deer hide?

[Tyler Langston]

I am wanting to tan a deer hide and leave the hair on it. How do i tan a deer hide with just household items?

[Don Stokes]

Clean it down to the skin, stretch it on a frame, and salt it down heavily. It will drip as the salt pulls the moisture out. When it's thoroughly dry, the work begins! To make it soft, it must be oiled and worked by stretching and pulling. Various oils will work- someone else can be more specific here.

Lots of work- I've read that Native American women chewed the dried hides to soften them, but my teeth aren't good enough...

If you just want a rug, salting is good enough alone. Hair-on deer hides don't make good rugs, though, because the hair is brittle and breaks up if it's walked on.

[bigcountry]

Indians would flesh and rub over with deer brains. You can also eggs instead of deer brain.  And Then smoke it with punkgrass, then rub it over a stump to loosen it up.  They would do this a few times until tan.

Its called brain tanning.

[Tom Leemans]

I believe you'll need something to keep the hair from slipping. I know you can soak it in a bucket of water with alum in it. There's a video or two on youtube you can look up.

[SSGN_Doc]

Brain tanning should work well.  You can use cow brains from the meat market if you didn't keep the deers brain.  

You shouldn't really need to do anything beyond the tanning and stretching for a "hair on" hide.
Smoking the skin side can help

If you wanted to remove the hair then you want to soak it in an alkaine solution for a few days.  This can be made with hardwood ash and water.

As others have said, deer skins will tend to lose hair overtime because the hairs are brittle.  For a wall hanging though, they can hold up rather well.

[dan rothrock]

I've brain tanned quite a bit, and no matter how experienced you are it it is always a real pain..literally.  It is essential to flesh and scrape to the grain (dermal layer) then apply brains and work in by hand. A rubbing board or tight rope is needed to "break" the fibers apart to allow the oils from the brain to coat the dermal fibers. (This is a long process)Once the fibers are saturated with brain and the hide is dry and soft, it is necessary to smoke it so the fibers are waterproof.  If the hide gets wet, the natural glue in the hide will fuse itself back together and you will have to re-break or it will be stiff as a board. The natural resin from smoke is what penetrates the dermal fibers, hench waterproofing. If this is your first hide tanning project I would consider buying a tanning acid or chemical to soak the hide in.  This method is considerably easier than the labor intensive brain tan method.  If you just want a hide preserved..let it soak in vinegar/salt solution after fleshing. apply borax and break it over a board/rope untill desired softness is reached.

[Gitche Gumee]

I have tanned hides chemically and they turned out decent. But if you want some good info on natural tanning methods go to braintan.com. Its a great website. My daughter is brain tanning a deer hide (hair off) for her science project this year. Of course with some help from Dad.

Gitche Gumee

[Ricker]

Try this for helpful information....

 http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,14693.0.html

[talkingcabbage]

If you want a hair on hide, you need to flesh it real well (get all the meat and fat off).  Forget the salt.  Just make sure you freeze it whenever you get to a point where you can't work on it any longer.  To set the hair (make sure it doesn't fall out) soak it in a mixture of 1 lb of alum and 1 lb of salt (pickiling, not iodized) to 1 gal of water.  Mix enough of this solution to completely submerge the hide.  Weight it with a rock and leave it in this mixture for a couple of days.  When you take it out, rinse thoroughly!  Then stretch in a frame.  You can let it dry at this point, or continue.  (it's easier to continue)  Get the deer's brain, or cow or pig brain, and some lukewarm water -- just a gallon or two.  put the brain in the water and squish it with your hands (or put in a blender and frappe).  Try to get it as broken up as you can.  Then rub the brain into the flesh side of the hide.  You really need to work it in good.  Then get an old axe handle, canoe paddle, or simiar wood stick without huge splinters, and work the hide till it's dry.  Don't be afraid to really push on it.  Go easy around any holes and the edges.  If you're just making a wall hanger, you don't need to work it that much, but try to squeegie most of the water out with the paddle.  If you're wanting a blanket(of sorts), you need to work it a lot, and until it's completely dry.  Otherwise it'll get stiff spots and not turn out like you want.

[Don Stokes]

My brain hurts, just reading this! KISS if you just want a rug.

[talkingcabbage]

Here's the KISS method.  flesh, alum soak, rinse, stretch, brain, stretch, done.  the alum soak is real important if you don't want the hair to fall out in a couple weeks.  You could probably skip the braining and just rub in some Neets foot oil.  It won't make is as soft, but it will help it from turning into rawhide.