Sometimes............

[Micanopy]

Hides just dont wanta play nice! When its colder you may have troubles wringing the hides. An easy fix is to add just a little warm water to the brain pan to kinda rinse the brain solution into the hides. If you pull the hides out of the brain solution and they are caked with what feels like pan cake batter put them back in the solution and ad a little bit of warm, almost hot water. This will allow you to wrap the hide across your wringing beam and get a good twist on them. Colder is harder to work. 70 to 80 degrees is best but cold weather it can be done with an extra step.

[ThunderHeart]

After you smoke your hides  do you wash em to get the smoke smell off em  and if so how do you do so?

[Micanopy]

I hear tell that you can wash them in ivory soap flakes to lighten the smell but I always leave them smelling that way, just cuase it smells good.

[Red Badger]

Why would you want to lose a good smoke smell ?  Be like puttin perfume on a rose

[ThunderHeart]

Why would you want to lose a good smoke smell ?  Be like puttin perfume on a rose

I don't... But i kinda need to being my wife has severe allergies and Asthma  the smoke smell from the hides is pretty strong and it fills the house and cause's her trouble.  Which is way i rarely ever smoke my hides  i normally leave em white as they were when they were finished or I use dye to color em. But i decided to smoke this latest batch of hides. Because i really don't care for the way the dye color looks  and I'm planning on making myself a buckskin coat and some other needed items ,soon as i get enough hides finished so i'm testing out my smoker to be sure it works like it should and im using these small goat hides  so if something goes wrong i dont loose a good deer hide  the goat hides are small they came from pigmy goats and aint really large enough for much more than making bags and mocc's from and if i ruin one I wont be near as sick as i would be if i lost a large deer hide.

[Micanopy]

A big deer hide is a terrible thing to waste! LOL!
Bro, what I do is after I smoke them I hang them over night on the deck, under the awning, that takes some of the smell out. I then roll them up and let the cure for a week out in the cabin, which further helps take some of the smoke out.
According to Matt Richards in his book deerskin into buckskin you can wash them with mild detergent in the washing machine, I have never tried it but he's the all around guru when it comes to all things brain tan. That would take the smoke smell out and Lo wont have the reactions to the hides and you can wear them in the house.
I'd maybeso try it on a small skin, like the goat skin you mentioned and see what happens. I know you can wash chromium tanned hides in the washer and have done so many times, however its a lot differnt than brain tan. Matt advises using cool water and something like ivory liquid.

[ThunderHeart]

Thanks!!  I went ahead and threw caution to the wind and washed the little goat skin i had smoked while i was smoking the other little goat skin This morning..  I stuck it in the washer on speed wash with cold water and a touch of liquid hand soap cause its all i had that wasn't a heavy detergent so any way  the results   I let  it air dry   giving it a pull to stretch  It  every so often  total of 3-4 times for a minute or less each time  and it seems to have come out just fine. The smoke smell is still there  but very faint and should be gone on its own in a day or two.  I will try hanging this next one out in the shed for a few days and see how that works  cause i really dont like the thought of washing em scares me and I noticed washing one will weaken the color by about 30-40 percent being your washing out some of the smoke residue !! Live and learn and have fun doing it !!!

[Micanopy]

  Bravo brave lad!

[Bulldog lady]

lo some 25+ years ago I tanned/cured my hides(shirt) with ivory soap, think may still have recipe (maybe)  it is still fairly white even with being stored off and on for many  years,  if it gets a little stiff I just pull on it and it comes out soft again,  need to take a pumice stone to it as wasn't sure what I was doing at the time and just dehaired the outside so it is slick not buckskin  but was fun and lots of work, it will smell like smoke sometimes but only when I'm cooking over outdoor fire!!

[ThunderHeart]

The little goat hide the first one i finished anyhow , now has a new home My youngest Daughter who turns 8 tomorrow has a friend over for a birthday sleep over. Dusti my daughter was showing Cassie her friend the pair of mocc's i made for her Cassie thought they were cool ,so i asked her if she would like a pair of her own and of course she "Yes sir!"...So I made Cassie  a pair of mocc's  She thinks they are the coolest thing she has never had a pair before. couldn't think of a better use of that little hide than to make a child  happy!!

[Red Badger]

awesome use for that hide!

[NAULTRICK1]

Ditto, a gift that will be well remembered 

[Micanopy]

 

[voyageur1688]

 Thats a gift that will be remembered and possibly get her to take an interest in this lifestyle some call a hobby.
Voy

[ThunderHeart]

Thats a gift that will be remembered and possibly get her to take an interest in this lifestyle some call a hobby.
Voy

Well looks like i will have the chance to influence several more young ladies  as my daughters friends mother just happens to be their girl scout leader and when Cassie showed her mom the mocc's I was asked if i could maybe go to a meeting one evening and come up with a simple leather craft for the girls to do so they could get their badge for leather crafting. So i think maybe they will be making some  medicine pouches  as i have  plenty of scrapes laying around that would be prefect for doing such a thing !