A friend gave me a calf brain a couple of days ago. He thought I might want to try it in my tanning.

Okay my question is... When you use brains in the tanning do you have to smoke the hide after you have worked the hide and got it well broke?

Everything I find in my research online says, it needs to be smoked. Why? What happens to the hide if you don't smoke it? OR... what does the smoking do?

From what I can find, using brains keeps you from having to use a pickle bath, therefore, saving days in the pickle bath and steps that follow.

HELP!

Garry-

you can tan every thing with there own brains ; So how does that work for Joe Biden or the rest of the demarats.

Smoking a hide serves several puropse.
A prelimanry smoking of the hide after fleshing will get rid of the slimyness,making the hide nicer to work with and allowing it to take up the brain better.
After braining the hide and softening the dry brain tanned hide,It is smoked to both preserve the skin and to waterproof the fibres inside the skin.It does not waterproof the skin it just waterproofs the fibres so they dont lock up after the skin,(when used as a garment), is wetted and subsequently dried. The skin will soften easily after drying out.A properly brain tanned and smoked piece of leather can be laundered many times and will dry soft like flannel
Since you dont use any chemical process that preserves the skin,smoking is necessary to preserve a brain(or soap) tanned skin and keeps it from deteriorating or being attacked by insects or other vermin also.

The initial softening working stretching and drying the hide before final smoking is crucial to good brain or soap tanned leather.Any stiff spots at this time needs to be re-brained and worked until soft.
Dry scraping (or alternatively frost scraping) is traditionally used to thin the thicker parts of a hide so it is uniform thickness before braining.

If you skip the smoking-dont get the skin wet or it will stiffen up like rawhide since the fibre lube(brain) will get leached out.

brain tanning a large thick skin is hard and labourious work.Moosehides are normally done by 3 or 4 people working together.

There are a couple guys on here who turn out some really nice brain tanned hides-maybe they will chime in.

What boco said

X2 dont do all that work and not the smoke process you will be sorry.

Beat me to it.

Yup, Boco knows his stuff,listen to what he said.

Is there a way to tell when the hide has been in the smoke long enough?

Do you really have to try turning EVERY post into politics? Geez. Get a life.

A few hours to a day is the norm.The longer the hide is in the smoke the darker it will get.Both sides are smoked.The hide must be kept away from heat.
A tee pee or smokehouse can be used for many hides,or if one hide is smoked, hot coals and punkwood in a hole or bucket can be used to smoke the hide,A frame is made over the smoker the hide draped over the frame and covered with a tarp to contain the smoke,The hide is moved around on the frame for even smoking.

I love the smell of smoke tanned hides.A nicely done #1 grade moosehide (no holes or hard spots) can sell for over $3000.

Any advice on how to thin thicker hides at home?

I have seen online guys using a high-speed sander, like a pneumatic with compressor. The examples I have seen are beaver and coon. I've used a small hand rough planner, but it isn't very fast and not real efficient. The only compressor I have is a small pancake and it doesn't work well.

Garry-

Another way to smoke. Faster than a smokehouse, but not easy!



A pretty evenly smoked piece of moose hide.

I watched a video where a guy used lard.
I'm thinking if lard works what wouldn't.
just

I use something similar. My understanding is the smoke needs to leach through the hide and not just come in contact such as hanging in a smokehouse?

If you just use a smoke house it's slower but it can be done. I use one but it's not air tight so mine are still smoked in sacks. A good way to go with furs if you are tanning them cased, is just put a skirt on the bottom. You can also smoke them when half softened and rebrain.

Okay... ANOTHER QUESTION!

When a commercial tannery does your hide and offer 2 services i.e., 1. Taxidermy or 2. Garment, what is the difference in their process? Does the tumbling in the sawdust take the place of smoking, or do they use other chemicals or methods throughout their process?

Why am I asking all of these questions?

Because I have quite a few pelts I have tanned and want to make hats etc. out of them, but if they are not going to hold up when wore I don't want to stick the buyer with a piece of crap.
I am not talking about my quality of work, because if I offer it for sale, it will be finished properly. I am sure that many on here don't smoke their pelts, but still sell the finished product.
What say you?

Garry-

Actor,
There's many different kinds of tanning. Smoking a hide is a form of aldehyde tan, as I understand it. Commercial tanneries use other tanning chemicals. Moyles is an alum tan according to thie information I've seen, for example.
Much leather and fur is chrome tanned.
The tumbling in sawdust processes are for softening and cleaning the fur... not tanning.
I suspect that the taxidermy hides aren't soft tanned, but I haven't seen them. For taxidermy the hide has to be fit over a form.
Anyway, smoking is just one form of hide tanning and most commercial tannies aren't smoking hides. They are using synthetic tans or other methods.