Should any calamity befall you or your family that changes your situation to one of survival, do you know what to do, where to go, how to get there, what to do once you get there, how to provide for yourself and loved ones or what you will need and how much? Most lack the forethought to plan ahead and prepare themselves for any likelihood other then a flat tire, and even then only because the automobile factory placed it in the vehicle for them. Feel free to read, experiment and improvise what I have put on this site to potentially help you one day.



Saturday, March 5, 2011

How to tan hides

Before modern technology gave us machines and chemicals to tan animal hides, early civilizations used
natural ingredients to preserve animal skins. This traditional way of tanning hides is used today by people
who want their animal skins tanned without chemicals.


History

1.Since the Stone Age, animal brains have been used to tan and preserve animal hides. Frontiersmen wore
brain-tanned buckskin, as did General George Washington's troops during the Revolutionary War. The work
clothes of common laborers in 18th century America wore tanned buckskin as did the fashionable upper class
in Europe.

Features

2.First, you must scrape the animal skin to remove all fat and membrane. The brain of the dead animal is removed,
heated and blended into a brain-and-water mix called a slurry. After the animal hide is scraped and dried, the slurry
is rubbed into the hide and left overnight. The slurry is scraped off the following day.

Effects

3.The brain method of tanning preserves the animal skin and leaves it soft and supple enough to wear as a garment
and lasts as long as chemically preserved hides.

Misconceptions

4.Contrary to what many people believe, an animal hide preserved with the brain-tanning method does not have
a bad smell.

Benefits

5.Chemical tanning methods leave chemical residue in the animal hide that can transfer to your skin. Brain-tanned
hides have no such chemical residues. In addition, brain-tanned hides can be washed.