Brain tanning deer hide help

I am VERY new to tanning hides. My husband has always hunted but not used the hides before. I felt this was very wasteful and we kept his two hides this year and are attempting to tan them. I love the internet for all the information and U-Tube videos but, there are as many ways to tan a hide as there are web sties. It seems each place says something different. We do NOT want to use chemicals and have saved the brains. We have dehaired one hide but it took much longer than we thought or think it should have. those of you that have done this do you have any great suggestions for us. We have one more possibly two more hides and then if the season goes well an elk hide to do. My goal is for buckskin to make my boys shirts for Christmas. Any help or suggestions would be so greatfully appreciated!! thanks you for your time, blessings!

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Permalink Reply by Tim Gibbons on October 25, 2009 at 12:32pm: Karen,
Are you presoaking the hides in a lye solution? This can be made with 1 gallon of wood ash to 5 gallons of water. Soak the hides for 24 hours before scrapping the hair off. Could you post your procedure?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on October 26, 2009 at 10:12am: Hi Tim, We first de-fleshed the hides. We then soaked them but now I am thinking we did not add enough ash to the water. We thought to just make a thick past on the de-fleshed side. After we added the ash to the hide we rolled it and soaked it. We let them sit about a day and a half, some of the hair came out very nicely but most of it was extrememly hard and we re-saoked it. This helped but again seemed to take a long time. tools did not seem to help and we spent most of the time pulling with our hands. We laid it over a large piece of PVC pipe to de-hair and that was hlepful.

I was wondering if streching it to de-hiar it would be easier? We plan to stretch two of them that are de-haired today and the third one we have given to my 11 year old to try his hand doing. :) He is very excited as he was the one to skin it. We hope to have an elk soon and I know it will be much larger and harder to work with.

I love the process and it is quite meditative for me. I am one who likes to know the best most effecient way of doing things though, so again, any help would be great!

Thank you!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Louis Quinones on October 26, 2009 at 6:03pm: Deerskins into Buckskins by Matt Richards an excellent book that will take you through the various ways to get the job done.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on October 27, 2009 at 10:58am: Excellent! Thank you!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tim Gibbons on October 31, 2009 at 9:36pm: Karen, Are you using a fleshing tool or scrapper? The scrapper would look like a draw knife with a blunt edge. Are you supporting the hide over a horse while scrapping? It would look like a saw horse only raised on one side.

I have no experience with tanning on a frame. But I have heard that it is a bit more work with the lashing the hide to the frame As well it is a bit messy-ier having to smear the brains on the hide rather then soak them. (let me know what you think if you attempt it.)

How to tan skins the Indian way / Evard H. Gibby is a pretty good book that can be had at the King County Library.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on November 24, 2009 at 8:23am: Hello again, Wow thanks for all the great information. We have six hides now in various stages of becoming buckskin. We had some hunters give us their hides and said they might even buy them if they come out nice. We will see there seems to be a bit of a learning curve on all of this. :)

Next question. We would like to make a hand drum for our boys out of the hides for Christmas. Again, so many websites and my husband would like to make his own hoop but we can't find which wood will steam the best to create our hoop. Any great ideas from anyone who has made one before would be so appreciated! We strive for handmade only gifts at Christmas and this is one that we thought would be great!

Thanks you again, Happy Thanksgiving. Blessed be!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Tim Gibbons on November 24, 2009 at 9:54am: Karen,

Here in the Pac Northwest Red Cedar is a good option for steam bending, as well as a thousand other things. But I don't know anything about drum making.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steven Johnson on December 10, 2009 at 4:14pm: If You can find a hollow tree that has fallen cut out a section a little biger than the size of the finished drum. Then take the bark off and clean up the inside with a chisel.

For the head you will need raw hide ( dehaired and fleshed hied that is then dried).; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on December 10, 2009 at 6:16pm: Thank you Steven,
Sadly I think we willhave to wait for awhile to make our drums. The weather turned very cold so we got our hides wrug out and now they are in the freezer, probably until spring. It is hard with work and kids to get time to really work the hides. :) Love the work though!

Thanks to everyones advice it has been very helpful!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John Zorns on January 28, 2010 at 9:07pm: Just curious, but have you contacted your local Tandy leather factory?
(if there's one near you)

I have been to several classes at mine and they may be able to help guide you in the right direction.

they might have a website?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Karen on February 2, 2010 at 12:41pm: I will check around. We might have a taxidermist who would be willing to do a class or let me come watch. It is hard to find anyone who brain tans. So many use chemicals or send it off to a bigger factory to be tanned. We have four hides maybe five that will be worked again in the spring. We have learned a lot already and boys want buckskin shirts for the summer. :) Hopefully we can get it right :)
Thank you John.; ▶ Reply to This