# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Making Stuff >  Curing animal hides

## Dark786

Hey, any one out there know a good way to cure an animal hide with out the use of chemicals.

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## FVR

Brains, cod liver oil, pee, alum, fish oil, eggs, veg. oil, acorns, etc.

Go to braintan.com, they are full of helpfull information.

I have used brains and alum with success.  Pee works for fish skins great.

For hair on I like alum as it tightens the hairs.  I've made quivers from boars hide and you can run over them with a truck and the arrows won't get damaged.

Frank

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## kunkel

well how do you cure a hide with alum so the hair stays in and the hide is still pliable?

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## Sourdough

> well how do you cure a hide with alum so the hair stays in and the hide is still pliable?


Chew it for hours, or put it in a large tumbler.

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## Rick

Chew on alum? That would pucker you so bad you'd have two sets of lips on your face. :EEK!:

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## Sourdough

It is best to used a two step process.....

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## RobertRogers

Chewing...too funny.  You'd end up looking like an aged Inuit woman with no teeth

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## Sourdough

> Chewing...too funny.  You'd end up looking like an aged Inuit woman with no teeth


I was not going to go there, but that is how it is done.

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## klkak

I send the hides I want tanned to "Alpha fur tanners" in Anchorage. They will even flesh them for you if you are'nt up to the task.

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## LadyTrapper

Brain tan works well (just finished a winter rabbit pelt for a dream catcher)and leaves the hands soft for days as you apply the brain paste best with your bare hands. 
I didnt chew but used a chair rung or back of a wooden chair to pull it back and forth on. Very time comsuming, but made for a soft suptle pelt.
Grossed the kids out a wee bit with the cookin of the brain matter, but  each animal has enough brain to tan it's own hide.
Good luck!

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## klkak

> Chewing...too funny.  You'd end up looking like an aged Inuit woman with no teeth


To funny. I know a man who has a fishing boat called the "Old Squaw". In these times of "Political correctness" he has taken to refering to the boat as "The Elderly Native Woman" :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## grundle

> Brain tan works well (just finished a winter rabbit pelt for a dream catcher)and leaves the hands soft for days as you apply the brain paste best with your bare hands. 
> I didnt chew but used a chair rung or back of a wooden chair to pull it back and forth on. Very time comsuming, but made for a soft suptle pelt.
> Grossed the kids out a wee bit with the cookin of the brain matter, but  each animal has enough brain to tan it's own hide.
> Good luck!


Did you still soak the hide in a water-lye solution before applying the brain matter, or did you skip that step altogether?

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## LadyTrapper

Skipped that step, but rabbit pelts are so thin that they dry quickly...rewet if you need to before applying the brain.

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## Jeremiah Johnson

Make sure the skin is dry, and stretch the skin as tight as possible and leave it in the sun (if the moisture is not drawn from it, it could rot). You can rub wood ashes on the skin which will help the process. While it's in the sun, make sure it stays VERY dry. A drop or two of water wont' hurt, but make sure it stays dry. You can also put it over a fire (the smoke will help preserve it), but make sure it does not hit the flames and make sure the skin stays stretched.
INFO FROM: SAS Survival Handbook; John "Lofty" Wiseman, pg. 317

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## RBB

> well how do you cure a hide with alum so the hair stays in and the hide is still pliable?


I haven't used alum since I was a kid, but to make the hide pliable, we stretch a taut rope,  3/4 inch thick or better, at about eight feet high, and run the hide back and forth until it is dry.  If you can't get it dry in one session - throw it back in the freezer.

If you do a lot of them this way - it is a good chance you'll have carpel tunnel problems.

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## Teacher

> Brains, cod liver oil, pee, alum, fish oil, eggs, veg. oil, acorns, etc.
> 
> Go to braintan.com, they are full of helpfull information.
> 
> I have used brains and alum with success.  Pee works for fish skins great.
> 
> For hair on I like alum as it tightens the hairs.  I've made quivers from boars hide and you can run over them with a truck and the arrows won't get damaged.
> 
> Frank


I have found leaching the tannis out of acrons works really good on small thin skinned game.  I have never tried the thicker skinned critters.

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## foresterkid

> Brains, cod liver oil, pee, alum, fish oil, eggs, veg. oil, acorns, etc.
> 
> Go to braintan.com, they are full of helpfull information.
> 
> I have used brains and alum with success.  Pee works for fish skins great.
> 
> For hair on I like alum as it tightens the hairs.  I've made quivers from boars hide and you can run over them with a truck and the arrows won't get damaged.
> 
> Frank


this site is a virus

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## crashdive123

> this site is a virus


Virus as in once you go there it is difficult to leave, or virus as in something wrong with the site.  Please explain since this is a four year old post.

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## grizzlyadam

> Brain tan works well (just finished a winter rabbit pelt for a dream catcher)and leaves the hands soft for days as you apply the brain paste best with your bare hands. 
> I didnt chew but used a chair rung or back of a wooden chair to pull it back and forth on. Very time comsuming, but made for a soft suptle pelt.
> Grossed the kids out a wee bit with the cookin of the brain matter, but  each animal has enough brain to tan it's own hide.
> Good luck!


Mind explaining to me step by step how this process works? You mentioned "cooking" the brain matter. And I don't understand terms like "chew". Sorry, I'm delving into this skill with a pretty fresh mind.

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## RandyRhoads

> I don't understand terms like "chew".


Masticate.

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## Darkevs

Though I have not tried this one, here is an old method for tanning buckskin.........

Use  a fresh.green hide........ Drape the skin over a peeled pole..........straddle the pole while working......use a broken scythe blade ior 'drawing' knife to grain off the hair....take the deers brains and rub them on both sides of the skin, paying most attention to the inner side. Smoke over a rotten bark fire..........Then wash in soapy water, then squeeze out well, twist the moisture out in the manner of a turniquet, using a stick. sew the hide in a frame and work with a dull chisel until soft and dry. If it dos not soften, smoke and repeat the washing and twisting and frame work, repeat until the buckskin is as soft as velvet.

Or so the recipe goes....................   :Smile:

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## crashdive123

You may want to check out some of the techniques our world famous tanning guru uses.....OK....he may not be world famous yet....

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...mplicated)-way

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## Rick

Yeah, YCC seems to have the tanning thing down pretty good. Take a look at some of his posts. Ooops. I mean YourComfortingCompany (YCC)

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## Darkevs

when it comes to hides................i have a cure for them................dig a big hole and bury them deep enough so that the Pitbull Pearl cannot dig them out after a week or so and roll all over them and then come in and sit on my lap.

 :Smile:

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## your_comforting_company

Thanks for the creds guys. I'll get some pics of the live oak tan up soon. It's so purple it's almost black. It's been currying for 3 days now and is ready to be staked. 

Were I living off-grid, I wouldn't waste perfectly good material. Each to his own I guess.

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## Darkevs

One can only do so much work.   :Smile:  So yes I agree, to each their own.

I have tanned hides many times, but not big huge ones, too hard for me to do, so they get buried along with the head and any innerds that i do not harvest for tripe for my dogs.

I have a really nice calf hide rug, it was my first attemp at tanning many years ago and it still looks like new!

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