14 foot willow to get that big of a hoop.




Assuming it's a winter hide sanding till you can just start to see the hair roots slightly through the leather.It'll take a while and you can feel how thin it's getting also.It will be thin enough then to get a good stretch on that leather to get softened.
At that point par boil cook up a pound of brains and massage them into the flesh side warm while laced in the hoop.Keep massaging till the brains are used up and hide is completely limp.Try not to get any on the fur.
Then it's just a matter of unlacing it from the hoop and stretching hide every direction and roping it dry.You'll like it.
Beaver fur is some nice stuff.
Doing other fur hided critters like large coon sanding can be done on the neck and spine a bit too.Coyotes and fox usually don't need any sanding on the hide. Except maybe a large coyotes' neck area.They usually are good to go without any sanding.
There's at least 8 different animal hides hanging on this rack.Some are brain tanned and some are aluminum sulfate/pickling salt tanned.

Piddler:
Ed, you are correct that beaver are thick. I took my dremmel oscillating tool with some 60 and 80 grit to them. Thinned them down a lot. Even hit the coons a bit in the shoulders and head area. I have a few deer brains to use. I have two beaver about 36 x 31 and a couple smaller. Didn't get them very round I don't guess. Gonna try the orange bottle stuff on the smallest one, hair is not as good as the others for some reason. Used it on a couple coons. Turned out ok but I'm sure would have been better with brains. I've got them out of the hoops already. The dremmel was cutting the line when sanding. Wasn't planning on putting them back in the hoops unless I would need to for some reason. Just gonna brain and go for it. Yes all winter beaver and coon from last winter. Pretty fur except for the littler one. There's a lot of working fleshing those things. They've been salted, stretched and dried ever since. Work got in the way during the spring when I was planning on doing them then it got too hot.
Piddler

BowEd:
Chemically tanning is cool too.I've done a lot of them with aluminum sulfate and pickling salt.
There's a smaller amount of roping and stretching to be done while drying using chemicals.
When done properly with brains though it will be softer IMO and more gratifying.
Just finished up on a 30 square foot beef rawhide today.Cut out a number of 12",8",and 6" circles for drums or handle lace wraps on bows.Large 40" by 40" piece out of the center for pocket,hip,or back side quivers,knife sheaths,paraflech,or even a rawhide box.This type rawhide will be a little more pliable but still be stiff and hard enough yet.
I had brained it earlier.Staked it in frame for quite some time but not completely dry.Folded it up and put it in the freezer a few months till now.Still cardboardy and around a 1/8" thick will work great as rawhide.
The scrap pieces I'll cut up and make hide glue from them.

In the past I've made quite a few cat quivers from beef rawhide.At 3D shoots people would approach me to get one for themselves.Even toting FG bows.I charged them $70.00 a piece for them.They usually did'nt have anything worth while to trade to me.

Piddler:
Well got the two coons on deer brains and the beaver on the orange bottle juice. Will work them some tomorrow. As per the instructions I don't think its a time crunch on the beaver so I can work it as it dries. Didn't seem to be a time crunch when I used it on the other coons as it seemed to dry slow. The coons I have using the brains I should get tomorrow but if I only have time for one I'll put the other in the freezer and do it later.
Piddler

BowEd:
That'll work....cool.It's best to not get rushed....
and yes those chemically tanned ones just need periodic type stretching.Not as much as using brains.
Freezing can actually help loosen up the fibers.Much like freezing vegetables and thawing as they become softer.

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