Tanning Hides

Hello friends. Looking for advice.
Last year I bought a whole cow and asked the butcher to keep the hide and brains so I could (attempt) to tan it. Being as it was winter I put it into the freezer. The weather has been agreeable so I de-thawed it over the last two days and now I think I need help as the books I was using don't quit cover salvage or less than Idea conditions.

The butcher forgot I wanted the hide so he had to get me a replacement. A replacement that unfortunately looks like it came out of a factory farm as its covered in feces. After thawing I had a few dry spots (or freezer burnt spots anyway) so fleshing it was very difficult if not impossible in spots. I have placed the hide in a barrel of water to rehydrate and hopefully clean most of the filth off.

I'm looking for advice on what to do next. Assuming its hydrated I was going to attempt to reflesh it and brain tan, but if it doesn't quiet work out what would you do?

This site has info you are seeking;
How to tan a hide, alternatives

I have read through it. In fact the book recommended in there is one I have on the shelf. I am not at the tanning phase. I am still trying to flesh it as it was extremely difficult to do with freezer burned or dry spots.

That sucks that they forgot and gave you the hide of a very unfortunate cow. I wonder if you could just do your best with the spots you can easily flesh and then dry scrape the tougher ones, if needed?

Are you wanting to keep the hair on? I would think given the state of the hide you described, that would be tricky at best.

Seems like worst case scenario, you could flesh as best you can then proceed as normal through the process. If those spots don't tan properly, you could cut them out and use the remaining good pieces for smaller projects. I have very limited experience, so take this with a grain of salt. Just a thought.

Yea I attempted to scrape what I could off it was just very difficult in many spots, far more difficult that I thought it should be judging by all the resources that describe it. I am attempting to keep the hair on and just shampoo the grunge off after its been tanned. I am really trying to hurry so it doesn't start rotting and ruin everything. If I can save small scraps that would be fine as well, I want to save as much of it as possible though. Soaking it seems to of helped a bunch, the water was absolutely nasty and  the hide much cleaner afterwards. I think I should stand a very good chance of getting most of it scrapped tomarrow.

I wonder if it's possible that there are some strange things going on with the hide due to the conditions the cow was living in? I know the person I learned hide tanning from has tanned the hides of people's pets as a way for them have a reminder of their animal. He said those animals were riddled with weird growths and their skins hard to tan, probably due to poor diet. Plus, being a massage therapist, I know that the connective tissues, which weave through all the tissues in the body, can put all kinds of strange pressures and pulls on those other tissues. Perhaps the cow living a confined and stressful life lead to some weird fascial pulls that are making it harder to flesh?

You're definitely right to work quickly since hair can start slipping as decay advances. I know you use an alkaline solution to remove hair and if I recall, you use an acidic one to set it. Though I'm not familiar with the specifics of that. Glad to hear it's cleaning up nicely! Hope you're able to save it and honor the hide of that cow.  

I would not doubt that one bit.

There was definitely rot going on, focused primarily around the worse of the cow pie matting. I decided it would be best to trim these. I cut the entire outside edge off keeping most of the center section. It was far more manageable to move around and flesh this way as well. I had a bunch of strings for a lack of a better word, it was clearly not membrane or flesh, they looked leather leather and sinew strands. I cleared what I could but hoped these little strands wouldn't really impede the tanning process and I could just sand them off anyway.
Brains went on fine and I folded it together. Now to wait two days or so and see how it turns out.

Something definitely went wrong. Unfolded it today and woooof it smelled really ripe. `I'm thinking the membrane was still stuck on the hide even though it looked really clean. Going to avoid factory abused hides as much as possible until I learn to do it proper and can possibly save them.

If you get in this situation again, try borax and washing soda in your rehydrating water. They should help clean the hide and a bit of sodium never hurts while setting up to tan hides.
It's what I used with the deer hides I got in a trash bag. It doesn't seem to help keep the fur from slipping but stops them from rotting and shouldn't effect later processes.
I hope it helps.