Tanning Spirit Notes and Updates
-Braining-
As the story goes, each animal supposedly has enough brains to tan its hide. A better measure would be one pound of brains to a deer hide. The easiest way is to acquire brains is to buy them: ask your butcher. It doesn't matter what type of brains; although pork brains are often most readiy available. You can also ask hunters for their wild game heads, since most people throw them away.
Thaw one brain. A quick method is 6 to 8 minutes in the microwave. Then put it into the blender with one-half quart of water (caution: make sure you're not using chlorinated city water). Blend until smooth. It should look like a strawberry milkshake. Next, you will need to cook the brains to a rolling boil, so have
a container that will hold two quarts of liquid. (Note: the reason for cooking the brains is to prevent any small cut on your hands from getting infected. Cooking does not hurt the tanning properties of the brain solution). Once they are cooked, pour the brains into a larger metal container, such as a 3-gallon speckled canning bucket. Add enough cold water to cool the mixture. You should have no more than 4 quarts of water to one pound of brains. Stir the mixture until you can comfortably leave your hand in the bucket. Anything
hotter than that cooks the hide and it will fall apart when softening it.
Take the rolled-up hide, stand it on end in the bucket of brains. Take your hand and rub the brains onto the hide. You want the hide immersed in the brains, which may take a half-hour. Once immersed, start stretching and pulling the skin in the bucket to help the brains to penetrate. This will cause the skin to
become soft and turn white. Push the skin down into the mixture and leave it for a couple hours. When you return, stretch and pull the hide again. Make sure there are no hard spots. If there are, work those areas between your hands and over the beaming board. Now, hand-wring the hide (do this over the bucket to save the brain solution, as you are going to use it again). Take the hide to the beamer and work it thoroughly. Then warm the brains up just enough so you can put your hands in the mixture (this is the reason for the metal bucket), and put the hide back in the solution. Leave a large, heavy hide (a buck for example) in the solution overnight, whereas a smaller, lighter hide may need only 6 to 8 hours. Leave the bucket covered and at room temperature, never next to a stove or heater. One of the ways to check to see if the brains are penetrating is to grasp the hide with both hands to form a bubble and squeeze. HINT: the bubbles will squeeze only from the flesh side to the grain side. If air comes through, especially in the neck, you probably are getting
good penetration.
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