Brain tanning

[Micanopy]

Small bulls and cows make the best robes. I try to shave them down to the base of the hair folical. It takes some bit of effort but the results are better and you get a softer more plyable hide if your doing it hair on.

[beaudro]

It was good to help you out Jim, and looking forward to the road ahead. It's my intention to help keep anyone from having the screw ups I had when I first started braintanning. I would also like to see more braintan being used around the rendezvous. My method is similiar to Micanopy's , although a few times I dry scrape hides. Everyone has a little different way of doing it. In west Texas where I lived all my life I only knew how to wet scrape, since moving to Oklahoma recently I started dry scraping. I only do this to produce a hide thats to be made into a "tail dress" leaving the tail of the deer and a border of fur along the lower edge of the hide.

[Micanopy]

I had tried dry scraping some hides but i just couldnt get the nack of it, but its a ghood thing to know how to do. I am with you on wanting to see more brain tanned bucks at gatherings and ronny voos. Commercial deer skin is good stuff but it just doesnt hold the appeal that traditionally tanned bucks hold. Just my opinion.

[beaudro]

yep, Micanopy , there's nothing like the real deal. I don't recommend doing dry scrape for a beginner, it might work out just fine for some people but cutting a hide is a sure thing until you've had some practice with it. I can't help but to cut at least one hole in a good hide unless i go real slow and take my time. Wetscrape is fine and i'll keep on with that method this most. The only problem I have either way is getting a big enough hide, I miss the west Texas mulies and the white tails are all they have up here, real small. I showed Jim a few the other day, some aren't big enough for mocs , i've had to buy green hides as far off as Montana a few times.

[voyageur1688]

Either youve got real big feet or you got real small deer. The whitetails up here can weight well over 200 pounds field dressed.
Voy

[ThunderHeart]

Deer here tend to be smaller than northern deer. They dont need all that extra size to survive a winter here as they do up north More body weight just means hotter in the Texas sun during a summer we rarely get much snow and hardly ever stay below 30 for more than a few days at a time durin winter .  Our average deer here in North Texas will go around 120-160 on the hoof with a few reaching that 200 pound margin. deer in the hill country range from 80-150 pounds with a few up in the 180 range.  The bigger deer 200 pounds and up live in the panhandle  where it does get mighty cold and they have alot of snow...

[Red Badger]

I was slightly amazed when I moved down here from Colorado and saw my first doe at the pond, thought she was a large dog at first.  Then I met with some hunters at the check station and was amazed at the sight of these poor little criiters these guys thought were huge..... I'm just getting to the point after three years here that I can realisticaly determine what is a good size deer for this area.... 

[Bear Medicine]

So I got the buffalo hide all soaked and stretched out to scrape.  My question now is-how do I know when I've got it scraped good enough to start the brainning process?

[Red Badger]

Beaudro loaned me a video on doing deerhide and I'm going to be foolish and asume that all hides are preped in the same manner...

After you have the hide ready you want to take off the grain and layer of membrain under it the hide I'm using showed a yellowish tinge where I had missed the grain, once I got it all goine then the brain mixture can get into the hide and penetrate between the fibers to do it's job.  I don't really know how to describe it but you can feel the difference when you run your hand over the hide.

On my project I have gotten to the point where I am ready to start the actual braintanning,  the hide has been rinsing out for the past couple of days and all I need now is the time to do the brain and then the streching.  I plan on starting that tonight when it gets a little cooler... I could not find any brain right now and beaudro is going out of town so I'm on my own and will be using eggs.  Wish me luck and I'll get the camera out to take some pictures...

[voyageur1688]

  I should have looked to see where you were from. I have seen Texas deer, and they are about the size of a German Shepherd. Still bigger than some I saw in Florida though. Them things was TINY.
   Voy

[Red Badger]

UPDATE.... I love my wife (bulldoglady)!  She came home from a hard day at work and presented me with a 1lb jar of John Morrel pig brain, so now it is defrostin and I will be BRAIN tannin in the morning!

How do I thank a lady like this?? I think she's gonna get a smokepole for her birthdaty...... ( Don't tell her)