im tanning a buffalo robe and am having difficulty with the fleshing part. i got the hide after it had been salted for about a year. soaked it for 24 hours and removed most of the flesh. im having trouble removing the connective tissue layer between the flesh and the skin. right now its drying as im going to dry scrape it. does anybody have any experience with this that can let me know the best way of going about this.
also, if anyone has any tips on cold weather tanning ide love to hear them
Well, I’m no expert but I think that using tannic acid works better in the cold then braintanning. You can get tannic acid by boiling acorns for food: the water left over is tannic acid. I have a whole bunch left over from my acorn experiments earlier. You can also get some by boiling oak chips or leaves.
What kind of tool are you using ? describe your set up.
Winter and below freezing is actually the ideal time to brain tan a buffalo robe. Or at least get a lot of the work done.
i have a scraper like the one you can buy from braintan.com ive seen it a few places. i keep it as sharp as i can get it. right now im set up in my garage. the hide is racked and sitting on four chairs. ive been standing on it to flesh it.
That’s a good tool. There is a magic window of time for fleshing and thinning where the hide is not dry but not wet. Hard to describe.
Don’t tell anyone but when I have missed that window I have used a sanding disc on an electric drill.
I think you have asked this over on the Hide Out, or someone else is asking the same thing. There is probably the best online info about what you’re doing over there.
Can you split the leather?
Just for inspiration, here’s a link to 4 recent pictures of Melvin Beattie softening a huge 9 year old cow buffalo robe. Melvin is a brain tanning “elder”. He’s tanned thousands of hides over the last 40 years. He still tans lots.
http://corolla27.webcrossing.com/WebX?14@115.HbjdascQjTL.278658@.ee8282e/376