Post by spence on Feb 20, 2020 9:48:05 GMT -7
I've never done any brain tanning, but I've read tomes about it on these boards over the years. In the day, brain tanned leather was called 'Indian dressed' or "brained", and I assume most of the technique was original to Native Americans and learned from them by the whites. A couple of examples.
A New Voyage to Carolina; Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. And A Journal of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro' Several Nations of Indians. Giving a Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners, &c. by Lawson, John, Gent. Surveyor-General of North Carolina [printed1709]
docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/lawson.html
"Their Way of dressing their Skins is by soaking them in Water, so they get the Hair off, with an Instrument made of the Bone of a Deer's Foot; yet some use a sort of Iron Drawing-Knife, which they purchase of the English, and after the Hair is off, they dissolve Deers Brains, (which beforehand are made in a Cake and baked in the Embers) in a Bowl of Water, so soak the Skins therein, till the Brains have suck'd up the Water; then they dry it gently, and keep working it with an Oyster-Shell, or some such thing, to withal, till it is dry; whereby it becomes soft and pliable. Yet these so dress'd will not endure wet, but become hard thereby; which to prevent, they either cure them in the Smoke, or tan them with Bark, as before observ'd; not but that young Indian Corn, beaten to a Pulp, will effect the same as the Brains."
And also: "They wear Shooes, of Bucks, and sometimes Bears Skin, which they tan in an Hour or two; with the Bark of Trees boil'd, wherein they put the Leather whilst hot, and let it remain a little while, whereby it becomes so qualify'd, as to endure Water and Dirt, without growing hard. These have no Heels, and are made as fit for the Feet, as a Glove is for the Hand, and are very easie to travel in, when one is a little us'd to them. "
"Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784", Johann David Schoepf
archive.org/details/travelsinconfede01sch
Schoepff was chief surgeon of the Ansbach regiment of the Hessian troops in America during the AWI 1777-1784. Once the war ended he traveled through the country for two years making observations of the people, the culture and about the botany and zoology of the areas he covered..
Describing a Settler on the frontier, probably in Ohio:
"Besides his farming and cattle-raising he makes a trade of tanning ; pays out nothing for bark and little for hides, but sells his leather as dear as that brought from elsewhere. For tanning he prefers especially the bark of the chestnut-oak, because it gives the leather a higher and clearer color than the bark of other oaks. Besides, this bark is distinguished for a particularly pleasant odor, which it imparts to the water. The bark of the black-oak makes good leather also, but gives it an ugly dark color. Most of the country-people in America know how to tan and themselves prepare, in little pits, the greatest part of the leather they need. They have even learned from the Indians an easy and rapid method of making leather from the skins of both wild and domestic animals. They call it Hirn-garmachen, i. e. brain-tanning. The skins are scraped ; the brain of the animal, perhaps a bear, is broiled with the fat, and then the soup is thinned with water ; the skins are several times rubbed smartly with this brew, and afterwards smoked. It is not a very cleanly process, but the leather is supple, good for all manner of use, and durable."
Brains cakes baked in the embers? Tanning with young corn? Make shoes in an hour or two by boiling hides in bark solution? Broiling the brains with the fat? Bark tanning after brain tanning? I see we didn't adopt all the techniques the NAs used.
Spence
A New Voyage to Carolina; Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. And A Journal of a Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro' Several Nations of Indians. Giving a Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners, &c. by Lawson, John, Gent. Surveyor-General of North Carolina [printed1709]
docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lawson/lawson.html
"Their Way of dressing their Skins is by soaking them in Water, so they get the Hair off, with an Instrument made of the Bone of a Deer's Foot; yet some use a sort of Iron Drawing-Knife, which they purchase of the English, and after the Hair is off, they dissolve Deers Brains, (which beforehand are made in a Cake and baked in the Embers) in a Bowl of Water, so soak the Skins therein, till the Brains have suck'd up the Water; then they dry it gently, and keep working it with an Oyster-Shell, or some such thing, to withal, till it is dry; whereby it becomes soft and pliable. Yet these so dress'd will not endure wet, but become hard thereby; which to prevent, they either cure them in the Smoke, or tan them with Bark, as before observ'd; not but that young Indian Corn, beaten to a Pulp, will effect the same as the Brains."
And also: "They wear Shooes, of Bucks, and sometimes Bears Skin, which they tan in an Hour or two; with the Bark of Trees boil'd, wherein they put the Leather whilst hot, and let it remain a little while, whereby it becomes so qualify'd, as to endure Water and Dirt, without growing hard. These have no Heels, and are made as fit for the Feet, as a Glove is for the Hand, and are very easie to travel in, when one is a little us'd to them. "
"Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784", Johann David Schoepf
archive.org/details/travelsinconfede01sch
Schoepff was chief surgeon of the Ansbach regiment of the Hessian troops in America during the AWI 1777-1784. Once the war ended he traveled through the country for two years making observations of the people, the culture and about the botany and zoology of the areas he covered..
Describing a Settler on the frontier, probably in Ohio:
"Besides his farming and cattle-raising he makes a trade of tanning ; pays out nothing for bark and little for hides, but sells his leather as dear as that brought from elsewhere. For tanning he prefers especially the bark of the chestnut-oak, because it gives the leather a higher and clearer color than the bark of other oaks. Besides, this bark is distinguished for a particularly pleasant odor, which it imparts to the water. The bark of the black-oak makes good leather also, but gives it an ugly dark color. Most of the country-people in America know how to tan and themselves prepare, in little pits, the greatest part of the leather they need. They have even learned from the Indians an easy and rapid method of making leather from the skins of both wild and domestic animals. They call it Hirn-garmachen, i. e. brain-tanning. The skins are scraped ; the brain of the animal, perhaps a bear, is broiled with the fat, and then the soup is thinned with water ; the skins are several times rubbed smartly with this brew, and afterwards smoked. It is not a very cleanly process, but the leather is supple, good for all manner of use, and durable."
Brains cakes baked in the embers? Tanning with young corn? Make shoes in an hour or two by boiling hides in bark solution? Broiling the brains with the fat? Bark tanning after brain tanning? I see we didn't adopt all the techniques the NAs used.
Spence
