Want to tan the hide of a youth's deer this year??????? I will go through the steps of Brain Tanning and when done right you can have a useable hide with or with out the hair.
With out the hair ..... there is only 2 steps more for this
soak the hide in water good for 2 weeks then scrape the hair off with a coffee can, then .......
when you skin the deer, flesh the hide well. You must remove all the red meat, fat and slick shiny membrane from the skin side.
then 1 or the other...... role the hide up with a good sprinkle of UN IODINIZED salt, fur side out or stretch it out and tack it on a piece of ply wood skin side out and allow to dry good. don't worry about maggots lol.
Save the brains of the animal, sounds sick but this is the way the natives and pioneers did it. You may freeze them and it is recomended. When the hide is dried out, tack it up on a piece of plywood if you had it rolled up in salt.
boil 1 gal of water with the brains premashed up ( not really a boil but a steep/simmer but HOT) use a new toilet brush to apply the tanning solution and a wire grill brush to grind it in and do a little at a time like every 20 minutes until the potion is gone, then just the wire brush till it dries.
It should (the skin side) start looking like suede leather, let sit over night.
The next day rake up some oak leaves and start a leaf fire. Pile some leaves on for smoke and place the skin side down on it to smoke the hide. The tannic acid from the smoke sets the tan and makes the smell better. I powder mine when finised to make them really smell good, with Shower to Shower then vacume. LOL
This is how the buck skinners role, Try it sometime.
With out the hair ..... there is only 2 steps more for this
soak the hide in water good for 2 weeks then scrape the hair off with a coffee can, then .......
when you skin the deer, flesh the hide well. You must remove all the red meat, fat and slick shiny membrane from the skin side.
then 1 or the other...... role the hide up with a good sprinkle of UN IODINIZED salt, fur side out or stretch it out and tack it on a piece of ply wood skin side out and allow to dry good. don't worry about maggots lol.
Save the brains of the animal, sounds sick but this is the way the natives and pioneers did it. You may freeze them and it is recomended. When the hide is dried out, tack it up on a piece of plywood if you had it rolled up in salt.
boil 1 gal of water with the brains premashed up ( not really a boil but a steep/simmer but HOT) use a new toilet brush to apply the tanning solution and a wire grill brush to grind it in and do a little at a time like every 20 minutes until the potion is gone, then just the wire brush till it dries.
It should (the skin side) start looking like suede leather, let sit over night.
The next day rake up some oak leaves and start a leaf fire. Pile some leaves on for smoke and place the skin side down on it to smoke the hide. The tannic acid from the smoke sets the tan and makes the smell better. I powder mine when finised to make them really smell good, with Shower to Shower then vacume. LOL
This is how the buck skinners role, Try it sometime.