Any active brain tanners here?
I have 6 hides I picked up today and more on the way.
Wouldn't mind chatting.

I got my first 4 good ones this summer. Plan to do more this year.

6 what? Deer are generally easy so are caribou but all the caribou I've done are full of bot fly holes. Full grown moose are a big big job. Never done elk.

Just got 5 big, white tailed deer hides fleshed tonight, will stretch them tomorrow.

Yep, scraped six deer hides this week, softened one today and pre worked one. I'm braintanning all the time.

Do you smoke the hides after brain tanning them. I was going to try that, but everyone told me if your don't smoke them they won't last very long. SO I still have a couple of calf brains in my freezer. I live in town and don't have a suitable place to try smoking them.

Garry-

Smoking keeps hides from turning back to rawhide after they get wet. It also adds some level of rot and insect protection I believe. To really get a hide smoked it just be thinned pretty good so the smoke can penetrate.

Braining is not really tanning it's faltliquering. Smoking is the real tanning that create crosslinking of the collagen fibers.

Yes, I normally sew two hides that are similar in size together into a sack and funnel the smoke it at the neck. I use a lot of sawdust to make smoke from a bed of coals.

I've used both brains and egg yolk to tan,all were smoked,a few poles and a tarp works fine after smoking, brush neetsfoot oil on the leather and work it in

I've used both brains and egg yolk to tan,all were smoked,a few poles and a tarp works fine after smoking, brush neetsfoot oil on the leather and work it in

Beautiful hides PASkinner. I have thought about using sawdust for smoking.

How long can a fleshed hide that is frozen be brain tanned and smoked??

I have only tanned small animals like rats, mink and fox, but some of the rats were frozen for three years and came out fine. One thing I don't do if I am going to leave in freezer very long before processing is … I don't flesh them and roll them tight, fur out, put in plastic bag and roll as tight as possible..

Garry-

I'm not sure if you are talking about a finished hide or a half tanned hide, or? You can freeze them after braining, and keep them indefinably, until you want to finish the process.

Do you have to pickle before braining?

I heard you have to be careful because of cwd.
just

The hides I am talking about are deer hides that have been fleshed and frozen, no other preparation.

I never did with deer hides but when I got into tanning other stuff like raccoons I found it helped a lot. Easy and cheap to do too.

Yes I pickle furs. You don't have to, but I agree it's easier. Deer hides for buckskin get " bucked" instead. Using lye, possasium hydroxide or wood ashes and water to raise the pH instead of lowering it. It has to be thoroughly rinsed out. Baking soda works well to neutralize, plus moving water, washer or what have you.
Again, you don't have to use the alkaline solution, but if done right, it makes softening easier.

For buckskin, I would say indefinitely.