Big fella into buckskin/Smoking/Lots of pics./Items made

[BowEd]

I will try to get it roped dry soon.Show a few pics off that too.

[BowEd]

While wringing the bucket is put underneath to catch the drippings.I will sew the hole up with some thin nylon beading thread I have with a very fine needle before roping it also.

[BowEd]

I've wrung this hide now 7 times with sticks on the rope and feel as though it is brained.A few of the times I reheated the brain solution to warm it before reimmersing the hide hoping that will help with the penetration of oils.With the final wringing done it is just a matter of getting rid of moisture from hide as it is stretched every direction across the rope till dry.
To help get the moisture out of hide I lay out some towels on the floor that'll cover the hide/lay the hide on the towels/cover hide with towels again/fold and roll up towels/and leave it rolled up at least an hour or so in a plastic bag.
The weather here is not warm enough and too cloudy for drying properly so I might leave it in the frig awhile longer.Maybe the sun will come out later.Otherwise it does not hurt to leave it in frig a day or two for the weather to get right.I like it around 70 degrees sunny with a slight breeze.
The brain solution I put in the frig also to keep from spoiling in case the hide is'nt brained enough to rebrain it.I will find that out as I rope it dry.

[BowEd]

Here are a couple of books I went by back then.Larry Belitz's Brain Tan the Sioux Way was helpful but not as much as John Mchearsons' book Buckskin.It was more detailed and that's when I started having consistent success.Since then I see a few other books out there about it.Some are pretty good but Johns' method works for me.Don't fix something that is'nt broken I say.


John has a book for practically every primitive procedure out there.

[bjrogg]

Thanks Beadman for all the info I really found this interesting. Did I read correctly that you bought pig brains in a store?

[BowEd]

You bet.For this hide I did.Pig brains from Hy Vee.
Used to be they were only .89 a pound.Now they are close to 2.50.Could be I overbrain my hides a bit but that does'nt hurt a bit.Normal deer brains amount to about 3/4 pound a deer.Cattle a bit more maybe a little over a pound.Really any type brains at all will work.1000 mice brains too.....lol.

[mullet]

I've only found one place around where I live that will order brains for me but they said I had to buy a whole case. I can just about buy a finished hide for that.

[bjrogg]

I might have to check with the local small town slaughter house, I've been meaning to ask him about sinew too. Not sure what kind of rules they might have regarding "MAD COW" I'm sure they can't use brain or spinal cord for consumption in beef.

[BowEd]

mullet.....I see your kinda left with brains from what you harvest maybe or like from these slaughter houses possibly.
bjrogg....Yes.That is a thought there.I'm supposing testing is done to the butchered animal prior to butchering.At least for cattle brains anyway.Not sure there's anything known bad about pig brains yet......lol.
I've read of success by those using eggs etc.Never tried it or seen the results though on larger animals rawhide.
The sun did come out for a bit.So I remembered to sew up the only hole in this hide prior to the stretching and roping.I use a no. 10 sharps needle meant for beadwork on no. 10 seed beads and the thin nylon thread I use to bead with.It is about like a regular hand sewing needle but has a chisel point on it.The hole is sewn from the flesh side with a whip stitch.It will conform to the stretching that's done while roping.After roping and the hide is dry I will cut this stitching out and replace it with real sinew before smoking.Which will result in a flat almost hidden type hole fix.
Flesh side

Hair side

It clouded over again later and started raining some so the hide went into the plastic bag and into the frig till tomorrow.Forecast is better.

[mullet]

Ed, right now I've got some brains left that Pappy gave me last year but I'm wanting to rebrain two out of three hides I'm working on and starting to get low on what I have. I've been squeezing over a bucket to make it last.

[Pappy]

I use deer brains, save them from every deer that comes through TwinOaks and have a freezer full. I usually use 1, sometimes 2 per hide. I was told every critter had enough brains to tan it's on hide and so far that has worked out about right for me. I always wondered why my granny told me "son you don't have enough brains to tan your hide" after starting this I figured out what she meant.
 That hide is looking good, I don't do the exactly the way you do but the same principal, I make a donut roll over a pole to do the ringing and instead of rope I use a cable but does the same job. Like bow building their is a lot of way to skin a Cat. I also leave the hair ring around the edge until it is finished, I stich it up through that when I do the smoking, helps keep the smoke in and going to trim it off anyway so no needle holes..
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

I have allways heard that too pappy. I did save brain from deer I got this year. We have an old refrigerator in shop and when I processed my deer I was short on time so I 1st just cut I pieces small enough to wrap some freezer paper around and place in fridge. The head just barely fit in the freezer. When I took head out I was going to let it thaw then skin and cut top of skull but then I decided to try just cutting it frozen. This worked very good the frozen hide stayed right where it was and didn't move back and forth with the saw and brain was still nice and frozen picked it out put in plastic bag and put it back in freeze. That's funny what your granny told you pappy I remember being told that too. I never even though about where it came from till now. Those old timers had some pretty good wit most of the expressions we use today have meaning that have been lost in our modern day world

[BowEd]

Yes many different ways all to the same result in brain tanning.Thanks for the comments.I like to say there must be 30 different ways to tan a hide.I did'nt mention the brains in itself enough to do it's own hide but it's true.Good to be mentioning that.Maybe your granny tanned some.....?I've taken those brains out of cattle heads and deer heads too.[hatchet/hack saw/you name it for tools.Anything that works....lol].Kind of a pain and the bone chips should be sifted out too but they work great.The butcher does'nt get all the bone chips out of the pork brains either....lol.The old folks would say to use your head for more than a hat rack too....lol.
My neighbor is butchering cattle and trying to sell beef.[Still too expensive for me since I've got deer meat anyway].I should ask what he's doing with the brains.The hides too.
It's such a throw away society nowadays it's ridiculous.
Well it's sunny and looking like the best day of the year out.I'll see how this hide turns out.Try to get Robin to take some pics of the roping procedure.

[lebhuntfish]

Looking good Ed!

Patrick

[Aaron H]

Real good