Brain tanning a deer hide.

[RJB]

I've tanned 4 in the past. I'm going to be working two over the next week as well as three rabbit skins. I'm going to leave the fur on the rabbits for mittens.

I'll take the fur off the deer skins. Brain tanned buckskin feels like a wool blanket without the itch.

For skinning a deer it comes off easier the sooner you do it after the kill. I don't even need a knife other than the initial cuts.

The first step is fleshing. I'm doing that today. I'll find a video.

[RJB]

Here's the fleshing. This is the first part after the skinning of course.

[presence]

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teach me more; I've only ever scraped and salted hides

[pcosmar]

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teach me more; I've only ever scraped and salted hides

Same. But I have worn Brain Tanned Buckskin. Very comfortable, and hard wearing.

[RJB]

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teach me more; I've only ever scraped and salted hides

Taxidermy?

I fleshed it today. It's about an hour and a half per hide. I took breaks, goofed off, tinkered with other projects, etc. They sell "fleshing knives" but any dulled blade works fine. I've used an old draw blade before, today I just used a well thrown 12" throwing knife.

I was going to string them up to dry, but I didn't have the materials I thought I had.

I haven't tanned a hide since 2005 so I'll post the steps as I go along.

ETA I'm posting this to share and inspire, but also I tend to follow through if I tell others I'll do something. This is to make sure I finish this project Feel free to ask questions

[Acala]

Cool! I bought a book on the subject but have never done it. I was surprised to learn that real buckskin is a very different material than regular tanned leather.

[RJB]

I strung one of them up Saturday and dry scraped it Sunday and today. It was a nice day. I had no appointments at my office later in the day, so I just took the afternoon off.

Sun was out. My kids were playing around me. I was barefooted and in shorts and a T-shirt. I'm a bit of a barefooted hippie/mountain man in my element. It was a great day!

I'll post some vids when I find some good ones on youtube about what I did. I forgot how hard it is to get the membrane off the flesh side. I think I'm just going to try 30 grit sand paper and do it against a flat board. Right now it's a hairless piece of rawhide, which has some uses, but I want to make some buckskin clothes. The raw hade can be glued to the back of a longbow to make it nearly unbreakable.