Tanning a deer hide, or any other hide for that matter, often means the hide will be sent to a taxidermist or a tannery, or that you’ll have to purchase a kit.

Native Americans did not have these luxuries, and had to use what was available to them. The best they had were brains from the animal the hide came from. Tanning hides with brains is a lost art, but many traditionalists still use this technique.

Outdoor Life‘s Brad Fitzpatrick has good information to brain-tan a hide in eight easy steps.

Animal brains are heated in water (Cronin uses approximately 1 pound of brain per hide) so that the braining solution has the consistency of “a brain milkshake.” (A note to the squeamish: Eggs, oil, and soap will also work, though not as well as brains.) The water should be very warm but not so hot that you can’t put your hands into the brain solution. Put the skin in a tub containing the solution and massage the hide by hand to help the emulsifiers in the brain tissue penetrate the hide. Most hides take two brainings, but some may take up to five… [continued]

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Photo: Chris Sorensen