Smoking and Making A Moose Hide.

Tanning a whole moose hide is not easy. 

I have tried using  lye and dunking it as one would a deer hide, several times, using various amounts of lye, in carefully added quantities so as not to burn the hide - as happens with a thick hide like moose. My final opinion is dont use lye, ever on a moose hide; it is not worth the resources. Smoke, and softening solution are the only chemicals you need. Also, to my knowledge, I am the only one who does not use a fraim to tan a moose hide.

You should take the dry tan, string into a frame method for reasons stated herein or a combination of both. However, the following method of moose tanning avoids stringing up the hide into a frame entirely. The process uses the "wet" tan method with numerous modifications, to the procedure you are accustomed to as a deer hide tanner.

This whole tanning process will create ripe smells; particularly if you need to take your time. You cant tan a hide if you have a problem working with rot. After drying, the hide should smell like a leather shop, until it has been smoked.

It helps to do this in a cool place or to have a fridge to store the hide.

Smoke in the production of a moose hide is not a finishing step or something to apply to a greater or lesser degree to achieve a desired esthetic or functional outcome - its a required tool in the process. The smoke changes the collagen fibers such that they progressively come nearer to a soft, flexible hide after each application. A soft, thick, moose hide can only be achieved by using smoke.

Begin by scrapping the hide of hair - then flesh scrape.

You will then want to clean the hide of most hair and blood. Hose it or dunk it and wring it.

If you were to smoke the hide before applying the softening solution, this would be the point you would stretch it as big a possible and dry it, either over a beam or in a frame, or on the ground. 

If you want to coat the surface with some soften solution first...

Dunk the hide in your softening solution. Open and massage the solution into the hide. Jostle and move a few times over two days, before twist wringing and then repeating the dunk step again. So soak/ring a couple times. You dont need to break fibers appart at this point. The focus is on coating the surface fibers with oil by moving them around and against each other. 

When a hide has been dunked in an softening solution, the solution will go from a milky color to a clear colour as the the fibers of the hide absorbe the softening agent.

After the first coat of smoke - whenever you wring the doughnuted hide on the beam - really wring it and stretch those fibers for a soft, worked hide.

When wringing, make a doughnut on your beam and twist one direction, then the next, then turn the round hide on the beam and repeat. Do this three times, undo the doughnut, turn the hide, and make a new doughnut, and wring again.

I use a whole bunch of simple home made, vegan or deer ( made from inedible tallows) soap and sunflower oil mixed in water. My soap formula is 235ml water with half that of small NHO balls dilute in it. Blend with 950ml sunflower oil until it reaches that saponified/yogurt consistency and let sit for two days in a form. While the tallow is on the stove, you will need to add a little more water to the solution - the formula above you would use exactly if making a vegetable oil soap. When the The longer a soap sits the better they get. Augment formula for desired end volume. 

Returning to the moose hide process. The softening solution does not need to be too strong. As long as the water has a foggy look there is softening agent in it to coat the fibers.

After a two days of siting and periodic jostling - its fine if some parts are sitting outside of the water level as long they get dunked under a few times at some point - the hide is saturated with your solution, wring and catch the solution then wring again and dunk for a day, then wring and hang the hide over your beam, which should be about four or more feet long. I did this such that I could lean over the beam. I think it's fine if the hide touches the floor and gets kicked now and then during the stretching process, just make sure the floor is clean of dirt and blood etc.

After the first coat of softening solution, this would be the point you would frame the hide if you were to dry it using a frame dry method. A thick hide will benefit from frame drying as framing will thin the thick moose hide and thus make them more practical for garments. If you want a dense hide, or are tanning a hide that is already thin, hand dry it as I have. This allows for easy transportation, resting, but also prolongs the dry time.

So without a frame, throw the hide over the beam and stretch it.

Periodically stretch open the hide with appropriate tools and pull in different directions. You should not, be working the hide constantly unless you are trying to throw away your energy or get an impossiblely hard workout in. Work the hide then leave it to dry for some time. It can take five or more days in some situations for these hides to fully dry so you must pace yourself having the expectation that the hide will not  be a silk sheet when it has fully dried as your deer hides may have been. Don't aim for soft on the first round - remember, this is not a deer hide. The hump and borders usually dry stiff until the hide has been smoked at least twice. Do aim to make the hide dry as big and stretched as it can.

There are a number of ways to "work" the hide. Find some tools to employ that will really put a concentrated break into the fibers. Work from center out, but all over too.  My best suggestion for any type of hide breaking is a half inch pipe on the end of a handle pushed into the fibers in all directions along with pulls and tugs. Go around the hide and turn it as it is draped over the beam to stretch. Hold the edge as the hide is half, open draped over the log beam and push into the area between the edge and the beam support.

If the hide must be stored while damp, wrap it up as tightly as possible and put it in an air tight container. Store the container in a cool place. You can also consider putting it in or wrapping it with a damp cloth.

Some people will stretch the hide, then smoke it, then wring with  the first liquid softening solution. Experience has shown that this is a wise choice. But, even if you choose to dunk the hide in the solution first, the moose hide will be stiff like rawhide the first time smoking and require you to undo the lacing to turn the moose hide inside out and smoke the other side and do smoke both sides. 

Your borders will not be tight so wrap long strips of cloth into the whip stitch, as you are connecting the edges. 

Pre punch the lace holes for the thick lacing with a big awl and mallet. Some people use the frame holes for lacing, but remember, the more smoke that escapes during the smoking process, the longer the smoke session, and if the surfaces are not well coated with smoke, the wringing softening step will be far less effective; this will mean the difference between repeating this whole process four times or five, for example. Make the smoke sack as tight as you can and coat the surfaces well.

On that note, your first smoking (and all smoking, but the first is most important) must be as thick a coat as you can make.

The smoking is essenial and locks in the work done; it also locks in the shape of the whole hide and makes it more and more like a sponge that will eat up most if not all of the softening solution in the following softening dunk. Soaking a smoked hide also disperses the smoke color more evenly but you should be moving the hide and opening up closed spots while smoking to keep the smoke color even anyway.

Repeat the softening dunk, wringing, hand drying, and smoking steps until the hide is fully and thoroughly soft and flexible. 

Eventually, you can use a light but sharp rasp to remove tough tinder on the surface just before the hide is sewn into a smoke sack. 

It is nearly impossible to destroy a skin, but if the hide has not been stretched to the right size, smoking will permanently lock in the shape.

A framed hide finishes thinner, and will likely be a more practical flexible and as a result; it will also feel softer or more flexible with fewer smoke jobs than a moose hide produced by hand drying.