I respect your knowledge, silverfox, but on this one point I have to say that honestly there's little else easier than hair removal when using the PROPER (BIG emphasis!
) solution of wood-ash lye. In fact, so many of the old books state that using slack lime (not the same as lye, I know) and letting the hides soak, "...not only to the point of being able to pull out handfuls of hair, that is not what is desired; no, the hair must be easily swept off the hide with light hand pressure." Using commercial lye too long (even Red Devil works fine, but it will start dissolving the hide if left in too long) will weaken the hides, but wood-ash is good for long-term soaking, IF NEEDED. It's never good to leave the hides in the lye or lime longer than necessary. Like most others that use wood ashes, I prefer hardwood over softwood. But use whatever you've got. The point is, if the hide is at the point where you can slide the hair off, it's also at the point where the grain can be damaged, too. Not a problem if you're going to be graining the hide, but it'll be an ugly spot if your intention is to leave the grain on and you brush patches of it off. Especially if you're going to be dyeing the hide (black, brown, etc.). It'll have the same effect as staining wood, end grain and cuts or scratches turn out darker.
That all said, most of what I do (more at, "used to do") involves graining the hides (removing the grain - epidermis and dermis - layer) for brain tanning. More and more, though, I was leaving the grain on and making rawhide, or barktanning, or alum tawing (yeah, I know, it's not the same as "tanning"). With furs, I go with alum tawing because it sets the fur/hair instead of causing a temporary slip effect.
Anyways. Charlie, exactly as silverfox stated, if you're not interested in "traditional" methods for whatever reason, there's a vast array of products out there that all work, some better than others and cost isn't always an indicator of "better."
You can certainly leave the hides to dry, just keep them out of the sun and protect them from bugs. Especially beetles. There's a "ground substance" in the skins, if I recall it's called "polymucosaccharides" which translated means "many sweet mucous" or something like that.
Bugs love it. Especially dried. If you're not vigilant, you'll go to check on your deer hide and find a pile of what looks like sawdust on the ground below where the hide once hung.
There are a lot of good books on the subject. And a lot of bad. If you're into braintanning, it can be loosely divided into two different methods: Wet scrape, and Dry scrape. After that, most is pretty much all the same.
It's been awhile for me, but back when I was doing this all the time there were two "kings" as far as I'm concerned (my opinion, ONLY). And they both have excellent books on the subject of wet-scrape. One is Matt Richards, he wrote "Deerskins into Buckskins." I got to know Matt pretty well online and by phone (rare, he was - is? - living a fairly primitive lifestyle but embraced the internet as a teaching tool). He may also have his website running, "The Hide Out" forum on his website
www.braintan.com **NOTE** I just went there, it's temporarily closed but -- well check it for yourself if you like.
The other is Steve Edholm. He and his girlfriend, Tamara Wilder, wrote "Wet-Scrape Braintanned Buckskin," one of the best on the subject. Steve and I got to know each other pretty well and used to trade off and on, I'd send him sumac and he send me stuff -- sometimes a nice piece of buckskin, once an autographed copy of his book. In my opinion he makes, or at least made (we lost touch, I knew that he had become quite ill for a short time, not sure how things went for him or if he still makes buckskin), the finest buckskin I ever saw/held. It is/was as soft as new cotton flannel (maybe even poly fleece!), it draped like silk, had NO smell of the smoke, was extremely warm in the cold and perfectly comfortable in the heat. It is unbelievable; it's less than 1/16" thick and you almost don't need a jacket over it until it gets pretty cold and windy. Even then, sometimes just a wool sweater or a windbreaker was just fine. By the way, Steve might have changed the title of his book when he updated it, if I recall it may now be "Buckskin - The Ancient Art of Braintanning." Not 100% sure.
Some other legends, although they may or may not have written anything (I don't recall reading anything other than in forums like this for paleo stuff), among them Jim Riggs. It's been a long time, the names aren't coming to me just now.
An old book published by A.R. Harding back in 1950 is entitled, "Home Tanning and Leather Making Guide," written by A.R. Farnham. It's okay, but -- well, not "the" definitive work on the subject. Steve Edholm once sent me a package of copies from an old leather tanning book that he had, very rare, neither of us ever found another copy of it so he photocopied the sections for me that I needed, as well as the sections about the "superiority" of sumac over other bark tannins for producing the finest quality leathers. Again, these are old books and old ways and do NOT mean that modern ways aren't just as good or even better. I just like the old ways, myself. And the old ways-made leather almost never dried out stiff after getting wet. Especially braintan. My own experience.
Now I've got to go dig out the braintan, books, old letters, my notes...! Good memories.
My trademark long-winded reply, again...