Egg/Brain-tanning sheepskins - tips - picture heavy

[Cyclingrelf]

One more question. Should I stitch up any holes before I stretch and work the hide with the brain on?

Yes, now is a good time to stitch up the holes You may find they open up again during the softening process, but sewing them up helps prevent the holes getting too much larger.

Thanks for the book recommendation Shaels - sounds interesting. How many hides are you doing at the moment? Do you use them all yourself, or do you make them for other people? I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures

 

[eanne06]

Okay, so I have tanned, stretched, and smoked my first hide! Whoo hoo! It is quite an ugly thing, but I couldn't be more proud. I wandering, however, if I need to trim it. There a some parts were a flap or stretch of skin connect two parts of wool (I think it's where the back legs were. I also have most of the outline of the back and front legs. Do these need to be cut off?

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Okay, so I have tanned, stretched, and smoked my first hide! Whoo hoo! It is quite an ugly thing, but I couldn't be more proud. I wandering, however, if I need to trim it. There a some parts were a flap or stretch of skin connect two parts of wool (I think it's where the back legs were. I also have most of the outline of the back and front legs. Do these need to be cut off?

Well done you!! That's great Did the vinegar work? Did you get any wool-slippage?

I think the trimming is all according to personal preference (correct me people if I'm wrong!). I don't think there are any set rules about it, though traditionally you would have tried not to waste any of the hide because of the amount of work that goes into tanning it.

Have you washed the worst of the muck off and got the wool how you want it yet? If not, you might consider doing that first so that you can see what the finished product looks like before you trim bits off. I'm not sure if there are any special techniques for preparing the wool - I just used a bar of olive oil soap on mine and gave them a good wash in a tub of water, then rinsed the soap out. Next, I stuck the smaller fleeces one at a time in the washing machine on spin to get the worst of the water out before hanging them up to dry again. (You'll have to wring bigger fleeces manually, as they're too heavy for the washing machine). Once dry, I kept some of the fleeces looking natural, and others I cut the dirty ends off and used a carder to brush the fleece so it all looked white and fluffy (I was tanning Texels). I expect a wire brush would do the job just as well.

Provided you have smoked your hide thoroughly, you should be able to get it wet without it drying hard. The smoke changes the chemical structure of the hide. It may go slightly stiffer when dry, but not much and will soften very quickly with just a light pull around a table leg. It certainly won't need the effort you had to put in during the softening process!

 

[eanne06]

I got almost all of the muck off. The wool isn't as white as I'd hoped, but I'm not complaining. I did the same technique in the washing machine and it worked like a charm! I have run into another road block though. I thought I was completely done, so I started brushing the wool and found a few spots where the wool is slipping. You really have to separate the wool to see them, but I want to prevent them from spreading and getting bigger. I hadn't noticed them until now, and I'm not sure which step I messed up to make it happen. Right now they are only about an inch or so big. Any advice on how to stop them from spreading, or how to make sure the remaining wool locks in around it? Thanks for all your help-it has definitely gotten me this far =)

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Hi Eanne06 - sorry it has taken a while to reply, I usually get an update from this thread when someone posts, but the system didn't work this time! Anyway - r.e. the wool slipping, bad news I'm afraid. Here's what I've learned so far:

The wool slips because of bacterial action. The bacteria are on the skin right from the start, but they increase rapidly in damp conditions. The vinegar bit of the process I suggested you use for your fleeces is supposed to stop the bacterial action - they don't like the acid conditions, so it should buy you a bit more time to get through the process. However, I wasn't sure how effective it would be, as I've never done it. I guess it wasn't that effective

Two things that definitely stop the bacterial action are having a dry fleece (not possible in your case, as you have to wash the salt off and re-wet the skins) and smoking the hide.

It sounds like your fleece was unfortunately damaged by the bacteria before you managed to get it dry and then smoked. Either that, or there is some natural slippage anyway - sheep shed their wool for a variety of reasons including time of year and stress. I'm afraid there isn't much you can do. You've already smoked the hide, so there is no further damage being done, but it sounds like you're going to lose some patches of wool regardless. Two options with that fleece:

1) Finish brushing it, see what the damage is and see if you can trim the hide so that you get rid of the most obvious holes in the fleece.
2) If the hide really can't be saved with fleece on, you can scrape off all the wool (rather a tough job, but that's tanning for you!) and (if the hide is still a little stiff - mine usually are if I've tanned them with wool-on) go through the tanning process again with the aim of getting some lovely soft chamois leather. It should be quite easy to transform what you've got into leather as it has already been tanned to a large extent.

