“Hey Rod.....how do you tan a hide if you're stuck in the bush?”
“Every animal has enough brains to tan their own hide. So if you were to trap a beaver, inside the skull of that beaver is enough brain to tan it's hide. Skin the beaver, stretch, scrape and dry the hide. While that's drying, you have to remove the brains from the skull of the beaver. Once the hide is ready, make a liquidity paste with the brains, mixing it with warm water, (about a cup of water) now mix this really good, using a wooden spoon, a stick or your hands. Once it's well mixed you can brush this on your hide and work it into the pores really good, again with your hands. If you're doing a hair on hide, you just put the solution on the inside of the hide, or else the solution will allow the hair to slip. If you're doing a hide without the hair, you can put this solution on both sides. Now fold the hide in half so the hair does not touch the solution, then fold it again and again. Now wrap this up with cheesecloth if you have it, if not, use what you have. If it's cold out, do not let this freeze. After it sits for about 36 hours or so, unfold the hide and start scraping the solution out of it, being careful around the foot holes and the eyes. You don't want to rip your hide. Now the real work starts, find or make a real smooth log or end of a log and start working the hide, pulling it from side to side. You have to work every inch of the hide and it must be done before it dries, or else you'll end up with a piece of raw-hide and have to start the whole process all over again. After the hide has been broken down and is fairly soft and dry, you should smoke it to make it water-proof, just make a tri-pod and put it over your fire pit, tie the hide on to the top of the tri-pod with the hair out, and tie something else around it, to keep as much smoke 'in' as possible. Use smoke not fire, and let it smoke for at least a couple of hours. It's a lot of work no matter what kind of method you use, but if you're stuck in the bush and need something warm other than your partner, it's worth doing. Keep in mind, eating beaver is a delicacy.”
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