Old Fashioned Tanning

Found a good "Tanning Hides" link? Let Us Know!

Curing & Using Hides & Skins: Even if you are not obliged to use the skins of animals for garments or footwear they may often be used to good advantage when camping out and every camper should learn how to tan hides and skins and how to make moccasins. Excerpt from the: "Book of Camping" By A. Hyatt Verrill, 1917; Chapter Five

Curing & Stretching Hides & Skins: Curing Skins. Stretchers. The Hoop Stretcher. Tanning Skins. To Tan Mink And Muskrat Skins. How To Tan The Skins Of Beaver, Otter, Raccoon, And Marten. Observations On The History Of Furs And The Fur Trade. Market Value Of Fur Skins. American Fur Skins—Their Uses At Home And Abroad.

How Indians Tanned Buckskin [Michael Y. Ammons] Buckskin was tanned in several ways and by different substances according to the tribe. It is always well to keep in mind that Indian tribes were different and that many of them had their own style of doing things. My information comes from Indians that I have known, and if followed, a well-tanned buckskin will result. It may be in order to state right at the beginning that Indian buckskin is NOT tanned at all. It is just worked soft...

Brain Tanned Buffalo Hides by Markus Klek: The article will describe the art of tanning raw bison hides into robe size hides with the hair left intact; similar to the way as practiced by the women of many Native American tribes on a large scale, until the end of the 19th century. It will be a step by step description of the work process and also the use of bison hides, including quotations and observations made by early travelers and pioneers amongst native tribes of the 18th and 19th century.

Tanning a Fox Hide by Bill Scherer: The basic steps to tanning furs are cleaning, braining, softening, and smoking. Each of these steps has a lot of detail, and I will try to explain them as best I can. There is more than one way to skin a cat, or to tan a hide, and this is what works for me... See also: More Than One Way to Skin a Critter (Part I) and Part 2

Tanning Hides I've been tanning rabbit hides for about 15 years and have tried nearly every method. Most produced very stiff, unsatisfactory hides and involved a great deal of effort. However, the method I use now produces a very soft hide with little work involved. It does require the use of a potentially dangerous chemical (acid) so **I don't recommend that kids use this method.**

Tanning Hides The process of tanning hides was often a woman's responsibility. The process varied depending on the type of hide used and individual preference. For example after the husband cleaned a deer, he would give the skin to his wife, who would then begin tanning the hide. Often the children would help.

Tanning/Hides The rendering of hides into leather is still a valuable skill that has not completely disappeared from traditional Native culture. The concept of tanning hides is simple. You must convert the raw hide into leather which then can be used as a fabric for everyday living needs such as garments and accessories, bags and utility items, or simply cut into strips for straps and ties.

Leather Industry Glossary - A collection of frequently used terms, abbreviations and jargons used in the Leather Industry with their definition and meanings.

Cherokee Method for Tanning Hides. Mose Owl described this method.

Pre-Smoked Hide Tanning ~ Paul and Victoria Dinsmore

Brain Tanning ~ The Easy Way ~ Joseph Dinsmore & Victoria Longtrail D.

Brain Tanning Deer Hides ~ Many Moons ~ Contributed by Fred

Preserving a Hide with the Fur On~ Contributed by Cynthia Senicka

Preserving Deer Tails~ Contributed by Patty, Richard, CG & Jim Mitchell

Removing Deer Toes ~ Contributed by Jim Mitchell

Preserving Bird Wings, Tails, or Talons

Cleaning and Preserving Animal Skulls (University of Arizona - pdf)

Tanning Deer Hides and Small Fur Skins (New Mexico State University - pdf)

NWT Wildlife and Fisheries - Tanned Hides [PDF] Traditionally tanned hide is a unique material. It cannot be reproduced by industrial tanning techniques. This customary process was once crucial to survival in Northern communities.

Muller Lane Farm ~ Brain Tanning Hides I'll warn you right now that this Will develop your arm, back and abdomen muscles!! I'm going to write this as if you know nothing about deer and tanning.

