Hide tanning is totally family friendly. We love seeing families tanning hides together! Depending on the age of the kids, their physical abilities, and their motivation, it might make more sense to tan the hide together, or to let them loose on it themselves. Tanning together can be an awesome bonding experience, and is great to do with kids of all ages. We’ve had students as young as 11 and 12 tan hides on their own, but you will need to be the judge of whether this makes sense for your kid. If you and your children are exploring wildlife, ancestral skills, indigenous peoples, homesteading, survival skills, chemistry, hunting, or history, hide tanning can work into your learning smoothly.

Yes, we generally tan hides in the winter. As long as you have a few days above freezing for scraping and wringing, and a sunny-ish dry day with a fire (or an indoor heated shop) for softening, you are set!

The difference here is in the scraping process, as may be evidenced by the names of the two tanning methods. Natalie Bogwalker, the Online Hide Tanning Course creator, started with dry scrape, and quickly switched to wet scrape because she found it made a lot more sense in her climate and was much more efficient.  

Here’s a quick comparison of the two methods. 

Wet Scrape Method:

• The finished product ends up a little smoother because the grain is scraped away to reveal a smooth outer layer
• The process takes less time, as you don’t need to build a frame to suit the size of the hide you are tanning, you don’t need to lash the hide to the frame, you don’t need to constantly sharpen your scraping tool, and you don’t need to wait for your hide to dry on the frame
• Works well in any climate
• Hide can develop an odor during the scraping step (this odor disappears after softening)

Dry Scrape Method:

• Only works in a dry climate or if you have a moisture regulated shop to scrape in
• Takes longer to set up than wet scrape
• End result can be soft, but the surface layer is rough rather than smooth because the scraping is done with a sharpened blade
• Very little odor during the entire process

Your imagination is the only limiting factor to what you can make. Many beautiful things can be made with one hide: hats, possibles bags, pouches, moccasins, buckskin bikini tops, and even skirts, shorts, vests depending on the size of your hide, and the size of your body. After you’ve tanned multiple hides you could make a buckskin jacket, pants, dresses, a long skirt, a backpack, and more! You’ll have access to the course material for life, so if you’re motivated, you’ll be able to tan many, many hides and make everything you can dream up.

We’ve used (and seen others use) this method for tanning hides from deer, antelope, elk, caribou, moose, racoon, bison, goat, and sheep. It’s likely that it would work with kangaroo hides, but we haven’t had a chance to try (can you help us out, Australian friends?). Wet-scrape brain tanning (the specific hide tanning method this course covers) is ideal for deer, antelope, and goat hides.

If you use it to tan the hide from a thinner-skinned animal such as sheep, you need to take extra care in the scraping steps since vigorous scraping can tear the hide.

On the other hand, if you choose to brain tan a larger, thicker hide ( like elk, bison, moose, or caribou), the scraping and softening processes will be very laborious due to the size and thickness of the hide. To help ensure your success with a larger animal, it can be a good idea  to collaborate with a friend and share the hard work.

In order to do hair-on (a.k.a. fur-on or pelt) tanning, the process that we present in this class must be adapted. At this point, this course will not walk you through the exact process for tanning with the hair or fur on, however many of the steps, techniques, and tools are quite similar.

No! We’ve had students express interest from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Holland, South Africa, the U.K. and beyond (which is pretty exciting). This course is great for you, no matter where you live. Brain tanning is an ancient method that has actually been practiced all over the world. The video content and extensive course manual will always be available to you, as long as you have the ability to access the internet through your phone, tablet, or computer.

Two days to one year. But seriously, an experienced tanner can tan a small to medium deer hide in two days if it’s all they focus on during that time, and the weather is conducive. At the other end of the spectrum, there are several points in the process when a hide can be “put on pause” to be revisited at a more convenient time (we make notes of these opportunities throughout the course material).

It’s usually a good idea to un-pause and complete the process within a year. For a beginner, if you’d like to go start-to-finish without taking long breaks, you can expect to tan your hide in 3-4 days. If you’ll be tanning on weekends only, you can expect the process to take 2-3 weekends, depending on how fast you work and on the weather.

There are a few specialized tools and some equipment you’ll need to tan a hide. The course includes an extremely detailed materials list, with clear directions for what you’ll need at the beginning of each step. We suggest various low- and no-cost options for every tool and give detailed instructions on how to make your own equipment from inexpensive or foraged materials. Many of our past hide tanning students have easily created their own setup at home after taking an in-person course with us, which is a testament to the thoroughness of our materials list and instruction.

Here’s an abbreviated list of special tools you may need to buy or borrow:

• Dulled-down planer blade
• Short length of large-diameter PVC pipe
• Sharp knife
• Steel cable and clamps
• Plastic bucket
• Drill

The only brains you absolutely need to tan a hide are your own! It’s true that the method of hide tanning covered by this course is called “brain tanning,” but you do have other options for adding fat and lecithin to your “braining” solution (fat and lecithin being the important ingredients that the brains contain).

Using the actual brains of the deer whose hide you tan can be very powerful, connective, and efficient. For you hunters, this is a no-brainer (haha), since you’ll have the whole animal to work with. If you’ve gotten a deer hide through other means, it’s likely that you didn’t also get the brain. In this case, egg yolks can play the same role. In the course, we describe exactly how to brain tan with and without brains, including specific recipes for each option.

Yes, but you have to be strategic. There are many points in the process of tanning a hide when you can put your hide “on pause” and take a break without compromising your work. Throughout the course material we highlight these opportunities, including a list of all of them in the course manual appendix. This guidance will help you plan your tanning projects based on your available time and physical stamina. There are certain steps that, once they’ve begun, need to be completed without taking a long break. So, if you know that you’ll need some breaks, take a look at the course manual to plan out when you’ll take them and when you’ll push on through.