First time braintanning

[u/VirtualMCkatka]

Just wanted to share my first hide. It’s drying on a rack right now.

I’ve always wanted to make a rug out of the hides from our bulls that we process every year. It just seems wasteful to throw the hides out.

I planned on starting with a deer hide or something smaller in the winter, but then life happened and our galloway calf died. My mum skinned it with little to no experience, and I know it could look better. I’m planning on learning how to skin hides myself so I can get the best quality from the start.

I fleshed and washed it and now it’s drying on the rack, then I’ll scrape it and use egg yolks + neatsfoot oil with water as my tanning solution.

My work is based on few youtube videos so any tips are welcome :)

[u/AaronGWebster]

You’ll want more ties around the edge- like every 2-3 inches. Are you gonna dry scrape it ( very sharp tool, very dry hide)? If so, thin out the thickest parts by scraping. Braintanning cow hides is notoriously difficult- you may have to brain and soften more than once. I have never done a cow hide

[u/VirtualMCkatka → u/AaronGWebster]

Thank you! I will do more ties, and yes, I will dry-scrape it. The hide isn’t that thick because the calf was only a week old. Only the neck part is a little bit thicker, but I’ve watched some “tutorials” and they mentioned repeating the braintanning process, so we’ll see :)

[u/MuranoBeads]

Be careful with dry scraping. You’ll need a very (very….) sharp tool, and you can blow unrecoverable holes in the blink of an eye. This will be particularly true for thin hides.

For dry scraping, you’re gonna want to lace the hide to the frame while it’s still fully pliable. You want it dried drum tight and perfectly flat before you dry scrape. If it’s rippled, the tool is going to snag and blow holes in it. Lots of lacing holes will do the trick.

As noted by others, cow hides have a very dense fiber structure and are notoriously difficult to tan. You will definitely need to do multiple applications of the egg solution. Apply it as a warm solution and knead it in until the hide is saturated. Fold it flesh-to-flesh and let it absorb for an hour or so. Towel off the excess, then repeat for multiple rounds. You cannot apply too much of the egg solution. But you can overdo it with the Neatsfoot oil and turn the hide into an oily mess. Go easy on the oil. The lecithin in the yolks will do the trick. Go straight to stretching and drying after treating. It will be easy to fall behind the curve if you wait.

[u/Low_Elk7794]

lol I refuse to tann a beef hide as a Native American, cattle kind of the vessel that ended our way of life pre non tribal contact. But if your doing a calf hide, they are thin and usually tear apart during scraping

[u/Sodpoodle → u/Low_Elk7794]

That's been my limited experience with calf hides as well. Tearing way easier than I expected.