brain tanning

[cdm101]

I was wondering is there another substitute for brains in tanning. What is it in brains that makes them so special?

 

[Norskie]

Brains are a source of oil, which is what softens the hide. The 'tanning' on brain tan comes from smoke. Other oils that I've heard of being used include cod oil, neatsfoot and lard. No experience with those, though. Sorry.
Moose

 

[Desert Rat]

I've heard and seen "egg" tanned hides, they look and act just like brain tanned. I've never tried it but am going to give it a whirl the next time I get the gumption to do a hide. Smoking is still the important part of the process. I think the book Deerskin to Buckskin talks about it.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

I was wondering is there another substitute for brains in tanning. What is it in brains that makes them so special?

It's the emulsified oils in the brains that gets into the fibers and prevents the little collagen lattice from setting back up between the fibers and making everything stiff.

Ivory soap (basically lard and lye), sliced thin and dissolved in water works well. I help out at Explore Park in the F&I fort, and Eddie Goode processes a number of skins there each year and that's what he usually uses. You can of course use brains, but eggs (lots of them) also works, as does Suagaro cactus seeds and jojoba berries. The key is the emulsified oils.

Most of the skins Eddie tans at Explore Park have been half-tanned. That is, they were fleshed, de-haired (usually bucked in a lye-water solution), scraped and dried. Basically they end up in a raw-hide state. Once dried like that they will keep indefinitely. That's how Virginia exported their buckskins to England prior to the Revolutionary War. As an export, it was second only to tobacco. Eddie makes the solution of natural soap and water (no detergents!) and works the stiff hide into it. Once it is wet again, he wrings it out and then starts the softening process.

Most of the deer were (and are) killed during cold weather, which is not conducive to braintanning. It was common to half-tan the hide when they harvested the deer in the fall and winter, and then turn it into leather in the spring when the weather was warmer. Takes about 1-hour labor to get it half-tanned and typically about another 5 or so to soften it into leather. Softening is easier in warm weather and takes longer when it's cold out. Once the leather is soft, you can smoke it to preserve it's softness and to color it.

If you're interested in Brain Tanning, do yourself a favor and get the book "Deerskins into Buckskins" by Matt Richards. Be sure to get the second edition as it has some extra info that makes the skins turn out luxuriously soft consistently. Use the link to Amazon from the board in the links section.

Hope this helps,
Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[freetrapper20]

One formula I read said to mix a dozen eggs with a quart of mayo. I tried it and did three hides that way. Worked just fine. Think I'll try the ivory soap method next. :hmm:

 

[Homesteader]

I've brain-tanned quite a few hides, and found out some time ago that skull-cracking and brain storage is quite a pain in the ar$$. Those little cans of "Cow brains in milk" for breakfast that you get at the grocery work very well. (If they don't stock them, just ask. They're easy to order.) Just drain off as much of the fluid as you can, use enough cans to get the approximate size of the original critter's cranium ('cause everything's got enough brains to tan its own hide), and use the warm water / brain mix as usual. Believe me, it works. Tan as usual. It's a wonderful thing to wear something you know was made by only you and the deer!

PS: Well, you and the deer and the pig...

 

[Phillip Allen]

I did this years ago...A couple of bars of Fells Naptha soap ground up and desolved in enough hot water to melt it and a pint of neet foot oil and you have the cleaned up equivilant...add water to that stuff to make 4 gallons total. Scrape and dehair and submerge with a weight to hold it down for a couple of days in a cool place. Wring it out (save it) and put in the sun to dry. As it begins to get translucent spots in it, touse it by pulling back and forth over something like the end of a 2X4 driven into the ground at a convient hight. It comes out creamy white and lumpy...submerge again and repeat. Dampen very slightly and stretch out on a flat place (tight) to dry and then smoke over rotten wood (no creasote) without getting it hot...both sides and make your shirt...you'll smell like a great big piece of bacon!

 

[Patrick Hand]

I brain tanned two hides a few years ago.... used pig brains from the grocery store, mashed up in water, and put the hides in overnight....

The next morning........ AAAAACK THE SMELL.... worse smell in the world....

After working the hides, the smell kinda skuck, I smelled like a ghoul for the next few days... after smoking the hides smelled nice tho....

Beautiful leather...

Soap shouldn't smell as bad......

 

[Slamfire]

Ivory soap (basically lard and lye), sliced thin and dissolved in water works well.
Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

Do ye reckon Ivory Snow would work? If'n my wife caught me gratin' a bar of Ivory on her mandolin, she'd tan me hide after I'd died a horrible death. :surrender:

 

[Phillip Allen]

I still have the britches I made back in the mid 70's. Been in the water a number of times and lost that bacony smell but still servicable if I'd lose about 60 pounds.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

Ivory soap (basically lard and lye), sliced thin and dissolved in water works well.
Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

Do ye reckon Ivory Snow would work? If'n my wife caught me gratin' a bar of Ivory on her mandolin, she'd tan me hide after I'd died a horrible death. :surrender:

Not sure if Ivory Snow is real soap or not. Detergent won't do it. Needs to be real soap (lard & lye) or it won't produce the emuslified oils. You can just shave pieces off the bar of Ivory soap with a knife. Your wife shouldn't get upset like that...unless of coarse you cut your finger off :redface:

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[Phillip Allen]

buy yer own grater...can't cost more than 2 or 3 dollars

 

[boar]

You can use eggs. My grandson used 4 egg yokes for a muskrat hide. Brain is 90% cholesterol. Egg yoke is full of cholesterol. Dilly

 

[puckertoe]

i use eggs and brains. in using eggs alone 1 doz. egg yokes are plenty for a hide. the whites do not contain the emulsified oils. and use about a half gallon of water and brain twice, soften once and your golden!

 

[Slamfire]

buy yer own grater...can't cost more than 2 or 3 dollars

I guess you ain't seen these stainless steel mandolins, with the 'lebenty seven removable blades. :rotf:
Ivory Snow ain't detergent, its flaked Ivory soap. :v
Kin them aigs come from the store, or do I haveta anger my barnyard hens? There's a heck of a difference in the color and taste of the yolks. :thumbsup:

 

[puckertoe]

yokes is yokes, but i agree, some do taste better than others.

 

As said above, the only thing special about the brains is oil. You can use other sources, but you need an emulsifier to break them up. I went to real neatsfoot oil for a while, but have found that a bit of cheap grocery store corn oil and a bit of dish soap works fine. Definitely cuts the smell, as well as disease concerns and chances for infection if the mixture contacts cuts on your hand.

Doing a few of these will really make you appreciate how much people charge for braintan. The first hide I 'tried' was a hair-off bison hide. It almost killed me. Take my advice, start with deer.

Sean

 

[BillinOregon]

Sean: A bison for the first brain-tan? Wow, what a masochist. How did it turn out?
I haven't brain tanned a deer yet, but just skinning, fleshing then softening a few beaver hides wore me out.

 

[rabbit03]

Hello Twisted one in 66,

Is it the Glycerin perhaps in the lye soap that is the peserving agent?

 

[Hairtrigger]

I have a friend that always said
"a deer has enough brains to tan it's own hide"