Playing with brains (gross)

[fireheart]

So my boyfriend (Thorgrim on the boards here) takes part in workshops for his medieval group. Among these include "make-your own <insert equipment here>" and "this is what <culture> was like around <time period>".

Today's workshop (which I didn't attend) was on a rather interesting concept....

"brain-tanning."

Basically, leather tanning with brains. Sounds yummy.

[Nurian]

Well, a mind IS a terrible thing to waste!

[draggar]

What would you do with it? It's a big lump of fat and I think it would, for the lack of a better term, melt during the tanning process?

[dalesys]

My grandfather Cyrene told us cousins:
"Every animal has just enough brains to get its hide tanned... So do children."

[RecoveringKinkoid]

That's a pretty classic way to tan hides, actually. That's how they were tanned before artificial chemicals.

I have always wondered about how the chemical process works for brain tanning, but yeah, that's how everyone did it back in the bad old days.

[PsychoTeddyAppear]

Yeah doing it is a rather gross process which is why I can't stand to do it myself but I have some brain tanned deer hide for crafts.


Here's the process skip if you really don't want to know


The tanning process breaks down the glycerin and loosens the fibers of the skin. The agent used in this method is found in the brain of the animal that provided the hide/fur.

Take the brains and cook them in a little water. Squish and squeeze them with your hands (wear gloves) to mash it well. When the brain soup is almost to hot for you to touch, rub it into the hide using your hands and smooth round stones that have been heated. Start by rubbing the mixture into the skin side of the hide and then into the hair side (skip this side if you are making a fur.) Use all of the mixture including any “broth” left in the pot. Leave the hide alone and out of the sun for 6 to 8 hours before continuing.

After the brains have soaked into the hide for 6 to 8 hours, submerge the hide in water overnight. You want it to be completely saturated and pliable. While it is soaking, you can prepare your “graining” tools. There are two types needed. The first is a wooden wedge shaped tool, with or without a handle. The other is simply a sick about two inches in diameter. The end of the stick is carved into a smooth, blunt, rounded point.

Restake the hide after it has soaked and use the wedge shaped grainer to “ooze” the water out of the hide. Do this until you can’t get any more water out of the skin.

Now take the blunt stick grainer and work every inch of the hide. The object is to stretch and loosen every inch of the hide while it is drying. If you stop before it is completely dry it will become stiff! When the hide seems dry, unstake it.

You can now cut away the edges with the stake holes, since there may be areas you couldn’t scrape well.

Loop the hide through a rope loop or over a branch tied between two trees and pull it back and forth. This will stretch the hide and the heat/friction will dry the hide some more while breaking up the grain farther. When you are done, use a smooth stone to rub any imperfect areas.

Note: If you are making a fur be careful and do not run the fur side over the branch or through the rope loop, if you do you will ruin it!

The hide is now complete. However it will become stiff again if it gets wet. To prevent this, make a tripod of sticks and drape the hide over a small smudge fire. You want to smoke the hide until it becomes a nice buckskin color. Turn it over as necessary for the smoke to penetrate all parts.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Bet that smells just delightful.

Interesting, though!

[fireheart]

Bet that smells just delightful.

Interesting, though!

And right now that makes me glad I don't live with my boyfriend.

[XCashier]

There is all kinds of nasty stuff involved in tanning hides. From the Wikipedia article:

Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair fibers from the skin. This was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply letting the skin putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. After the hair fibers were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife.

Once the hair was removed, the tanners would bate the material by pounding dung into the skin or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were that of dogs or pigeons. Sometimes the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple, but not too soft. The ancient tanner might use his bare feet to knead the skins in the dung water, and the kneading could last two or three hours.

And you thought your job stunk...!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

See, why brains? What is in brains that breaks the hide down and softens it? That's what I want to know.

[JoitheArtist]

I was homeschooled growing up (schools in my area were TERRIBLE), and when it came time to learn dissection, my wonderful mother--a nurse--ordered several of us these really great dissection packs, and led several of the local homeschoolers through dissection. These packs had a big variety: earthworm, clam, starfish, grasshopper, fish, frog, and fetal pig. She also let me pick one extra item I wanted to dissect just for fun.

I picked the sheep's brain.

Not much to see in it, honestly, BUT I GOT TO HOLD A BRAIN IN MY HAND AND PLAY WITH IT FOR AN HOUR!!

It was AWESOME. Because brains are just friggin' cool.

(also friggin' cool: dissecting a fish's eye to find this random red bit in there, and flicking it across the garage at my younger sister, who was a neat freak. )

[fireheart]

I remember when my class had to dissect the sheep's heart.

Bear in mind this is at an all girls school.

Half the girls felt like they wanted to puke and refused the dissection. The rest of us paired off. while I held the parts open, my partner dissected it. I kept plucking the heartstrings-literally.

[Amina516]

Brains are pretty durable Draggar, if preserved correctly. And even live, theyre not as fragile as you'd think. (yes, ive poked live brains and theyve lived to tell the tale...)

Thats interesting though. I guess I never though about tanning brains...

[Dips]

In one of my old jobs I used to extract DNA from cancerous brain tumors. The first step of the process involved dropping them into liquid nitrogen, wrapping them in many lawyers of foil (to prevent bits from flying off) and smasing them up with a hammer.

The donors consented to donate this tissue after surgery, but I have no idea if anyone told them the cancer would be bashed up with a hammer. I always thought they would have enjoyed knowing that.

[JoitheArtist]

The donors consented to donate this tissue after surgery, but I have no idea if anyone told them the cancer would be bashed up with a hammer. I always thought they would have enjoyed knowing that.

I certainly would! In fact, if I ever donated such tissues, it would come with the stipulation that the person with the hammer work while reciting the lines from Emperor's New Groove: "And then...I'll SMASH it with a HAMMER!!!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cx7jzq2Bx4