Home tanning - hows that workin for ya?

[Crys Shorty]

So I was wondering if anybody has attempted to tan some hides at home? There's so many different "home tanning kits" on the market I was wondering if anybody had feedback on how they worked. Easy tan, liqua tan, ect. I had a friend that tried an alum base and their hides came out stiffer then a board. I've been using a sulpheric acid pickle bath, followed by neets foot oil. So far I've achieved a flexibility in between a rug and a blanket with a smooth white suede like finish. Has anybody come close to what a commercial tannery can do?

[ufishifish2]

Interesting thread. I have nothing to add but hope people tell exactly how they do it if successful. I asked a local taxi if he thought I could do it and he laughed at me and pretty much called me an idiot! I don't like him anymore!!

[375 ultramag]

Interesting thread. I have nothing to add but hope people tell exactly how they do it if successful. I asked a local taxi if he thought I could do it and he laughed at me and pretty much called me an idiot! I don't like him anymore!!

Almost spit out my beer I was laughing so much.....

[greenhorn]

I've done a bunch of hides with alum. They've all turned out good and soft. I don't know why everyone gets stiff hides from alum, my guess is that they dont break the hide after tanning it.

My post tan breaking process involves coating the hide with a good tanning oil and working the snott out of the hide over around piece of wood. The hides I do all end up being pretty supple. It's also real important to flesh and thin the hide well. My guess is that alot of guys who attempt it for the first time don't do as good a job as they should.

I've heard that some of the newer tans give softer leather right out of the tanning solution. Lutan-F has been recommended to me a bunch of times.

I think I'll stick with alum, it's dirt cheap, sets the hair instantly, and gives great results if you put some sweat into it.

Also heard that some of the tans that involve acids for a pickle will yield hides that eventually breakdown. No personal experience on that one though.

[steelheadSABO]

just make sure you flesh it really really good :/

[Will]

brains.........heard it works :???:

[Walking Buffalo]

To get your hides softer after tanning, apply more elbow grease.

[LukaTisus]

Is it terrible that the one thing that came to mind reading this thread, were memories of my mother threatening to tan MY hide? LOL

Never tanned any hides, myself. Wouldn't mind learning though!

[Crys Shorty]

Interesting thread. I have nothing to add but hope people tell exactly how they do it if successful. I asked a local taxi if he thought I could do it and he laughed at me and pretty much called me an idiot! I don't like him anymore!!

haha, I've gotten that a lot too. I figure thats why it usually costs so much to get work done. The whole, why do it yourself when you can pay someone else to do it theory gets pricey. Same goes for mannikins. Anyways, I ordered some Liqua tan and I'll be doing a wolf and a beaver, see how well that works out. I have an unfinished basment (my "shop") so I've been using the support poles for working the hides back and forth to soften them up. Seems to work quite well except on a couple things, like a large elk hide, I think I may have "worked it" too much near the center because it kind of bubbled out like there was an excess of skin in the center. Can't make a rug that doesn't lie flat. Any ideas? Also because I lack a large drum to tumble the hides, anyone ever tried using their washer or dryer? Man these tax write offs keep coming!

[UncleJesse]

I currently have a buddy doing time at Williamhead just south of Victoria. I'm countin' on him teaching me how to do it when he arrives home sometime this year. They do a lot of those sorts of things there... tanning hides, building drums, carving, etc, etc. Sounds like I'd like to go for maybe a weekend or so to learn some of the things he's learning. Not longer than that, though. It might get a little monotonous.

[elkhunter1234]

I tan all my own hides,
1- Flesh, turn lips eyes and ears and split noose
2- salt well, rub it in good into all places and let dry for a day or two
3- Rehydrate in a water, salt, pinesol and a small amount af soap
4- rinse well when rehydrated
5- place in a pickle solution, i like formic acid but its getting harder to find
6- flesh well after a few days and put back in pickle till the hide is white all the way through the hide
7- neutralize with baking soda and rince well
8- do a final flesh and thin
8- put on liquid tan and roll up over night in the fridge
9- hide is ready to mount, if you are rugging it just stretch it out and start working a good tanning oil into the hide..

[ufishifish2]

Elkhunter1234, I don't know where you came from, but you are welcome here!!! Awesome explanation!
How do you folks think this would work on something big with a thick hide like......um, how about a bison??? Do you think you could tan a bison hide, and how long would it take??? Their hides are super thick in spots up around the neck.......

[elkhunter1234]

I have not done a buffalo hide yet but have done lots of other thick hides
before like moose and russian boars, the trick is to spend lots of time on the fleshing machine and thin them down, instead of 10 minnuts for a deer it woold be a hour or two for a buffalo. LOL
I am from the East side of the big hills, {Alberta}. I was doing some surffing and found this website the other day, been doing lots of reading on past post and plan on doing lots more... AWESOME HUNTING FOURM...

BIG JIM from Alberta...

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Interesting thread. I have nothing to add but hope people tell exactly how they do it if successful. I asked a local taxi if he thought I could do it and he laughed at me and pretty much called me an idiot! I don't like him anymore!!


Funny-I was just asking my taxi the other day if he was still tanning his own capes/fur and he told me they tried it but found out he didn't have the time.....so he told me to try it myself. I was only thinking of tanning some yote pelts for the pegboard.

SSS

[GOLDEN TOP SNIPER]

Elk hunter , i would love to come see how they turn out and take your course in home tanning . i always have hides that i dont want to spend a pile of money on but it would be nice to get done , i have a friend that has a small wolf and a wolverine from his trap line that he doesnt want to spend any money on but would like to get it tanned . so a home job sounds perfect for some hides , if im going to get something done with it i will just pay the extra at the taxidemist to speed things up and ensure a nice job , but id love to learn a nice simple way to do some of my own ..

