Tanning a hide

Gunnut

New member
I am sort of new to this whole predator hunting thing( I usually juswt shoot when I see them) but need to know what to do with the fur after I skin it. How do I tan and streach, can I buy the tanning supplies or should I ship the pelt out?
 
Howdy Gunnut, and welcome to Predator Masters. Where ya from?

Stretching the skins involves little more then turning them inside out and pulling them onto a stretching board or wire frame.

As far as tanning, yes you can buy all the chemicals needed to do so. It depends on how much you plan to do, how much time you have, etc.
If your considering just tanning a few choice pelts harvested throughout the year, you might be better off sending them out verses buying several different chemicals to complete the task yourself.

What is it that you plan to do with your harvests?

~River Runner~



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I plan on tanning them all and then making something out of them. I live in Albuquerque New Mexico, but hunt near Santa Fe New Mexico.
 
Hey Gunnut,

Try pickilin' your hides in lemon concentrate for 3 hours (totally submerged).

Then get you 12 ounces of alum (aluminum sulfide) from your local drug store, dont go to a big pharmacy or theyll look at you funny.

Add the 12 ozs of alum to 1 gallon of water with 12 ounces of salt.

Let sit for a week. About every other day stir it. Once done let drip dry until its just damp enough to absorb some Neats Foot Oil (get from a boot store or leather shop)and let it soak it up. (May repeat oil job until its soft then stretch it)

This is the best home solution i found, try it maybe youll like it.
 
Thanks for the tip. where do I get the lemon concentrate, is that alum easy to get and how much do those two things cost?
 
I'm not a big fan of Alum tanning methods. The biggest reason is... there are a million and one Alum tanning recipes floating around today and I only know of one that has any duration to it. If your looking for a very inexpensive method to preserve a hide and aren't looking for any longevity in it what so ever, why not simply rub it down with puffed Borax and be done with it.
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You'd be surprised how many fly by night cut rate taxidermists do this.

The actual process of tanning a hide properly(of any kind) involves chemicals, techniques, and closely monitored PH balances much more advanced then a fruit, it's juices, and some foot oil.
Tanning a hide is really the process of slowly converting what was once the skin of an animal into leather. Yes....moons ago things we're done in a more primitive manner, but you have to admit it was these things in itself that taught us better and more efficient methods. Same reason we don't live in grass huts like on Gilligan's Island. We have developed products that will oulast, out do, out perform, and are just plain and simple...a lot more effective at doing the job a better way.

Being in the tanning business as long as I have I guess I really hate to see folks pick up on some of these bandaid, make shift, tanning techniques. Granted... the entire world may not agree with the recipes, and techniques that I have learned to use and build a business with.

Yes some of the chemiclas will cost a little money and may not be so easily obtained, but then again we're back to, "do we want to tan this hide are preserve it for several months"?

Gunnut...unless your selling your furs put up and dried to a dealer, you don't need to stretch them....yet. If your going to tan everything yourself, stretching is part of the final process, it's called breaking the hide and is one of the last things done.


~River Runner~

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I buy all my chemicals right from the manufacturer, Rittel's. They provide instructions with each chemical upon request and also offer video's.
The other thing you could do is pay a visit to Taxidermy.net and go through their links. There is a ton of suppliers listed providing chemicals, techniques, books, and equipment.

As far as what chemicals to use and what to do...whew! this could get pretty drawn out not to mention each type of tan carrys different techniques.
Basically I prefer to have all my customer hides salt dried rock hard as the very first step. To me it's a must in beginning the skin to leather conversion.

Next They all get rehydrated in a chemical called Ultra Soft for four to six hours or till they are 100% plyable. After that they get stripped, ears turned, lips split cartilidge removed, pads scraped, and then shaved down in thickness if none of that was done prior to it's arrival.

Then they get degreased to pull the grease from the skin to allow the acids to penetrate.

Next they go into an acid with a P.H. no higher then 1.5 to pickle the skin for three days.

After three days of pickling they get pulled and drained, and placed into a neutralizing solution to raise the P.H. level of the skin back up so the low P.H. tanning chemicals will take to the skin.

Next they go into a tanning solution carrying a P.H. level of 4, for a steady 18 to 20 hours, then pulled, drained and oiled to sweat for 8 more hours.

And finally their tumbled for several hours to break the hide, cleaned and then groomed.

Like I said, every tan carry's different techniques, different recipes, etc.
If your not familiar at all with any of it, the best thing would be to get some videos, some books, and better yet, stick around in here. I'll answer any questions you might have in the process. The only thing I'm not willing to do is give up all my recipes and formulas. I'm sure you understand
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~River Runner~


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Thanks alot for the process River Runner but what does get stripped, ears turned, lips split cartilidge removed, pads scraped, and then shaved down in thickness mean. ( sorry for all the questions but I am really new to this.
 
