[Northkeep] deer hide tanning

[Marc Carlson]

There are all sorts of options, really.  The easiest and safest thing to do 
at this point is to either keep the thing frozen/freeze the new one until 
you can go seek out some of those tanning kits and follow those directions.

Second option is to stake it out and scrape the inside of the hide of all 
fat amd meat bits, then salt it and let it dry.

You could find a closed shack and stretch the scraped hide over a smokey 
wood fire for a 1-5 hours.  If you use the brains of the animal to tann, 
what you are doing is a form of oil curing in addition to the smoke tanning. 
  The oil keeps the skin pliable, while the oxidising of the oil is also 
partly tanning the leathe, as well as the aldehyde tannage of the smoking.

If you want a good, period vegetable tannage, I'm afraid that's a bit more 
troublesome.

BTW, there are NO parts of any of these processes that don't reek.  The hide 
will stink, you will stink, and you will probably ruin whatever clothes you 
are wearing.

Also take a look at http://www.nativetech.org/tanning/tanning.html

Marc/Diarmaid

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