For future fleeces: Be aware that as soon as you get the fleece damp, it is a race to get it dry again before the bacteria on it can multiply and cause too much damage. It may be worth waiting for hot, sunny weather before attempting the others so that they dry a bit quicker. Or work them in a room with a good heater (I tried this, and it works but is expensive on gas/oil!!) It is much easier to keep a fleece on if you can get the skin fresh from the animal, so that you can scrape it straight away and don't have to wet the fleece to reconstitute the skin so that you can scrape it.

Hope that makes sense! And well done again for going through the process - it's a great achievement. Losing some of the wool is frustrating, but all is not lost as the leather is very nice and can be used to make pouches, bags, moccasins, clothing and so forth.

 

[mamapferd]

I have tried several times to access them and cannot. I was wondering if you might be willing to email them to me or try posting them again in pieces so I could see them? I am very impressed with the detail of your descriptions and your fortitude, not to mention your generosity! Thanks for all the hard work of telling us out here your process! I am starting on my first two skins and hope that because I froze them before fleshing, I will not loose hair. We shall see, as you said it is all learning! Thanks!

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Hi Mamapferd, sorry for the delay - I've been a bit busy lately!

I'm not sure why you can't see the photos from the first post, as they show up for me still. They are in my bcuk albums here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/album.php?albumid=2 maybe you can access it directly? If not, then some of them are on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclingrelf/sets/72157622510187397/with/4032285263/

Hope that helps

 

[TurboGirl]

Your threads such an inspiration, cyclingrelf I've been trying to research tanning as a freind will be shooting deer later this month and has offered me the hides as last year, he didn't get time to use them before they decomposed... an avertable tragedy in my book!!

I can't trouble him to do too much prep and he'll be away 10 days so I'm thinking salting is a neccesity for early kills (he got 3 last year)... although if freezing is a possibility, I'd prefer that as it sounds a better way to prevent hair slippage? I can't bother him to save the brains so will be using your egg recipe

I've had a big hunt-around the forum for info and articles but your thread is the nearest and best I've got, possibly I'm searching incorrectly as I've heard there is lots of info on here :S I'll post up a thread if anything comes of it and in the meantime, thanks again Its a lifesaver!

(Edit 26/1... My hunter has arrived back with 6 hides, I don't know if I can have em all but I think I need permission from our local meeters to bring em to the woods for a workparty this coming weekend!)

(edit 18/3... I'm keeping a record of my bumbling efforts here

 

[bellasole]

Hi all! I'm fairly new to this, have only tanned one buckskin, and working on sheepskins now. I live in a very damp climate, cold right now as well, and wanted to try the pickling method to try and prevent slippage, as my sheepskins are salted and need to be rehydrated. So we soaked them a bit, and spent hours picking out burdock burrs while they were soaking, then washed them with some soap 'cause they were filthy. (in hindsight, I realize I should have picked out the burrs before getting the salt off) So after washing a bit, we tried the pickling method mentioned above. But here's my confusion, and chemistry is definitely not my strong point- how can you get a pH of 1, when you start with water (anywhere from 4-7.5), and add vinegar (pH 2.4) at a ratio of approximately 4:1. Even if it was 100% vinegar, how would it ever go as low as pH1? So we tried, about 2 gallons h2o to 1/2gal vinegar, and it was pH 4.3; then added another 1/2 gal and it was 3.8. I let it sit for a couple hours wondering if there was some magical reaction that would drop the pH, but it never went any lower. So I pulled them out after about 6 hrs (still 3.8) and hung to drip overnight so I could scrape in the morning.
Any ideas, insight, clarification here?

Also, another question on slippage - If your hide is wet, say you had to rehydrate/de-freeze, etc, and you apply your tanning solution (eggs, brains, etc) and want it to stay on for up to a week (as someone mentioned you can leave it on up to 7 days) or can't get to it for a couple days to soften anyway, will that long period of it being wet create problems too? Should you blow dry the fur side after applying the solution? Is it better to put it in the fridge wrapped up, hang it, or lay it and cover it?
Thanks all for your help!

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Hi bellasole , I'm afraid I don't know, but hopefully someone who does will see your post. The pickling method came from this site http://www.manataka.org/page27.html so worth checking it directly?

I had real problems with slippage and only got 3 fleeces out of 9 hides, so any tips people have to reduce it are worth a try!

 

[OurAmericanCousin]

A tip for the time between braining and breaking the hide...

Once your brain slurry has fully penetrated the hide, you have to break it (soften). The process is much quicker and easier if you squeeze as much liquid out then freeze the hide. The brain slurry, upon freezing, expands (remember science class?). This will create expansion between the fibers. When ready, take your frozen hide (it shouldn't be an ice block, as you squeezed out any moisture that would create chunks of ice) and gently start moving it around. A lot of the small amount of frozen matter will begin to fall away before melting and being reabsorbed. This also binds with the hideglue (which is what all this is trying to remove from the hide) and aids in removing some, as well.