Braintanning Buffalo Hides: An overview

Jump to page 1 2 3 4 5

An Overview of Bison Robe Tanning: page 4

How buffalo are different than deer

Wes's daughter Leah with a 'Bull Boat'

Remember, when considering tanning first and foremost we are
dealing with buffalo not deer, many applications while similar are not the same, and you must start thinking buffalo not deer. Buffalo has

very coarse fibers and is not very strong especially when wet. What this means for the tanner is that you will not get many tries to tan this beast before it will literally fall apart especially around the front shoulders.
Warren Ferris in the 1830's claimed to have tried to make a bull boat from a "dressed" robe and it fell apart whilst in use. Having worked enough of these I believe that this is the norm rather than an isolated incident. The bottom line is buffalo leather is weak, definitely a difference when compared to deer.

Thinning
The most important part of the process is the thinning and old robes are hardly thicker than a medium weight paper. In case you missed that I will again say it, the most important aspect of tanning robes is the thinning, if you don't thin it enough it won't soften.

The right tool for the job.

Having the right tool makes all of the difference for thinning buffalo and other hides. Darry Wood's design is the finest we've seen, for $75. You can get your own at the Braintan.com Store . Satisfaction Guaranteed.

To put this into a different perspective what you are really tanning is the grain layer with a tiny bit of dermis attached to the under side. I think this is why the need for grease is so acute. Again I must stress that the most important aspect of tanning buffalo is thinning. If thinned properly there is very little hide left to tan. Conversely this must only be applied to robes not buffalo leather. Leather if thinned too much will fall apart. The way I thin leather is to try tanning it and what won't tan is then thinned. Sometimes this takes a couple tries.

Believe it or not, if a robe is thinned properly it will soften with one good pulling assuming it wasn't too wet or dry when done. I would rather pull them twice, once when a little too wet and again when I judge it ready. As you can probably gather the one thing buffalo and deer have in common is the need to learn the "feel" which can only be gained through experience.