![]() Place the hide in a bath of plain water, changing it several times throughout a day to allow the lye to soak out. If it’s a difficult spot in the center it's best to power through and scrape it thoroughly, but if it's the last inch on a thin jagged edge it's probably better just to trim it off.Īfter all the grain has been scraped off, its time to rinse. Deciding whether to put the effort into a difficult part is about weighing the effort you’re putting into the hide and the quality of material you'll be getting out. Sometimes its better to cut you losses (literally) by cutting off a difficult edge. The hardest part on the animal to grain is usually the back of the neck and the very edges. Use common sense, if you test a blade this way, make sure it really is dull first. The goal is to scrape off the outer layer of skin without damaging the under layers, so the draw knife should be just dull enough that if one runs one's finger over the blade, it will not create a cut. To be more traditional, a piece of wood with one sharp edge, a bone with one sharp edge, or a rock with a moderately sharp edge will also get the job done. To grain a hide, the best tool is a dull drawknife. The back of a knife or drawknife will lift the hair right off. The hair should come right off even if you just run a hand over it assuming the hide has been soaked in the lye solution long enough. Each method uses different muscles when scraping, so it’s really up to whichever one feels best.Īfter a hide has been soaked in lye and has become rather thick and rubbery, it's time to de-hair. The other is a log or pipe of the same dimensions with two legs at one end so that one end rests on the ground and the other is held up to waist height by the legs. The upright beam (the one I use, pictured) is a log or half a log (perhaps 4 to eight inches in diameter or a piece of pvc pipe of the same size and almost as long a the tanner is tall) leaning up against a tree with the hide draped over the top. ![]() There are two common methods an upright beam and a waist beam. Making a work surface suited to scraping a hide is not too difficult. So, to prevent this, de-hairing the hide first makes putting the hide bundled up in a bag in the freezer possible without fear of rot (see steps 3 and 4 for de-hairing process). If the hide is balled up, perhaps bundled into a trash bag, fresh, room temperature, and with the hair still on the hair will insulate the inside of the hide, allowing bacteria to thrive for several days before the hide is frozen through. If a hide starts to rot, it is firstly not going to make good buckskin because bacteria will weaken the internal structure of the hide, and secondly is really gross and can make the tanner ill. The point of freezing is to prevent the hide from decaying. If at any point in the process I need to stop for a few days or months for whatever reason, the hide can simply be thrown into the freezer. Unless you're hunting, getting a hide (say off a roadkill or from a friend) it may not be an opportune time to tan, so preserving the hide for later can be a handy alternative.Ī hide can be saved almost indefinitely in a freezer. As few holes as possible makes everything easier during tanning and results in a better product, so spend the extra time to skin the hide cleanly. Road kill (fresh) is a good place to get hides, or finding a hunter who doesn't use the hide (which is many modern hunters) and offering some money for a cleanly skinned hide can be good hide source. for hunting can be difficult to manage, so alternatives. Hunting and taking the hide is the most obvious course, but time, place, etc. 25, 2014), and more like this, check out my website UncommonCate.įirst things first, acquiring a hide (or many hides). For my original post on this topic (posted Aug. For further instruction/discussion/etc., I would recommend or Buckskin Revolution. This is only my ninth hide, so I am by no means an expert. If the word brain has caused anxiety, it is not necessary to use brain, a hide can be traditionally tanned using other natural softeners (I use eggs and olive oil instead of brain). Commercially tanned is fine for bags and accessories, but it doesn't wear anywhere near as well home tanned buckskin. There are cheaper commercially tanned hides available, but these are not processed the same. For this reason, good buckskin usually costs at least ten, if not fifteen, dollars per square foot from a professional tanner. ![]() It takes a lot of manual labor to make real brain tanned buckskin. It's qualities have been tested and proven for millennia. It's soft, breathable, strong, durable, and pest repellent in nature. Buckskin (also known as braintan deer hide) is truly amazing material.
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