|
BRAIN
TANNING
by
Randy Bublitz
Before you put too much stock in what I have to
say, Please read ‘Deerskins into Buckskins, How to Tan
with Natural Materials’ by Matt Richards. {ISBN
0-9658672-0-x (also, see braintan.com)
Also, you should read ‘Wet-Scrape Brain Tanned
Buckskin’ {ISBN 0-9654965-4-6}.
A long time ago I came to the realization that if
I wanted my gear to be more like that of the men I
emulated, the old time Mountain Men, I needed more brain
tan and less yellow chrome tanned Tandy leather as the
basis for my gear and clothing.
Brain tanned leather is generally fairly
expensive to buy, $10-15 a square foot.
At the time it was out of the question that I
could spend that kind of money for what I wanted.
The answer was easy, and fit with every other
aspect of this Mountain Man fascination- Do It Yourself!
In the early days I would get taxidermist scraps,
capes from head mounts, etc…. These small pieces of
raw deer hide were perfect for a beginner like me. If I
wrecked them, no big loss.
The pieces were small, so not too overwhelming
for a novice. And
when successful, the small pieces (bath towel sized and
smaller) were great for bags, etc…
My goal was to practice on scraps, and when I
became more proficient at brain tanning and got a hold
of a prime hide I would be able to tan it without the
beginner’s mistakes.
I’m no expert, but I have brain tanned deer and
elk hides. Let
me share my basic methods with you.
I have to say that I’ve talked with a bunch of
other tanners, and we all have differences in our
favorite methods. You
just have to try it, and determine your favorite method.
There are two basic methods of starting a brain
tan hide, wet scrape and dry scrape.
With wet scrape the hide remains wet, and is
scraped over a beam.
With dry scrape the hide is laced into a
framework, allowed to dry and then scraped.
Scrape? Yes,
you need to remove the hair and epidermis on the hair
side and remove the flesh, fat and membrane from the
flesh side before actually tanning the hide.
The tools to do this differ, depending on which
way you decide to do this chore.
I prefer the wet scrape method, but that is my
preference. I
feel that the wet scrape process is more forgiving about
cutting, nicking, etc… the hide.
With the wet process, it is easy to start and
stop at any point.
I just roll up and freeze, then thaw when ready
to resume work. The dry scrape method can be left in the
frame, started and stopped, but must be kept out of the
weather, away from the dogs, etc….
We need to remove the proper layers of membrane,
etc… as these will act as a barrier to our tanning
solution, the brains.
You’ve all see raw hide.
Like dog chew bones.
When dry it’s hard as a rock.
Wet it and it gets soft, but dries to rock hard
again. Why?
Hide glue is the answer, the mucus type stuff in
the leather. What
is tanning? Removing
the glue. There are many ways to do it.
In brain tanning, the acids and enzymes in the
brains break down the glue in the hide.
The word tanning comes from tannic acid (acorns,
etc…).
This is how I do it.
I take a hair on, meat and yuck clinging to the
inside of the hide, and soak it in a tub with water and
hydrated lime (available at hardware stores, etc…).
I let soak a few days to a week, depending on
temperature. The
warmer it is, the shorter time for soaking, it’ll get
stinky. The
hydrated lime lets the hair ‘slip’ (scrape of
easier). Then
I rinse the hide really well (lime is caustic).
Then I throw it over the beam and start scraping.
A good beam can be a smooth cottonwood log (or in
modern times a piece of PVC sewer pipe) hard and smooth.
My first scraper was the back edge of a drawknife.
I bought a scraper from braintan.com (cheap)
since. I
scrape all the hair off, if you can see follicles (black
dots), there is still too much membrane (epidermis) and
you need to scrape more. Then scrape flesh side until
uniform clean. Once
properly scraped the brain tanning starts.
I used to get cow brains from the Mexican markets
here. Now
sale is banned due to Mad Cow Disease.
Braintan.com sold canned pig brains, but
apparently that is restricted now too. Good luck finding
brains. I’d
mix brains with warm water and make as viscous a mixture
as possible (blender at home).
I’d soak the hide in the mixture (usually in a
large Dutch oven) from hours to overnight depending on
event and temp.. I’ll usually stretch the hide out as
much as possible, allowing the tanning solution maximum
penetration, intermittently during the soaking time. You
want no barriers to soaking (membrane) and you want that
solution to penetrate every pore and fiber of that hide.
Once soaked, the fun begins. Wring the hide out more
than you’ve wrung anything out before.
Get as much moisture out as possible, twisting,
wringing, etc…. Then
stretch, twist, use and abuse that hide every which way
until it is completely dry.
This is called breaking the hide.
The idea is not to let the fibers dry all lined
up. Once
dry you should have a white, soft brain tanned hide.
The next step is to smoke it, where it gets the
golden color that Tandy tries to copy with yellow. The
reason for smoking the hide is to re-introduce oils into
the hide. The
oils make the hide more resilient . A good brain tanned
hide will be able to get wet and dry soft (or softenable
with mild manipulation) A good brain tanned hide will be
naturally anti bacterial, ie: won’t stink like a
sweatshirt upon sweating into it.
Best of all; brain tan will allow your outfit to
be more historically accurate, and looks cool.
Brain Tanning is a lot of hard work, which is why
it isn’t cheap to buy.
I will buy hides, when I see a good deal.
I bought a few small hides from one of our
members, Mike Masterson (
Kansas
) at our National Doin’s in
CO.
, summer ’07. He
does absolutely beautiful work with hides and sold some
to me at a very fair price.
Once you’ve tanned some hides, you’ll
appreciate how much work is involved.
Then, you may not balk at the prices others
charge for their hard worked hides.
I have a good friend who I taught the brain
tanning to. He
did his hides, and decided he is a good horner (he is)
and he’ll just make more horns to sell, then buy his
hides with the proceeds.
Nothing wrong with that, he’s contributing to
the arts – and getting his brain tanned hides by
supporting someone else’s labors….. a win win
situation. Check
out the books and website mentioned and you’ll have
lots of good information to get you started tanning your
own hides. It’s
worth doing a least once, just so you learn the process.
Who knows when you may need to know this?
I hope this helps some of you who may be
interested in tanning hides.
Hope to see you around a camp fire before too
long.
Yfab,
Randy
Bublitz
N.A.F.
#8
|
