Hi
I'm in the middle of brain tanning a deer hide and need some help. One person told me I have to really get every bit of membrane off right in the beginning, big mistake there as it unnecessarily damaged the flesh side a little, wasted hours. Bucked with red oak ashes and pulverized limestone which took longer but came out beautiful, snowy white and fluffy, hair and epithelium hosed off on most of the hide, scraped it all just to be sure. Scraped flesh side a lot, unnecessarily, had trouble telling membrane from hide. Stretched, dried, realized this was much easier on flesh side with pumice on a couple stubborn spots. Got hide minimally wet to introduce brains, painted on thick coat per instructions let sit. Hide began to look like oilskin, found new instructions and realized hide not soft enough for good penetration. Added more water, soaked hide. Squeegeed and wrung and reapplied, squuegeed and worked in with hands for a long time. Wrung. Hung hide and began working it.the hide is looking like oilskin on the hair side. Is it just that I need to work it more? Its dried out enough again that I'm afraid I'll have to rebrain it. Hair side looks amber in some places, like rawhide. Am I doing this part right? The hide is very thin. Its a southern deer and small.
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