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Anyone know how long it takes to prepare a skin? I know of some processes which can take months, but I'm also hoping for something quick. Namely, when I was a kid, my grandpa shot some groundhogs that were digging up his lawn, and my older brother and I spent the day performing an "autopsy" on it. Then we scraped the fat off the hide and let it dry, and my brother still has it in non-rotten condition.
Anyways, I need a fast way to prepare a hide to some relatively stable non-rotting consistency. I am thinking a fat scraping followed by a soak in some sort of chemical followed by drying in the sun or over a fire. Anyone?
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Actually tried Wikipedia already, and a quick google search. Neither of them give a time it would take. Neither of them specify if a day would be too quick... Unless you edited the wikipedia article to say so, let me check...
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A book I recently read about the Havasupai tribe (Grand Canyon natives) says they use the brains of an animal to tan the hides.
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From what I read, it seemed to be a day to clean the hides and apply the brains, then they left them staked out to dry for several days. Not more than a week.
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I visited the Havasupai reservation when I was a kid, its beautiful there. The wikipedia article mentioned brains as well. I'm thinking brains worked due to the high fat content (random sidenote: brains are mostly fat - so calling someone a fathead is not an insult, but a statement of fact...). Since leather preparation requires oils sometimes, I think that may be why brains could fit the bill, even if it is gross.
So a brain tan takes about a week... I'm looking for a <24 hour method...
[This message has been edited by Teraen (edited August 22, 2009).]
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Seems to be 3-5 days...I just googled "How to Tan a Hide". The number of days can vary depending on if you want the hair in tact and what you're going to be using it for. For example, making a rug or a trophy out of it requires more time and care. Making buckskin clothing or moccasins takes less effort and time.
The simplest method I saw was pining down the skin in a secure manner, scraping off all the flesh, then rubbing salt on it every day while letting it dry. Next to a fire or out in the sun helped speed the process but it would still take a couple days.
[This message has been edited by RillSoji (edited August 23, 2009).]
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