Can you give me some pointers on freeze-tanning hides? Several years ago I purchased Participating in Nature. At that point I filed away the concept of freeze thaw tanning that you folks were experimenting with at the point of printing. Recently a friend dropped off a couple of hides and do to our weather in Alberta in winter I have become interested in learning a little more about your experiments.

TANNING THE INFIRM WAY A Description of the Pre-smoking Method of Brain Tanning. This presentation on hide tanning is compliments of Paul and Victoria Dinsmore.

How to Skin Deer, Elk, Antelope, Goat, or Sheep Skinning is a straight forward endeavor if you follow the body's built in guidelines. This is because the skin and muscle tissue are naturally separated from one another by protective membranes. Simply make the initial cuts, and then pull the skin off, as if you are removing the deer's coat.

Tan Your Own Go ahead and tan it yourself! It is amazing to watch this wet, sometimes unappealing, mass of skin transform into a beautiful and useful material --- and do it in your own backyard with simple tools.

How We Tan Sheepskins Into Beautiful Rugs My introduction to tanning was also a bit of a shock, and yours will be likewise. Nothing I can tell you will truly prepare you for working with a fresh-off-the-sheep hide. I'll simply put it on record that when Mr. Farnham says tanning is essentially hard, dirty work, he ain't just a-foolin'.

How to Bark Tan Everything we know (which isn't everything) about the civilized tradition of bark tanning. 7 pages.

Methods of Native Peoples Native techniques for using tannins in the tanning process. 3 pages.

Bark Tanning Experiences An area for tanners to post and read personal experiences and experiments with bark tanning.

ANCIENT TANNING METHODS a general outline of what is involved in brain tanning hides. There are many different "formula's" or directions for tanning out there. Some are simpler and some more involved.

Medieval Leather Discussion Group: This is a discussion group on medieval leather practices. They discuss everything from tanning to armour, to their favorite leather suppliers.

American Leather Chemists Association - ALCA: This site is the very scientific end of the leather world, should you want to explore that. They have a collection of past and current articles from their Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association.

Lotta's Tannery: Lotta Rahme's website. She is the author of Leather: Preparation and Tanning by Traditional Methods. She teaches classes in Sweden and has her own small tannery. The website is in Swedish except for one page in English, but there are some interesting pictures.

Windy-One & Deer Hides Perhaps I should do a little explaining about myself, for those of you who don't know me. I have been learning to brain tan for about 10 years now. Even after all this time, I still don't claim to know everything there is to know about the process. With every year, every hide, something is always different.

HIDE GLUE PRODUCTION - FROM HIDES? Yes, from animal hides, almost any animal but primarily from cattle hides. This is simply because of the abundance of cattle hides due to the enormous world wide consumption of beef and subsequent tanning of hides for leather. The trimmed hide pieces (too small or irregular shapes to provide useable leather) are shipped to the hide glue plant.

Adventures in home-tanning Last year I decided to try brain-tanning a deerhide. I got a salted and frozen hide from Don Sarrazin in Innisville, Ontario. It came with the fur on it and lots of yucky meaty bits too. If this link disappears again, we've archived it here

Tanning Deer Hides and Small Fur Skins [PDF] Guide L-103 James E. Knight, Extension Wildlife Specialist. Because preserving hides and furs is a very old art, many successful methods have been developed through the years. Native Americans used wood ashes to remove the hair and used deer brains as a tanning agent. Women chewed the hides to produce a soft buckskin, but few modern hobby tanners would want to try these methods.

Buckskin Tanning, part I Notes from a class. Follow the links for the rest.

An introduction to natural tanning and leathers The leather that you buy at the store is not naturally tanned. It is chemically tanned with chromic acids. These acids are very cheap to use but are unfortunately quite toxic and make an inferior leather.

Instructions for skinning deer, elk, antelope, goat, sheep etc. Skinning is a straight forward endeavor if you follow the body's built in guidelines. This is because the skin and muscle tissue are naturally separated from one another by protective membranes.

How to store hides You want to store hides so that they are in optimum condition for tanning: uniformly moist, and protected from rot, dogs, ring-tails, bears and bugs.

