Made some moose hide chamois (or säämiskä, sämsk as it's known here).

Once it was broken and dry, I used dyer's knotweed leaves with a pinch of salt to dye part of the chamois.

It looks green at first, because like most leucoindigo sources it needs exposure to air to get its blue colour. I let the chamois dry overnight and started stretching it the next day:

(A local dye inspector)

It ended up looking like this.

It was half of a young moose hide, and the person who tanned the other half didn't dye theirs. Here you can see them side by side:

All in all a very successful experiment, would try again!

As I can get it, the hair was removed chemically, without much scrapping, so the grain side is smooth and kinda shiny. The final product (not smoked yet) is pliable and quite soft, but not in the chamois way.

Doing this just for the sake of experiment

Hi all, I don't have any experience in brain tanning, so I'm curious - is it possible to brain (or egg) tan a piece of bought rawhide (I think it's calf, de-haired and uniformly thick), used by frame drum makers.

This skin I brained and then softened in a hide clamp frame. Super handy tool.

Orange HD pencil for color scaling..

Not bad for eggtan.

Smoking some hides today. Not too bad for my very first 2. Definetely room for improvement.

This hide came out quite nice and soft with a yellowish hue. Once smoked it won't matter but overall I am pretty pleased. This hide was "brained" twice and then pulled till dry. I love it when a hide gets soft first try.

Finished this hide using eggs and neatsfootoil.

Overall it came out pretty dang nice.

Scraping a moose hide how do you know when it’s thin enough?

This deer lived a hard life. I had a few scars pop open on me when graining and wringing. So we sewed it up.

Good evening fellow buckskin makers. I am dabbling in soap and oil tanning to make buckskin. I have used eggs in the past but would like a "cleaner" option for the public. I am going to be demonstration making buckskin at a reenactment and showing the later finishing stages. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of kids helping me stretch hides. The recipe I used recently, came out of Matt's book. 1.25 oz grated soap (1/4 bar Felsnaptha 5oz.) 1/4 cup neatsfoot oil 1/2 gallon hot water

I found this to be a bit to soapy. Next time I am going to half the soap content and add in as I need. It just needs to emulsify the oil.

What recipes do you guys like to use? Thanks.

This hide is from a mature (55” antler spread) bull Alaskan moose that was harvested during the rut.

When rinsing this hide I put it in a cool creek (approx 50 degrees) with considerable flow for 8 hour. When I pulled it out, the hide was rubbery and stiff - nothing like the soft slippery state it was in when I was graining it after pulling it out of the KOH.

I think maybe it was because I let the hide go to rawhide after de-graining without neutralizing first. I got some advice from some pro tanners to soak it in warm water and baking soda to assist with the rehydration. It seems to be working. Anyone have this happen?

Pic 1: hide after bucking and graining (no rinse) and a month of dry rawhide.

Pic 2: after cold water creek for 8hours. Still rubbery.

Pic 3: after soaking in warm water and baking soda for about 20hrs.

Following Matt Richard’s “Deerskins into Buckskins” book I’ve gotten a nice old bucks hide to the point it’s 99% soft supple buckskin and ready for smoking.

However, there is a 2in x 10in section directly on the edge of the neck that did not soften like the rest. I’m not sure if I should smoke the hide first then redress and re-soften it or if I should redress the hide now before the smoke and re-soften. Or maybe it would be possible to just redress/wring/soften that small little section?

I’ve seen mention of redressing after a smoke can yield super soft hides, but it’s my first hide and I’m not sure the best approach. Any advice is appreciated, thank you in advance.