Hello everyone,
I’m new here so please be gentile. I came across this wonderful treasure trove of information in search for some advice on a bear fur I acquired. Long story short, the bear was skinned by my friends young son who is just getting into hunting and I took the hide on as my first bear fur project.
Because of a covid quarentine it took me a couple days to get the hide, no feet on, with skull. There was hair slipage on the face but I skinned it out for the practice and the skull. I fleshed it the best I could, leaving what looked like very minimal membrane fibers that I though I could get off during a light finishing sanding. I washed it until it was free of oil, then washed it some more. I used the orange bottle, that I've used for small game and a plethora of rabbit furs. I think I used 5 or 6 bottles, and used the salting and pickling instructions on the back. When it came time to start streching it started well and started getting stiff on the edges. The center is still moist and oily from the tanning solution (I used a lot). I’m certain its not bear oil based on the smell and texture. ( My wife keeps reminding me how bad that smelled on my jeans, and a woman never forgets.) I have tried dampening the hide with a small rag and re stretching to no avail, and it seems soft when stretching, and as it dries hardens and becomes left flexible as I work it. I can tell there is excess, the membrane has taken on a fabric look and when I pull it off of the stiff areas or remove it with a wire wheel it comes off looking like a fluffy cotton texture and I feel like I’m damaging it. I’m at a loss of what to do at this point. I have washed out the fur with baby shampoo and a light mist with the shower, and used my wife’s blow dryer to dry it to prevent any slipage. The fur is beautiful, it at least I think for my uses. I would love to toubleshoot this thing until the end.
I have sent a PM to a poster who seemed to have a similar situation, but I wont turn down anyone who is offering good advice.
Little about myself, I got into hunting late in life being self taught. My great grandfather was a bear hunter from Louisiana passed down from as far back as he could remember, he taught his kids and no one felt it was important enough to pass on to me I guess, so I’m trying to piece together some lost skills to teach my kids.

I have attachted some photos. You can see where I took some matrial off with a wire wheel, and I'm not sure if its hurting more that uts helps. It seems to take to much off, and sanding with fine sand paper doesnt seem to put a dent in the thing.

BOCO will be the guy to talk to. He is really knowledgeable on tanning. Eric

You need to get the whole skin to where it is in the wire wheeled area, that's not too far. There is a lot of membrane left on by what I can see in the pictures, if it's not removed completely the skin will never degrease so it won't tan properly and wont dry.

If it is easier for you to remove the membrane in the dry state like it is now, than it is in the wet state, go ahead and wire wheel it, just make sure you go over in several light passes instead of one heavy one. If you create too much heat while wire wheeling it the fats in the skin will "cook" and become a solid that you will never get out.

After the membrane is off you can wet it up and start the process over again. You might want to look into something other than the orange bottle though.

Keith,
The edges are dry at this point. Can you suggest a specific wheel from a big box store? I have used a couple brass wire wheels in my drill and it seems like its cutting into the hide itself doing damage. Do you think sanding with lower grit sand paper may work so I don’t burn through? Any suggestions on something other that the orange bottle? I’m open to making my own solution if that’s what I need to do as long as it’s a safe solution for the kids to use and handle ( safe relative to responsibly handling)
Thank you both for the reply.

Does the hardened parts of the skin become soft when you wet it?if not then you likely have incomplete penetration of the tan.It is also possible that you have what is called case hardening where only the surface of the skin has tanned and the rest is locked up with hide glue.If that is the case then it will likely be very difficult if not impossible to get a flexible leather out of it at this point..If the hard parts of the skin become soft and flexible when wetted then your skin needs to soak up some leather lubricating oil.and some more working is required.If that is the case then it is likely salvageable.It can be difficult to get the stuffing oil to fully penetrate the hide sometimes when learning to home tan.Often many applications and workings are necessary to get the skin fully stuffed.Shaving down the skin helps a lot with thicker skinned animals.
tannerys use kickers to stuff the leather with oil.

Yes sir,
If I get it wet it softens right up and can be stretched, drying hard again. Ive tried that step once on a test area when I thinned it out and in got soft and was stretchable, the center of the fur where the tanning oil was applied very thick and pooled has been holding the shape of the ladder in have it draped over as well. My fear was to use to little of the orange bottle solution and it not penetrating so I used a lot, and then I put some more on. So at this point my first step is to thin while its stiff. Once complete, do I need to dampen and re apply tanning solution or just start stretching? Secondly, am I dampening or soaking prior to adding a leather Lubricating oil? Any recommendations on a product to use?
Thank you.

If it gets soft after dampening then I dont think you need any more topical tanning application.
What I would do is go over the entire skin with your wire wheel like keith said,then apply some leather lube thinned with about 25% warm water,paying more attention to the parts that have already dried stiff,then fold the skin leather to leather to let the lube "sweat in"Check it every day and add some more lube if needed and repeat.It should get to a point where it is workable to soften the leather.
If the skin is too oily in some places you may need to use some solvent to remove excess oil.
This is normally done in a tumbler.For home tanners small skins can be tumbled for cleaning in a bag with solvent and media in a dryer with the heat turned off.
This is not an option with a hide the size of a bear.

Thank you all for the advice. Ill start working on it and keep you posted.

It would take a hands-on look at the skin after it's wired off, but as heavy as it was when you oiled it, I'd lean toward good degreasing and tanning again. There are swabs that are basically fatliqours with a syntan emulsified into it hat do a decent job, but the skin will need to be pickled first to get it in the correct pH range for the tan and oil to bond.