Chammied Deerskin

Scrape off hair and epidermis. Flip the skin over and scrape flesh side, removing fat, tissue and hypodermis.

Fat tanning is done by thoroughly wetting the skin in a mixture of brain and water. No, you are not mistaken, and any type of brain will do. Somebody mentioned that the effect this mixture has on the skin probably has to do with the lecithin and amino acids contained in the brain. You can also rub in raw brain when the skin is on the ground. Some leave the skin in the mixture for only an hour. I like to leave the skins in the mixture over night, just to be on the safe side. It is easy to see why the brain matter transforms the skin. Your hands receive the best pampering available, leaving them soft and smooth. I don’t believe there is a single hand cream on the market that can beat the effect of this mixture.

The skin needs to be properly wrung.
One way of doing this is to hang the skin over a stake, fold and rolled in a certain way to end up with a loop that cannot come undone.












Grab a sturdy stick and use it to wring the skin hard. Use as much force as you can muster, the skin is incredibly strong and can take this treatment no worries.
Undo the loop, make a new loop on a different angle and wring it again.

After wringing the skin, you can start soften it, either by mounting and working it in a frame or pulling it through a steel wire. It’s during this process the amazing transformation occurs; from a repulsive skin, fresh and bloody, to a fluffy, thick, white, strong, unbelievable soft and fragrant chammied skin.
Gosh, you would want undergarments made from skins like these.









































You also ought to smoke tan the skins; the smoke protects the skins from moths and other insects when in storage. It also offer some protection against moisture and to some extent inhibits rotting. Depending on what you add to the fire, it also adds tone to the skin; juniper twigs, rotting wood or grass. Consequently, a smoked skin creates an unfriendly environment for insects and bacteria because the skin absorbs different substances present in the smoke. You’d want cool smoke for tanning the skins, the long pipe allows the smoke time to cool down before it hits the skins. You’d also want something that creates a lot of smoke. I use moist straw on a solid base of embers.

Knives and awls from bone.
The arrow head is attached using pitch, then wound with sinew saturated with glue made from raw skin.

The scraping tool is made from the shank of a moose.















The flint blade is attached into the shank of a deer, using pitch.