The ability to make waterproof clothing, footwear, and containers from indigenous materials is an incredible asset for those trying to reduce their dependance on industrial society, survive ‘the collapse’, or deeply connect to their landbase. Using the tannins in local tree barks to preserve skins as leather – bark tanning – is a simple, magical and utilitarian method of providing ourselves these things. Bark tanned leather resists rot, is water repellant to 100 percent waterproof depending on how it’s tanned, and, of course, is extremely beautiful. Several years ago, when thinking about the eventual fall of civilization, I would sincerely worry about how we would survive on this rainy coast without plastic raingear and gumboots when the system that produces them halts, and whatever we have around from before falls apart. Well, turns out we don’t need ‘em (the system, the gumboots). The art of bark tanning has almost been completely lost – it is shrouded in myth and obscurity, but, what we have uncovered so far makes me confident that we can make our own gumboots, rainjackets, and water bottles, independant from industrial society.

In this post I want to relay some of what we’ve learned about bark tanning over the last few years, sharing a basic method for tanning deerskins, the most abundant and easily tanned skin in my experience.

Brain tan vs. Bark tan

In the modern primitive skills movement, hide tanning is usually synonymous with ‘brain tanning’, or buckskin leather; velvety soft, porous, and as absorbent as cotton. There is a ton of amazing info widely available on making buckskin or brain tanning furs in books, online, or from knowledgeable people. It is a skill that has been very well revived. It was not used to any extent as outerwear by the indigenous people of the rainy northwest coast, where I live. It’s soft porous qualities make it excellent to wear right against one’s skin, but in the rain it soaks through very easily – like a cold wet sponge. Bark tanned leather is fuller (not as soft) and has water repellent qualities, making it much more useable as outerwear in a cold wet climate. I think of buckskin as a functional equivelent to cotton, and bark tan as an equivalent to a plastic rainjacket. Bark tanning is much less understood – actually for someone trying to learn it is quite the mystery. It is a more complex process, chemically, and evolved with more complex human societies – the kind of leather I describe in this post would actually have evolved with civilization – but we can do it without.

A canteen I made from hemlock tanned deerskin (yes, it's waterproof), the strap is brain-tan/buckskin. Notice how soft, velvety and flowing the strap is - bark tan can can get quite soft, but never that soft.

A BASIC METHOD:

This is a method of tanning Deer skins that has been working very well for me and many friends. Tanning is a complex process and this short post cannot really do it full justice, but it might help you get started or fill in some grey areas.

DEHAIRING

This can be done two main ways, by soaking the skin in a pond, puddle stream bucket etc. until the hair starts to ‘slip’, that is, you can easly pull it off (you shouldn’t even have to pull, more ‘slip’). It can take a few days to a month+, depending on temperature, the skin etc. This method works okay, but can result in the skin itself rotting and even falling apart if things get out of hand. The second method, my preferred, is soaking the hide in a strong alkaline solution, also known as ‘bucking’. The bucking solution can be made from ashes, lye or lime. For ashes, you’ll need ALOT. With hardwood ashes make a 1/1 mixture of ashes/water, let the ashes settle, then see if an egg floats in this solution. If the egg sinks, add more ’till it floats. Softwood ashes are weaker and cannot be too strong, make a milkshake-consistency beverage out of them. It takes a few days to a month in the ashes for the hair to slip. I prefer an alkaline solution because it keeps the hide from rotting/it’s predictable, as well it removes glues from the hide which results in leather that tans easier and turns out softer. If you ‘buck’ your skin, after you have dehaired it put it in a stream or some flowing water overnight, to rinse the alkalinity out of it – otherwise it won’t tan properly.

A deer skin being scraped on a beam (salvaged pvc pipe). The hide is pinned between the beam and the tree, I use a dull scraper, and pulling towards me, aplly only enough pressure to get the loosened hair and epidermis off, so not to make marks on the grain of the hide.

Scraping the hair off shouldn’t be hard. Use a beam and dull scraper like in the photo above. The textured surface of finished leather is what folks call the ‘grain’ layer. The grain helps repel water. You want to remove the hair and the scummy epidermis, which is pretty much nonexistent and you will remove unintentionaly with the hair, but try to go easy on the grain, use a dull scraper and don’t use excessive force. Marking or cutting into the grain won’t ruin your leather, it will just make it look a bit shabbier and be less water repellant wherever there is no grain. If the hair isn’t coming off easily, the hide needs to soak longer.

