Tanning experience?

[Black Bird]

Hey there,

I am trying to tan a hide of one of my deers for the first time ever. I have read some stuff about it, but am wondering if any of you fine folk have any experience doing it? Right now, I have salted it heavily, and have tacked it onto a piece of plywood out of the rain. I plan on scrapping off some of the salt tonight and re-salting it. My understanding is that I need to let the salt sit on it for a couple of weeks. My only thing is that the hide seems quite wet, even on the fur side. I think that the fat is being drawn up by the salt and making it wet, but I am wondering if I need to combine what I am doing with some sort of air drying process as well. I realize that I will be doing all the stretching after the salting phase.

Advice?

Cheers,
BB

[dakoda62]

Hair on or off? I believe to keep hair on you need to submerge in an "alum" solution To remove hair it needs to be submerged in Alkali solution. Removing all fat and flesh is essential.

[madrona sh]

Chrome tanning ? Acid tanning? Alum tanning? Vegetable tanning?
Are you leaving the hair on? If not you will need to use a dehairing solution and what one depends on the tanning method you want to use.

[Wild Images]

http://www.fieldandstream.com/node/57386

[brian]

Check out tanning on youtube. More info than you'll know what to do with.

[Black Bird]

I am planning on keeping the fur on and using brain for tanning. I just wanted to know if at the salting stage people found it necessary to have it air dried somewhat.

[madrona sh]

Sorry Blackbird I am not familiar with brain tanning. In other methods of tanning you do not want a dried skin as you will have to relax it.
You can wipe away the oils that come out of the skin and towel off the hair side.
Hope that helps you.

[dime]

If you own an angle grinder, get a wire wheel and strip off all the fat and meat. If you don't go and buy yourself an angle grinder and a wire wheel, as it will save you hours and hours of work. You can then soak in a bucket with 3 gallons of water and a couple of pounds of ashes from a campfire and a couple of pounds of lime (from home depot or another similar store) to get the hair off. Make sure you put a couple of tablespoons of lysol to inhibit bacterial growth. After a couple of days you can scrape the fur off and you are left with rawhide which you can dry and store for months. Go on youtube to see the technique, it will make all the preceeding steps easy to visualize. Next get some tanning solution, I use this stuff, works like a charm:
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Deer-Hunters-Hide-Tanning-Formula-Per-Each/734058.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3D searchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProduc ts%26Ntt%3Dtanning%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%2BProducts%26x%3D0%26y%3D0&Ntt=tanning&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products

Make sure you follow directions and work the hide constantly (I use a ball peen hammer and stretch the hide over the ball end) after you put on the solution or it will end up hard as concrete.
You end up with beautiful buckskin leather that you can make into drums, moccasins, gloves or anything you like.
Good luck,
Dave (Dime)