Do you mean the grain(hair) side when you say flesh side?

In that case, you can take the grain off with a fleshing knife while the hide is still swolen from whatever alkaline solution you're using to de-hair it. Then, maybe just abrade the hide with a pummice stone???

Or, just use the stone or whatever sort of sander to break the grain up while it is still swolen.

You need to rough the hide up prior to tanning rather than after tanning.

If you requests are intended to replicate buckskin, you might be better off just making buckskin.

thank you Aquavit. i guess i was going about it all wrong. i have been trying to rough up the flesh side not the hair or grain side. i will give your sugestions a whirl and see what i come up with . while we're talking about it , there is so much info about buckskin that i don't know who i should buy the info from . do you make buckskin? if so who did you get the info from and was it good? meaning, did they make it easy to understand and do?

I process about seven hides a year for buckskin. If you're looking for good information, all you will need is this guy's book, as he covers everything:

http://www.braintan.com/

I use neats foot oil and Ivory soap instead of animal brains as a dressing.

Aquavit:

Thanks for the site. While I may buy all of them, there are 4 books mentioned and reviewed favorably. Which one are you referring to?

The book I got was "Deerskins to Buckskin" well worth tye $6.00 I paid in a used book shop in Eugene, OR. Was there to visit my brother.