TANNING

After you’ve removed the hair, the skin is ready to be tanned. This means extracting tannins from some tannin rich plant (usually tree barks) into a tea, and immersing the skin in this tea so that tannin particles can bond with the skin’s fibers, making it rot resistant. Black tea is rich in tannins, know how it tastes astringent and has a somewhat drying effect on the mouth – that’s what it feels like for the leather.

The best sources for tannin in this bioregion are (starting with the best): Western Hemlock bark (excellent), Douglas Fir bark (good), Spruce bark (good), Alder bark (supposedly makes ‘brittle’ leather, though I doubt this is true), Aspen and Willow bark (pretty weak but useable). Oak is reputedly one of the best barks, if it lives where you do. Birch is supposedly good, too. So, if you live near a wooded area, you have a source of tannin close at hand. Bark is strongest in the spring, though still useable any time of the year. Harvest it from living or freshly fallen trees, as tannins leach in the rain. I prefer to kill a tree and take all of it’s bark over injuring a ton of trees to get a bit from each. I use the de-barked tree as firewood, planks, posts etc. Bark mulch from garden stores might work, too. I use hemlock bark 90% of the time. It is the richest source of tannin on the northwest coast (aside from oak, which doesn’t grow where I live), and produces a deep red-purple to black leather that is way too amazing!

Making the tea:

Fill a pot at least half way with chopped up bark – the finer the bark is chopped/shredded, the more tannin you can get out of it. In the old days people had bark mills that would grind bark finely for this purpose, I just chop it into bite-sized chunks with a sharp hatchet. Fill the pot with water, rain water preferably, as water from wells or coming thru pipes will have mineral in it that react with tannins and make black blotches on the leather (a purely superficial consideration). Using a cast iron or aluminum pot will also create blotches on the leather, a result of the tannins reacting with those minerals. I use a big stainless steel stock pot. Bring the pot to a boil and let it simmer 1 to 2 hours. Let it cool, pour it off into a bucket or whatever you have, then re-use the bark for at least 2 more teas. Now you will have a decent amount of tea, which is good, you’ll need it. Bark tanning turns out to be more consumptive of water and fuel (for making tea) than of bark itself. One 40 year old hemlock tree that I fell last spring has tanned almost 20 deerskins, a cow hide, and many other smaller creatures. I still have some of the bark left.

Deer skin after about 4 days in hemlock tea - this tea was being re-used after already tanning another deerskin. Fresh hemlock tea has a darker color.

Collect your bark tea into a container, ideally something wide like a plastic storage tote, garbage can etc. A bucket will do, but having the hide scrunched up will make it tan unevenly – you’ll just have to take it out and readjust it more often. Mix your tea 1/1 with water, then put your dehaired (and rinsed if you ‘bucked’ it) skin into the tea, make sure it is submerged and there are no folds. After a few days you can strengthen the tea by taking some out of your tanning bath, putting it into a pot of fresh bark and decocting (simmering). This way you conserve water and make the tea even stronger than if you used new water.

MEMBRANING

After the skin has been bathing in tannin tea for a few days, I take it out, and put it back onto the beam I used to dehair it, this time with the flesh side up. I put a trashy old towel beneath it so that the grain doesn’t get marked up by the beam. Then, with a dull scraper, I remove any membrany tissues that might still be left clinging to the hide. I have friends that don’t do this step, but it does help the skin tan faster and more evenly, as this membrane blocks to absorption of tannin somewhat.

Peeling off a peice of membrane - notice the lighter color where the membrane had been blocking the tannins from entering. This whole skin had only this one peice of membrane to remove, sometimes there is alot, but if you can't find it, it probably isn't there. Note the old towel I use as a cushion between the hide and the beam to prevent marking.

How long ’till it’s done?

