brain tanning

[joaquim33]

anyone here into hide/brain tanning? i started doing this maybe three/four years ago, and its begun to turn into a full time hobby as the more i do it the more people keep giving me their dead animal skins and texting me about road kill in my area.

after my friend gave me some lessons, i started off doing some roadkill raccoons and squirrels and some sheep skins my big sister raised...since then i've tanned and made some really nice furs from goats, deer, an otter, a beaver, half a caribou, possum, some rabbits, house cat, skunk, ground hogs and a whole bunch of raccoons...

lately i've been getting more into trying to make crafts with all these hides..recently made a skunk hat and a deerfur hat, and a banjo using a possum hide, and would like to eventually make some buckskin pants.

anyone else on here do this stuff? lets trade ideas, techniques and pictures!

 

[Pheonix]

If your in CA later this year during hunting season I could use your services.

is the skunk hat for trade, I've always wanted one.

 

[joaquim33]

heya pheonix, when is hunting season in CA? and where are you? i may be out there sometime late spring for a minute, or possibly later in the summer/early fall. and what do you hunt? brain tanning smaller animals is a good place to start, while things like deer take a lot more time and effort.
skunk hat is not for trade im afraid. its the first one ive made and im attatched to it, maybe the next one i make will be. i'd like to start making hats to sell/trade, but i need more dead skunks first! this hat took two! hopefully i'll get a camera soon and post some pics.
cory

 

[Pheonix]

can you tan a pighide and make a vest out of it? that's what I've been looking for?
I'm in stockton,CA but will probably hunt near redding.
hog season is open all year.
skunks are illegal to take in CA that's why I ask.
deer and bear season start in oct. but if I tag a bear he's going to a professional to become a rug.

 

[joaquim33]

i've never tried tanning pig skin, but i think it is pretty thick, like horse or cattle, which would be difficult to tan using brains. you could do bark tanning, which takes longer but gives you more waterproof leather. im not very experienced with bark tanning at all, but have read about it a bit.you could make a nice buckskin vest, however.
as far as vest/clothes making, im very new to it, and want to learn about tailoring from someone. the skunks i got were roadkills and i copied a hat design from a coonskin hat i studied in a store.

 

[CouchPunx]

i met a guy that made shit out of roadkill squirrels and raccoons and now i'm obsessed with the idea, i'd be interested in learning more about the process. i already do some sewing with leather but it would be cool to start from roadkill

 

[derailed]

Good to hear others are keeping this age old tradition alive. There are many products available commercially to tan hides, but fuck that, nature will provide you with everything you need.

I use a brain/western hemlock/eggs combination as the actual tanning solution. I use western hemlock because it's the most readily available hardwood tree in my area (pacific northwest), but any hardwood is high in tannins. If you're in an area where acorns are plentiful, even better.

Skinning a hide is easy. Tanning and smoking it are easy. Scraping is the tough part, knowing how deep to scrape is where I've fucked up the most. Oh well, with practice it gets easier to tell. I'm still somewhat of a novice at this art. It's very rewarding though, even for the amateur.

 

[joaquim33]

whattup derailed, i like your stories.
so do you do a bark solution soak, and then egg/stretch etc? a friend of mine showed me some grain on deer hide he recently had bark tanned. i'd like to try it for making hats and shoes. i have a deer hide that was abandoned after some soaking in bark solution that im gonna egg up sometime soon. lately i've been adding soap to my egg/brain solution and it seems to help.

its skunk mating season here in new england and i've collected 5 skunks in the last month. one of them was trapped in a have-a-heart at my neighbors farm and sprayed me in the face when i accidentally stumbled across it! i'm thinking of making some two or three more hats or perhaps use them all for a vest. i've also been practicing 'case skinning' this winter, i.e. skinning around the anus and then pulling the whole thing inside out, then cutting off at the nose and lips, also leaving the feet/pads/claws on. gotten pretty good at it. leave the tips of the bones in the feet in then pack em with salt before you tan the hide .

 

[RockerBilly]

I used the brain and egg method on a deer i hit with my car a few years ago, it worked beautifully. It's amazing how you get such a far superior leather by brain tanning than you do using the modern commerical methods (which are also terrible for the environment)

 

[halfawake]

I've done one buckskin using brains and a raccoon that I used eggs. The deer came out amazingly and I made an awesome skirt out of it with lots to spare. The raccoon didn't come out nearly as flexible but I only stretched it once and I know its beneficial to maybe brain and stretch it at least twice.
The reason I used the eggs on the coon hide was cause I was kinda worried about rabies...she had been trying to attack this dudes dog randomly so he shot it and that sounded sketch to me. Any thoughts on touching and working with brains of animals that often carry the disease? I know you can get it through handling brain tissue....what about their other fluids? Can you transmit it if you don't have any open wounds on your hands?
Stretching deer hides is tough man. My hands were in so much pain after the 8 or so hours I spent working with it and they were numb for days. It's an awesome process I'd like to get into it more but I have too many projects going on as it is! Ill totally jump on it if any of my friends gets a deer this season though!
As for things to do with em, I'm gonna make a dream catcher (one day...) with the buckskin and diff feathers i've been collecting with a bird skull in the middle. I made a knife sheath but wanna make another one out of the coon tail. I want buckskin booty shorts one day!