Before the advent of chemical tanning of hides to make leather, animal skins were subjected to all kinds of strange concoctions to degrease and soften them. Urine, wood ashes, tree bark acid, and even ...

You’re not a fur trader, so many of the terms—hide, skin, fur, pelt, and buckskin—used to describe the outer coat of wild game animals may seem interchangeable. (And frankly, a lot of them are.) But ...

SAGINAW, Minn. -- Dave Risdon picks up a palmful of deer brain and plops it in a blender. He adds a little warm water and caps the blender. Then he fires it up. "I start with 'stir' and then I do ...

Learn how to tan a hide with brains, a chemical-free alternative to modern tanning practices. Brain-tanning is a practice that has been around for ages. I’ve brain-tanned my fair share of deer, ...