"Brain" tanning a dog chew

[DC]

I have a piece of dog chew rawhide that's been kicking around for a couple of years. It's a bit less than 1/16" thick and bone dry. It's too short for a backing so I thought I might try "brain" tanning it for handle wraps. I've heard that I can use eggs or mayo cause I don't have any brains(I'll leave that open for comments ) Do you think it would work or is it too thick? Should I leave it dry before I smear whatever on it or should I soak it in water first to soften it a bit. Any other things I should be concerned with?

[lebhuntfish]

Interesting idea,  I'll leave the instructions to the more experienced guy's. Ill be watching this one.

Patrick 

[Zuma]

LOL at first I just saw "tanning a dog" I will post a photo I just recently digitalized.
Your question is interesting and I wonder how it would apply to some of my more crinkly
recent hide preps with eggs and lectithin soy oil granules.
I don't see why soaking them again with oil or eggs should do any harm. Not sure about
if it would help loosen them up or not. I haven't tried brains yet but if I do another hide it
wiil be brains. Yuck and Yep Buttercup as Bob calls me. lol Any old road kill should suit
your purpose for brains though DC. 
Zuma
Oh btw back in the day in NJ a friend bought a house and there was a cool St. Bernard
rug in the attic. He put it in front of his coffee table head and all.

[Hawkdancer]

Like Patrick, the more experienced tanner should speak, but I would think the "brains" solution would absorbed better by a more flexible " hide".  Keep us posted, and show a "tan a long"!  I think you want to make sure it doesn't have any lye left in it.
Hawkdancer

[Pat B]

I think you have to hydrate the rawhide first.

[DC]

I think you have to hydrate the rawhide first.

I thought that but then I wondered if it's going to suck stuff up it might as well be "brains". Don't know.

[Outbackbob48]

Not sure of the process of making  dog chew rawhide, if the grain wasn't removed from rawhide it well be difficult for brains to be absorbed from both sides, to me seems like a lot of work for such a small pc of leather Bob

[aaron]

like bob said, you'll need to scrape both sides, removing the epidermis and membrane layers.

[DC]

It failed. It looked to my uneducated eyes that the epidermis had been removed so I mixed up three eggs and an equal amount of water and put it and the rawhide in a plastic bag. I left it in the cool garage for 3 days. It soaked up most of the egg/water mixture in that time. Then I rinsed it off and started working it over a piece of 1/8" aluminum. My old hands wouldn't take much so I ended up working it for about 10 minutes every couple of hours.  It seemed to be going well but the drier it got the stiffer it got. This morning it's quite stiff, not like rawhide but not supple. I'll work it a bit once I get some more coffee in me and the garage warms up and see what happens.

[aaron]

if it's dry, it won't soften up.
when you start softening, you can take some breaks, but in the last hour or so you really have to go all out. You have to keep working it until you're sure its dry and then work it another 1/2 hour.

[DC]

I'm not up to that. I have arthritis in my hands that stops me after a while. I don't think I'd have much luck hiring someone to do it . Oh well, it was a thought.

[Outbackbob48]

DC, you were right about not rehydrating with water and let it soak up brains or eggs in your case, next you needed to wring out your eggs , work hide stretching every which way then resoak in your eggs, do this a couple of times wring final times and work till completely dry. Bob