A skin is done tanning when tannins have penetrated all of it’s fibers. Checking by snipping off a sample from a thick edge (above photo) is the easiest way to see this process. For thicker skins (cow, elk, moose_ making too strong of a tea can ‘shock’ the hide, meaning the exterior of the hide tans too fully too fast, blocking tannins from getting to the interior fibers of the skin. These skins must be started in a weak tannin bath, that is gradually and carefully strengthened over many months until the skin is tanned though. Deer skins, in my experience, are usually thin enough that this isn’t much of a consideration. I usually put them into full stregth tea and have them tanned through in 2-4 weeks, but to be safe, you can dilute yr tea half and half with water like stated above, strengthening it after (or every) few days. It will take a bit longer than starting in full strength tea, but usually not more than a month to tan through. Cow and other thick skins can take 6 months and longer.

A skin is done tanning when tannins have penertated to it’s core. Check this by snipping off a thick edge (the neck) and seeing if any color has struck through to the center. It doesn’t have to be dark, any hint of color is enough. Above is a fully tanned and an unfinished section of cowhide.

After the skin is tanned through, take it out of the bath (right away if you are using full strength tea, as too much tannins can make the leather brittle) and put it in a body of water (pond, river etc) overnight to rinse out the unfixed tannins.

SOFTENING

Softening is the final step, and will be done differently depending on how soft you want your leather to be. It is done by applying oil to the skin and stretching it as it dries, so that the fibers do no glue together like rawhide. Let the skin dry with no stretching or manipulation, and it will be completely stiff. Oil it well and keep it’s fibers moving around while it is drying, and it will be pliable to soft. Think of what you want the leather to be (a knife sheath doesn’t need to be as soft and pliable as mittens), and only bother working it enough to get it that soft.

Using the top of a wooden pole to stretch a well oiled deerskin as it dries. The backs of chairs, your knees, and a friend who can grab on and pull the hide into a nice big shape are convenient to have around for this

Here is how i go about softening:

Take the hide out of the puddle I had it rinsing in overnight, then squeeze as much moisture out of it as i can (by putting it on my scraping beam, flesh side up, and squeegeeing the water out with a dull tool). I then hang it some place warm so it can start to dry a bit, and when it looks like it can soak up any oil, I start lathering oil on (lard, bear grease, seal oil, olive oil – liquid and semi-solid oils are best). I usually only apply it to the grain side,for clothing that will be the outside usually, and having a greasy film on the inside of your garment usually has no benefits. I hang it someplace warm, near the woodstove in the winter, in the sun during the summer, so that it will dry faster. Periodically I stretch it out, in my hands, or work it over the edge of a chair/pole. Whenever it starts to look a bit dry, like it could soak up more moisture, I apply more oil. Keep letting it hang and dry out a bit, working it periodically, until it is fully dry. If a spot is drying stiff, work it harder. If it doesn’t come out as soft as you’d hoped, then rehydrate it and try again – whatever softness you already achieved is more or less permanent, any additional work will only make it softer. It can take anywhere from 2 hours plus. If you are getting tired of softening and the skin isn’t fully dry, you can roll it up and put it into a plastic bag where it won’t dry out any more, coming back to it when you want to and starting where you left off. The more oil you apply while softening, the more water repellant your leather will be.

Amazing deer skin mittens made by one of my housemates. On the left is a removeable inner liner of hemlock tanned rabbit fur, on the right is the deer skin mitten with fur liner inside it.

WATERPROOFING

The tanned skin itself is not all that water proof/repellent – it’s the application of oil that really makes it shed water. The more oil you apply to the skin, either during or after softening, the more water repellent it will be. Apply oil to the grain side, since that is usually what will be the surface that comes into contact with weather/water. Leather can also be waxed, but that is a complex enough process to leave for another time.

This post turned out to be much longer than I anticipated, there are many steps, but once you’ve gone through it a couple of times it will seem very simple and basic. I am sure I’ll find things to add and revise here, but if you want to get started making leather I think it will help. Bark tanned leather is filled with magic, and is quite sexy.

For more info:

If you are seriously wanting to learn this skill, check out the book Deerskins to Bucksins by Matt Richards, it will help you understand leathermaking immensely. Also, www.braintan.com. There aren’t many books available on bark tanning specifically, it has fallen into obscurity, part of what makes it fun to learn.

Advertisement