Home Tanning

[S.T.Fanatic]

Anyone on here have experience tanning hides? I've been getting a fair amount of yotes and have a couple nice ones that I'm considering tanning. There is plenty of info online but I thought I'd ask here for some of your experiences with it if any.

Thanks

 

[Belchertown Bowman]

 

[Bill]

I’d say save yourself the mess and send it to a tannery.

This is just one I googled

http://www.midwestfur.com/index.html

 

[Turkey Creek]

Coyotes and fox are good 1st time projects. You can buy the kits from Van Dykes Taxidermy supply to do a small number of hides, go with the Lutan-F tan. Shoot me a PM if you want more details on the process.

 

[BenA]

My son did a couple nutria he caught in our pond when he was 15. He tanned some with eggs and some with brains. This is a brain tanned one. It's a couple of years old and it doesn't smell or have any hair pulling out.

 

[buckdeer1]

My biggest issue when I tanned some deer hides years ago was hard to make pliable and you can't thin them down,which isn't a big issue on thinner hides but AI have been sending my beaver and a cased coon,coyote to USA fox.You want to see a pretty fur get a sheared beaver hide.Have a local trapper that had teddy bears made out of them

 

[Charman03]

I tanned a bunch of fox, it really isn’t all that difficult. I need to improve on degreasing and then breaking the hide better after it’s tanned.
Just trapped about 20 more I’m going to use to perfect my process

 

[Catscratch]

Coyotes and fox are good 1st time projects. You can buy the kits from Van Dykes Taxidermy supply to do a small number of hides, go with the Lutan-F tan. Shoot me a PM if you want more details on the process.

I would like details if you wouldn't mind posting them. Always wanted to tan something but unsure of the details and truthfully unsure of the results. Don't want to spend a small gob of money, spend a lot of time, and ruin a pelt.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Here is a rough out line of the steps. If you buy the kits I am sure they have complete steps in them as well. Likely even a few You Tube videos on the subject. This is for Lutan-F, but other tanning agents follow a similar process.

1. Skin the animal, sooner it is skinned the easier it is and the less chance of hair slipping out.
2. Remove all large chunks of red meat and fat. Invert the ear cartilage (easier watched than described)
3. Salt dry the skins, air drying will work but salt speeds the process and pulls out more of the fluids in the hide.
4. Rehydarate the skins in water then addition of bactericide helps prevent slippage.
5. Put immediately in a pickle solution once the hides are relaxed.
6. Pickling length depends on thickness of animal hide. Generally 3-4 days. Acid comes with the kits.
7. Take a fine wheel on a bench grinder and "buff" off more of the fat, meat and membranes that were still on the skin. Return to the pickle.
8. Neutralize the skin according to the directions on your tanning agent.
9. Mix up the tan and submerge the skins in the tanning solution for 18- 24 hrs depending again on hide thickness.
10. Pull and rinse skins in clean water.
11. OIL THE SKINS WITH A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE TANNING OIL (not sun tan oil!) will come with the kit.
12. allow the skin to start drying, work the leather side over the edge of a counter or piece of plywood as the skin drys and you can re-oil after the skin is 50% dry if you want to.
13. Nice to have a tumbler to put hides in with hardwood sawdust for the last 20% of drying as it will keep working the leather to soften it and also remove oil residue from the hair.

 

[Catscratch]

Thanks Turkey, that sums it up really well. Looks like enough work that you would want to do a batch of them instead of one at a time.