Thanks North, hopefully you had a great time inspite of the rough weather.I can certainly relate to how foul weather can wipe a person out. I've had to work out in it all my life it seems. Thankfully we have not had too bad of a fall this year, yet. I'm sure it's right around the corner. I'll catch with you later.
Sawdust

Sawdust - O.K., the blood flow to my brain is restored to some degree of normalcy!

1) The translucency on the edges is normal. It will be especially apparent in the forelegs. This is due to the structure of the hide in these areas and is not the result of your actions. You will probably find that these areas won't "tan out" very well, but leave them in place for the moment. You can always trim when you're done tanning.

2) Now that you've got the hide to this stage, it's time for the braining.

3) Procure one pound of brains per hide. Your local butcher shop can order in pork brains in one pound tubs.

4) Thaw brains and crush into a fine mush. Tossing them into a food processor works fine. You should end up with a light pink "soup"

5) Combine brains and 2 1/2 quarts of water in suitable pan and heat. You want to cook this mix, but watch closely. As temps. approach boiling the mix will want to foam and boil over in a rather sudden manner. Instant mess! Keep temp. just under boiling point. Cook and stir until color changes from pink to gray.

6) Remove from heat and allow to cool down to body temperature. This can take an hour or so.

7) Lay hide out flat and begin rubbing in brain mix. Hide will absorb mix and begin to soften. Be patient. Walk away and let mix soak in for a while if you want. When hide is supple enough to bend and fold, wad it up and place in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. Pour in remaining mix and let soak in.

8) You may need to let hide soak over night. When hide is fully supple, begin squeezing and stretching the hide, working the mix in thoroughly.

9) Get two "sticks" about 1 inch in diameter and two feet long. Loop hide over the two sticks so that you can use the sticks to twist and wring out the hide. Wring liquid back into bucket. Wring hard. Remove sticks, stretch hide, and return to solution. Knead, squeeze, stretch and work brain solution back into hide. Squeeze out excess fluid and wring out again.

10) Repeat step (9) at least six to eight times. 12 is good. You can not over-due this step. What you are doing is working the brain fat around the individual hide fibers, thus allowing the fibers to "slip" over themselves. This provides the flexibility and softness.

11) When you are done braining, wring out hide as dry as you can, stretch out, and let air dry for an hour or so in the shade or indoors. Stretch every now and then.

12) NOW you are ready for breaking!

Enough for the moment! You can place damp hide in a bag and keep in the fridge over night.

If there are points in the above that I have not detailed well enough, feel free to ask for elaboration. Some of this is much easier to demonstrate than explain in print! Have faith, we'll get you through this!

North, this is great encouragement. After I soak the hide in brains you say to stretch and work the hide,do you mean by hand or lace it back on the stretching beam?

Sawdust - No, the hide doesn't need to go back on the frame. At this stage, you're done with that piece of apparatus. Stretch the hide by hand. Unless it is a really light hide, you can be quite aggressive. I will stand on one edge and pull upward on the other, rotate to a head-tail orientation and step/pull again. As always, be thorough. Also perform more "focused" small area stretching. Great upper body workout! On areas that may still be a bit stiff, scrub between the hands like you were hand washing clothes.

As far as the next stage, breaking, there are a couple approaches. Roping is one of the old traditional methods and works O.K., but can also be a real workout. I prefer another old method, the breaking post. I've somewhat modernized this into a breaking "T". Will try to attach a page from my tanning guide that details said tool so you can have one built ahead of time.

Keep us abreast of where you're at!

Carry On!

Brain_Tan_6.tif (83 KB, 34 downloads)

Thanks North, looks like the sun is going to shine today, maybe I'll get a chance to try this. I have some scrap 2x4's laying around, I might try building the T breaking post also.
Its All Good
Sawdust

I liked to use a furrow opener from a plow or seeder on top of that style of breaker, you can also grind the teeth off a skill saw blade, keep a towel handy if you flip a big glob of sweat on the hide and that part gets to be done again.PS North, those are very good insructions you provided. I did things much the same with a tweak here or there but I have seen several methods that all differ but accomplish the same thing, when the smoking time comes I found that rotten Cedar was my favorite.

tg - My thanks for your kind words! I also agree (as I noted in an earlier post) that there are many variations on the theme - and I've used most of them! The steps I'm presenting here are a distillation of decades of research and application. They are not necessarily the fastest of methods, but, if followed closely, have a high probability of producing a garment-grade hide, even for a novice (which is why I use them in instructional settings).

As an aside - should anyone have an interest, there are a couple safe and simple methods for dealing with hair-on furbearer pelts that I could pass along.

Also agree with you that cedar punk produces a nice color!

North: I thank you also for sharing your knowledge with me. And yes, I am interested in how to handle fur bearing pelts as well. Many thanks

Para-Medicineman - I tried to attach my Pelt Tanning Guide to this post, but only images will work. Will take the liberty of sending it to you directly. If you have any follow-up questions, just post.

Should any one else be interested in such, just let me know.

Have Fun!

North: Thank you VERY much. Your'e amazing with not only your expertise but your willingness to go out of your way to share.

Para-Medicineman - You're most welcome! Just glad that I can be of assistance!

Carry On!