Bill Thompson

You know, revolutionary, like American revolutionaries, or they dress like mountain men, or they dress like Indians.

Mountain men.

So while we're there, you learn all kinds of stuff while you're reenacting.

Like I learned how to brain tan hides.

I learned how to traditionally do traditional archery, stuff like that.

So anyway, this knife was a knife I had actually started working on with my brother a while ago.

I do more of like the brain tanning, tomahawk flying.

Yes, yes.

It softens the leather in a natural way.

And what's cool about it is every animal, no matter what animal you kill, has the exact amount of brain needed in order to tan the hide.

So you don't need any additional, like people use egg yolks or mayonnaise or something like that.

All you do is you take the brain out of the cavity, you grind it up, you mix it into some water.

And then after you've cleaned the leather and you've scraped it clean, you stretch it.

I usually use like a dull shovel.

You stretch it over the dull shovel and then you soak it in the brain water mixture.

And then you just keep repeating that pattern and the leather gets like a really nice soft feel to it.

What is it about the brain?

Is it the fat?

It breaks down the leather.

I'm not sure if it's the fat or I haven't gotten that deep into it, but it breaks down the leather and just makes it feel really soft, really nice.