Thursday, October 22, 2009

Natural Tanning


Last week we butchered a lamb and instead of using a commmercial tanning solution, I decided to try my hand at brain tanning like the indians did. As the photo's show, I first scraped the hide and then washed it. After spinning the hide in the washer, I applied the brain (which had been mashed and mixed with 1/2 cup water) to the skin side working it in with a flat stone. I then folded it over skin to skin and placed it in a plastic bag for 6-7 hours. When I removed the hide from the bag, I let it begin to dry and as it dried I streatched and pulled the hide to make it soft. I like the result better than the commercial tan. The finished product show the lock formation and more of the true color of the fleece. I'm happy!

2 comments:

  1. Just like I wash fleece. I filled the laundry tub with warm soapy water, submerged the hide and let it soak. Then I drained the dirty water and filled the tub up again with warm water. I repeated this until the water was clean. No agitation though, just squeezing, and submerging. Then I put it in the washer on the spin cycle and voila a clean hide.

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