RE: DIY Bark Tanning Leather Naturally.
wow, thank you for this and beautiful. i have tried to do the "brain tanning"-used eggs once and brains another time) in late winter and it just never finished while i was doing the rubbing fast enough and i lost hope. i have a couple goat hides (that we had on our land) in the freezer (put in immediately with hair on) and two deer hides (one a roadkill and one ini shot for our sustenance) that are partially scraped, but are hard obviously. will i face any issues starting this process up again with the hardened ones? by this point they've been sitting out for months and the flies have done their word - they don't smell, they're just crispy.
i was getting really excited reading this as i have not researched tanning in this way before, but then i saw 6 months-1 yr for deer hides! wow that is quite an investment of time.
so i wanted to ask- you have you 1,2,3 buckets of the tannic solution and the hide is in the bucket, you're moving it around each day... about how long does it take for the tannic solution to go to clear?
scudding is basically rubbing it a bit with an object that isn't rough on the edge- or you do want it a little rough to rough up (especially the membrane side but be more careful with the pore side?) and then twist and get the water out and then put it back in the tannic solution? you do this for at least a month for the deer hide (i read the part about checking it to see if it's gone all the way through, just trying to get a ball park.)?
what solution did you use for that last image? that reddish color is amazing!!
i am very curious what colors the sumac make- we have a lot of that around here- as well as the mimosa. i'm sure this is another nuanced world unto itself... all of the varying natural colors that can be made. so so cool. i looked up Steven Edholm as you suggested.
i've been wanting to dive further into this for so long so THANK YOU THANK YOU. resteemed for visibility and so i can easily come back to it! <3
a lot to answer and a lot of try to explain without being there in person to show you. and I've taught classes on this before, but not lately since being on the road.
so braintanning- totally different than this, and don't lose hope. At least when it comes to softening you almost have to do it MANY times to get it soft. that means putting it back in the brains over and over. many folks don't tan them all in one go either, they'll dry them and get back at it later. you can pick those hides up and throw them in brains and go again. but there could be other things going on - not scraped enough membrane or grain off, too alkaline (if you bucked it), or other things.
freezer hides- they are good in there for quite awhile. the hair will likely slip but that's okay. i even use a freezer to soften! it breaks up the fibers. folks do that in northern climates in winter to soften hides- leave out in the snow and bring in and put in brains again.
tannin solution- it will go fast at first. in a day or two. i usually have several boils around in buckets and just dump half of the 'spent' tannin out and replinish with concentrated stuff often. it will keep going clear. i literally do this like 20 times or more to get it really tanned. a fish skin would take hardly no time.
skudding- it would either be a blade like what you use with brain tan-wet scrape method- or a piece of bamboo or broom handle, the round side. i tend to scrape hard on mine, constantly checking that i didn't damage the surface of the leather or the grain on the other side, but i also prefer that softer thin leather. some folks just skud gently by basically wringing it out. its like a sponge that needs to be squeezed in order to let more liquid in, so that the new tannin liquid can penetrate and the tannins will bind permanently to the fibers, also kind of breaking it down in a good way. (there's so much science to this)
braintan.com has tools and stuff.
last picture solution- tan oak!
sumac makes a pinkish color. it is also more concentrated in the fall when the leaves start to turn red. you could use any oak bark, branches, galls, willow, coffee and black tea! dry some sumac now in the barn, and when it is dry it is more tannic. make a fire and boil some in a pot you will use just for this. let it go a couple hours. when it cools down to where you can put your finger in it, pour it in a bigger tub than this bucket above- that is better for it to move around. and then just stick a scraped hide in there. you can do hybrid braintan/barktan too. like do it half one way and half another. experiment! and also get books- that are helpful.
it doesn't have to take 6 months either- it just did for me because of traveling. it goes faster in summer!