[GRIZZEZE]

Tanning is not that hard to do, but it does take some time. I use the Lutan-F, works well for me. Tanning deer, elk, etc. easy, tanning a bear still quite easy, but have to de greese very well. I have not spent any time on tanning any thing with a realy thick hide like a buffalo yet, but I could imagine that it would take a long lime fleashing to get the hide thin enough. If the hide is too thick, it will shrink alot when it dries, and it will be quite a bit harder to break to get it to be soft and flexible.

[Walking Buffalo]

haha, I've gotten that a lot too. I figure thats why it usually costs so much to get work done. The whole, why do it yourself when you can pay someone else to do it theory gets pricey. Same goes for mannikins. Anyways, I ordered some Liqua tan and I'll be doing a wolf and a beaver, see how well that works out. I have an unfinished basment (my "shop") so I've been using the support poles for working the hides back and forth to soften them up. Seems to work quite well except on a couple things, like a large elk hide, I think I may have "worked it" too much near the center because it kind of bubbled out like there was an excess of skin in the center. Can't make a rug that doesn't lie flat. Any ideas? Also because I lack a large drum to tumble the hides, anyone ever tried using their washer or dryer? Man these tax write offs keep coming!

It sounds like you need to start over with the stretching. Is the "bubbled" area softer than the surrounding skin? You can wet the hide and re-stretch.

The difficulty with stretching larger hides is the simply the size of them. For elk or buffalo, I string the hides on a 2x4 frame and use these homemade tools.

Bone scraper ( for fleshing and softening)

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01059.jpg
http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01062.jpg

Metal elk antler scraper ( for fleshing)

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01065.jpg
http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01069.jpg
http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01070.jpg

5 photo limit. More on next post.

[Walking Buffalo]

Stick ( for softening, readily available in B.C.)

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01074.jpg

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/DSC01072.jpg



An example of a strung hide on a frame. The photo is from this page on brain tanning. Worth reading for info on home tanning and softening. http://www.native-art-in-canada.com/braintanning.html

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/yy10/keetspics/tanning_hidestretched_archival3.jpg

[greenhorn]

those tools are super cool. Way cooler than my altered hacksaws etc. :mrgreen:

[Crys Shorty]

This is great, there's actually people out there that know what they're talking about. First question, the wolf I'm working on, he's about 2-3 years old, never salted, just cleaned, pinned and dried "trapper style" The majority of the skin on this sucker is black. I've had it rehydrating for 2 days now and have begun additional fleshing, which is actually getting it down to the nice white skin. The face seems to be the hardest though. Not rehydrating easily. So what causes the black skin?
Also brain tanning sounds great, no harsh chemicals, and you get to have a campfire :) Thankyou walking buffalo for those great pics (by the way, love the elk in your avatar photo) So what exactly do you do with the "stick"? Just rub the hide while it's stretched out? I've been doing a lot of research into it and have found this guy quite helpful -www.braintanned.com (http://www.braintanned.com) , they make it look so easy.

[Crys Shorty]

Alright, extreme weirdness. I have a beaver pelt thats been laying around so I figure why not rehydrate it and try to soften it some more. Soaked in in fresh water for a day, and it felt really greasy, so I figure, what the hell, I'll add some dishsoap to the water to help it out a bit. Took it out to flesh it a bit and the thing is literally falling apart in my hands! It's as though it liquified! The slightest pressure and it rips. Super easy to flesh gently though, like butter! Anyone have any ideas why this happened so I can avoid it in the future?

[SHAKER]

Not sure why you'd want to rehydrate unless you want to taxi it, rehydration should be done in salted water but it's always a gamble as far as I know. Softening a dry'd pelt too me would mean more tumbling or breaking of the hide. Some other guys might know better on here but I'm pretty sure I'm correct with this.

Adding DAWN dish soap is OK but only before the actual tanning bath. If you rehydrate and found it greasy would probably would have know about it before hand (smell).

[Jehiah]

I got my hands on a fresh cow hide (did a home butcher job) and thought "this will be great practice so I will know what to do when I get my bear, deer, etc.) BIG job.
I fleshed it but found I never really got a good groove on. I removed all the muscle but there was a lot of connective tissue that I removed various amounts of resulting in a rough, spotty appearance.
After fleshing I strung the hide onto an 8x8 2x4 frame and salted the crap outta it for a few days before using alum.
http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy24/jchalifour/015.jpg
I coated the hide with alum and let it dry for a few days which whitened it up nicely but yes, made it stiff as a board. I rinsed the alum off with my garden hose and used that opportunity to clean the fur with detergent and deoderizers with moderate success.
I applied a coat of neets foot oil and ammonia and let it soak in before "breaking" in the hide. Honestly, this was too big a hide for me and I tired quickly resulting in a "horse tack" type of hide consistency - stiff but pliable.

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy24/jchalifour/059.jpg

I cut a piece out and crafted a quiver with it. You can see the hide consistency on the inside of the quiver. Proper technique or a fleshing tool ($$) would prevent this from happening.


http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy24/jchalifour/156.jpg

http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy24/jchalifour/157.jpg

I have plenty left over and will cut the hide into appropriate sizes and rework it for crafts that I need softer leather for.

All in all - totally doable but expect a learning curve and I suggest starting with small unimportant furs before attempting your black bear or cougar.

[Surrey Boy]

Best thread on the subject so far. Where does one purchase liquid alum?