Braintanning Buffalo Robes by Wes Housler Looking for information I researched any old account I could find, and armed with a couple paragraphs I set out to tan a robe. To make a long story short I'll pass by the first ten robes and just say my learning curve was more similar to a horizontal line than a curve. Even so I could see definite progress and my results were improving.

Native American Deerskin Dressing at the Time of Contact Fascinating historical article Learn how to efficiently tan with only stone-age tools -- methods that could be used in a wilderness survival situation.

Brain tan throughout the ages Adapted for the web from a chapter in Deerskins into Buckskins by Matt Richards

Vaughn Terpack tells you what is different and good about tanning goats In all of the books on tanning, somewhere there is the mention that goat hides can be brain-tanned. And while these brief mentions confirm the idea, they go into no detail on what differences there might be between goat and deer. There is sure to be some discussion on tanning elk and buffalo, and maybe even moose, but the common goat is given only a sentence or two. So, for what it is worth, here are a few notes from my solitary goatskin experience.

How to make your fleshing beam better for your back By Vaughn Terpack, © 1998 To understand why every beam user experiences lower back pain, you first have to look at the human body. The pain always occurs in the lower back because the constant straightening of the spine is done by the small muscle groups located in the small of the back.

A three page essay on making and using smoke houses Text provided by Mac Maness, Richard, Rod & Jane (edited by Matt Richards) Recently at the braintan.com online forum (the Hide Out), there was a 'smokin' good conversation about using smoke boxes for smoking hides. It was so good that we decided to convert it into an article....

The Presmoking Method Revised and Expanded December 9, 1998 by Joseph Dinsmore & Victoria Longtrail

BUTCHERING, SKINNING and TANNING Rather extensive list of tips.

"Leather Working" by B. Levick. Article is generalized, but contains an interesting method of "bating" used by the Vikings to soften the leather prior to tanning.

learn how to make cool stuff out of hoofs Native Americans have been using game animal hoofs and dewclaws for centuries to make rattles, bandoliers and decorations for countless items. Using these raw materials helps create another tie back to Mother Earth where all these gifts come from. The hoofs and dewclaws of whitetail and mule deer, the hoofs of antelope and the dewclaws from small elk can all be used easily. In this article, I will discuss preparing deer and antelope hoofs for use and touch briefly on preparing deer and elk dewclaws. By Ken Smith

Brain Tanning Furs By George Michaud. This article is adapted for the web from an article George originally wrote for Fur-Fish-Game Magazine. There is an assumption that the reader already has a basic knowledge of certain steps of fur-handling. I recommend using this article in conjunction with Jim Miller's article (next)

Tan Your Pelts With Nature's Tools By Jim Miller. Our ancestors lived very close to the circle of life. Thankful always for the food, tools and clothing that came from a successful hunt. Warmth, color, protection and camouflage are shared with us by our four-legged brothers through the giving of their pelts. Today, one need only walk the roadside to find animals whose lives were taken. Thoughtlessly and sometimes without knowing, left there to become crow food. Whether you are seven or seventy, for the beginning tanner a road kill could become a rewarding first project.

Practical Uses of Pee Urine Tanning Hides: In the first century AD, the Roman's so valued the use of urine in the tanning industry that they imposed a tax upon it (the Roman Pee Tax. Most cultures never went that far in acclaiming it's worth. However vast numbers of cultures did discover the value of urine in tanning animal skins. Some merely sprinkled (tinkled?) urine on the toughest part of the hide, to soften it for working, while others actually soaked the hide directly in a container of pee. One of the tasks accomplished through pee soaking was to dissolve fatty tissues and flesh that had remained on the hide after skinning. Once soaked in urine, the tissues semi-dissolved and could be scraped off much more easily. (Flesh left on the hide will stiffen and rot.) In a later phase of the tanning process, urine is rubbed onto the outside of the skin to remove any unwanted hair as well as the out layer of skin. Mixed with quicklime and wood ash, the urine loosens the hair, allowing it to be scraped off.

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