Gunnut Van Dykes taxidermy sells a lot of tanning chemicals, They also sell kits with everything you nedd for a vriety of tans. Other than this I know squat about tanning so listen to River Runner. Their address is www.vandykes.com
 
Gunnut,

River Runner is much more versed in this subject than I but depending on the volumes of pelts that you are wanting to tan, I have had VERY good luck with a product called "Liqui-Tan". Tandy Leather markets this same chemical under the name of "Tannit". For clothing or other similar uses a professional garment tan is preferred. But for your own use or display the below mentioned method works great.


As a matter of fact, if you are looking at tanning just the tails or small animals I would say that this is the way I would prefer.

It is very simple.
1. Remove any excess meat, blood, or fat.
2. Salt the hide until dry.
3. Paint the unfurred side with the above mentioned chemical, making sure to cover all exposed skin.
4. After about 3 or 4 days of curing work the hide over a board until the desired pliability is reached.
5. Go get another hide to do cause this stuff is really easy.



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Brian K. Bentley

Hunting is not just our right, It's our HERITAGE.
 
Brian, I have a nice hide frozen for the moment. Tell us more about how to wash the pelt to get blood off and salting before using the solution. I found a website that sells Tannit for about $20.00. Also more on boarding please.

Thanks
Bob
 
Stripping a hide Gunnut, consists of fleshing or scraping the entire hide free of all, and any fat, and or meat, left behind the skinning job.

After that ...there isn't a mammal alive today that doesn't have what I call a membrane on the inner side of their skin. It's a paper thin layer of translucent flesh that needs to be fleshed away to allow the tanning chemicals into the skin. You'll know when you have it removed, the flesh side of the skin will be perfectly smooth and have a milky white appearance to it.

Ears turned...means turning the ears inside out. The ears, (every mammal) will have cartilidge in the ear on the inside part that faces the other ear. (towards the inside of the head) It needs to be seperated from the inner ear skin. If this is not done, and on fox especially, the ear hair will slip and eventually lead to a bald ear.

Lips split is more or less a concern for folks that are having their hide mounted. The lips need to be turned inside out also, and scraped clean of fat tissue before tanning and then the inside out lips are tucked into the form as the original lips on the mounted species.

Cartilidge removed means the nose, and the base of the ears mostly. Any part of the hide that has any cartilidge in it and isn't removed, that part of the hide will eventually draw insects because the tanning chemicals could never fully penetrate it. The results are very much like tanning a pound of hamburger and hanging it on your gun rack.

Pads scraped...any hide getting tanned with the paws left on it need to have the paw pads scraped clean of fat, which is what the entire pad is made of. No tanning chemical on the market today can tan any fat tissue of any kind, I don't care what anyone says. It don't happen.

Shaved down to thickness means just that. Running the hide across a fleshing wheel several times to thin down the skin so it's able to absorb the chemicals and tan evenly.
If this isn't done, the thin parts of the hide turn out real nice and soft (if broken properly) and the thicker parts towards the neck will be stiff and rigid..

As far as chemicals, Van Dykes Supply is probably the nations leader of taxidermy supply related chemicals and will have the best price for a home/non commercial user.

I won't comment on the one step, paint on processes. My time in the business has shown more then once that there is no such thing as a single stage, multi purpose, cure all tan, that actually tans a hide of any kind with one easy step.

That reminds me, I'm an extremely avid engine builder in my spare time. The more ponys the better
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A close freind of mine in the Nascar Busch series machinists crew, told me once "there's no such thing as a wrench in a bottle", and was proven right several times.

Same goes for tanning, there are really no short cuts, and no do-all chemicals.


~River Runner~


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[This message has been edited by River Runner (edited 10-25-2001).]
 
Sorry, but I've got to respectfully disagree with RR.

I've used tannit, and RR is right about several things. you still have to do all the work to the hide before applying it. But once you apply it it, if you follow the preparation instructions, it cures it really good. Ive used it on 2 dear hides, and countless squirrels and bunnies. It preserves the hide, keeps it from stinking, and prevents hair slippage.
The problem is, the final step you're supposed to rub the skin back and forth over a board as it dries to make it pliable. This stuff takes a few days to dry, and there's do way you're going to make it overly pliable unless you have a fur tumbler. My deer hides aren't hard like a board, you can bend them, and the leather is soft to the touch on the bottom, they look very nice...but there is no way you would make anything out of this leather other than a rug. Mine sit o nthe flat floor and look purdy. they'd also look good on a wall...but they're not for making buckskin clothes outta, they're just too hard. My squirrels are softer, because they're thinner skinned, rabbits too are fairly easy to tan. I also did a beautiful snake skin on my wall with this, it'll cure anything from reptiles, mammels, fish, and probably vegtables...it's really good stuff, but don't think you're going to get tannery qwuality products from it...
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RiverRunner, If you were to use one tanning kit/method out of van dykes to tan a couple of coyote hides a year what would it be?
 
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