Braintan Questions

[tx-hunter]

wasn't sure if this is the right forum or not. I got a question about braintan.

I'm considering braintanning a hide this year. I know it is alot of work.

Is it something i can do an hour or two of work at a time and put is back in the freezer in between sessions? I know this isn't the ideal situation, but that's what i have to work with.

Thanks

 

[Desert Ratxx]

If you do a dry scrape you can work it at your leisure once you get the "meat" side cleaned up. That could take a couple of hours depending on the hide and your profeciency at working it. When you get to the actual braining you are still going to need hours to work it until it drys.

 

[tg]

I have heard of some guys who use a clothes dryer with the heat off and tumble dry the brained hides using some blocks of wood in the dryer to bang the hides around.I have never tried it but it is supposed to work.

 

TG,

Hmm... Wonder if my wife would let me try that?

I damn near crippled my self trying to do an oryx hide once. My shoulders and arms were so sore the next day that I could hardly straighten them. Pick a warm sunny day with a breeze when you're doing something that thick. Actually, don't even bother. That sucker was over half an inch thick over the shoulder.

Oh, and my wife just said that whoever told you that was definitely NOT married.

Sean

 

[paulvallandigham]

TG: I knew a trapper who used to soften his smaller game hides in his dryer, but he put the hides in a synthetic net bag to protect the fur, and used old ( clean ) gymshoes, and tennis balls to hammer the hide, I don't know how this would work with a larger hide but anything is worth trying over doing it by hand. If the heat is really off, you can put some baking powder in the dryer to catch the smells, and that should take care of the objections of the domestic supervisor. Some of the fabric softener paper things that are put in the dryers can be used to help perfume the hide, too. If I were using the baking soda, I would put it inside a small section of nylons or pantyhose, tied off, so that the baking soda would not get all over the dryer, or your hide.

 

[Riku]

wasn't sure if this is the right forum or not. I got a question about braintan.

I'm considering braintanning a hide this year. I know it is alot of work.

Is it something i can do an hour or two of work at a time and put is back in the freezer in between sessions? I know this isn't the ideal situation, but that's what i have to work with.

Thanks

Ask from these guys. They know for sure.[url] http://www.braintan.com[/url]/

 

[Greg Weeks]

This "dryer method" does not work. The reason braintan turns soft, is that the fibers in the hide are stretched while being dried. Banging or tubleing the fibers does not spread them out enough, to keep them from coagulating back together.
The brains ( one can use liquid ivory soap & a small amount of neetsfoot oil as well, or a dozen eggs ) lubricates the fibers of the hide, but not enough to seperate them from eachother. That's where the stretching and allot of hard work comes into play.
Idealy, a hide should be laced to a frame, and stretched with some sort of dull tool, like an axe handle or heavey piece of wood, that is dull enough not to cut the hide, while stretching.
Believe me, deer hide is darn tough, and a grown man, or a small boy in this case, can put his entire wieght into it, without worry.

 

[tg]

I always used several frames made of 3" fir poles to lace the hides to stretch and soften the hides, I wondered how the dryer could duplicate the function of making the hide larger than when you started, I had an old dryer that I was going to try but quit tanning before I got around to it.