Has anyone here tried tanning an Elephant ear your self? I have an Elephant ear,comming UPS, that is simply dipped, and salted. It is from Byron's elephant, and he only wanted one ear, so gave me the other one to make Nitro ammo belts from. I think I'll try tanning it my self, and dying it Gray. I have 18 sq ft of tanned ele skin, that is dyed PEANUT BRITTLE color to make the shell loops from, and should make some nice looking belts for my 470NE, and 500/450 doubles. Any advice on chimicals, and dirrections would be a lot of help!
As someone who used to post here was in the habbit of asking "ANYBODY WHO KNOWS?"

Why don't you just trade me some peanut brittle for some gray of mine. Easier than tanning. I'll send you an ear if you want and you send me something similar in size.

I would jump on the previous offer! If you don't get your skins like elephant or hippo tanned in Africa and sent to you, there are just a few tanneries in the US that have the equipment and know how to do leather, most tan for taxidermy purposes.

To properly tan hide into leather, you will need some specialized equipment. Probably the most important will be the round knife used to thin the hide after it is plumped up in the acid pickle. If you don't thin it correctly, it will not be soft and flexible.

Plus, where do you get rid of several gallons of acid pickle when you're done?

I owned a taxidermy shop for several years and did invest the time and money to learn to tan. It was much cheaper and better to let the tanneries do it!

Good luck!

JDS

I just got the ear a few minutes ago from FedX, but haven't opened it yet to see what condition it is in. I'll let you know when I do. I may let my taxidermist send it to San Fran for tanning. They have done some other back skins for me, and they do good work. I own the 470 NE double rifle that took this Elephant, so would like to make something for the rifle from the leather! We'll see!

quote:

Originally posted by MacD37:
I own the 470 NE double rifle that took this Elephant, so would like to make something for the rifle from the leather! We'll see!

Call Dick Murray - he'll make just about anything (cataloged or not) out of your hide.

I'd think one of his nifty "take down" cases out of your elephant ear would do the trick!

Mac

I was listening to the radio the other day and they mentioned if you rub dried white dog turds into leather it makes it incredibly soft.

No kidding, an ancient technique. Something to do with the high calcium (?) content from the bones.

Thought you might be interested.

I dont know Nitro I tried that on my old leather jacket years ago. Not sure if its any softer or not but I smell like dog $hit everytime I get caught in the rain.
Dean