Hi, I wanted to do something different and have a hide from a whitetail doe tanned. The hide is on ice for now, can freeze in short order. I have heard that Borax can be used to tan a hide, but am wondering if anyone has tanned one at home? Should I just ship it off? Any suggestions? I live in Texas and where would I ship it if I decide to go that route? Input please.
Eterry

How long has it been on ice? Get it in a freezer ASAP. Definitly have it professionally tanned. Borax is not a tanning agent! Most tanneries will only accept hides from a taxidermist. My advice, take it to a local taxidermist and let them take care of it for you. Tanning hides is not that costly.

Kind regards,
Mary

I'm just finishing brain tanning a skin I got last year...your freezer is your friend. Tanning is a TON of work and if you're not into elbow grease you'd best send it away.

the chef

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
I'm just finishing brain tanning a skin I got last year...your freezer is your friend. Tanning is a TON of work and if you're not into elbow grease you'd best send it away.

the chef

+1

I believe the Borax is used in the degreasing. You can tan using potassium permanganate(or something like that?) that can be purchased at a garden supply store. It is used to turn violets more "violet" colored, or something.

Anyway, it is a ton of work.

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
I'm just finishing brain tanning a skin I got last year...your freezer is your friend. Tanning is a TON of work and if you're not into elbow grease you'd best send it away.

the chef

+1

I believe the Borax is used in the degreasing. You can tan using potassium permanganate(or something like that?) that can be purchased at a garden supply store. It is used to turn violets more "violet" colored, or something.

Anyway, it is a ton of work.

JBrown,
None of what you said is correct, Please don't try this with any skin, it won't work.
The best thing to do if you want to tan a deerskin yourself is go to Wildlife artists supply co. or Van Dykes website and order one of their small home tanning kits, follow the directions.

Or if you want to do it in a traditional manner go to braintan.com and you'll learn all you need. There is no sense in using a marginal hide to tan as it's so damned much work you really want to use the best to get the best (SI/SO). By the way a little bit of rotting is fine for the traditonal methods as it really helps the hair to slip.

have fun

I tried a deer hide once, it was a TON of hard work, and I ended up with a poor, nasty result.

I've sent several hides to Moyle's and have been very happy with the results, but I'm not sure they are taking hides from us non professionals anymore. My dder hide from them is garment quality.

Moyle

I hope you all understand that "brain tanning" is not a permanent tan! You are simply rubbing one protein into another protein. Traditional brain tanning as practiced by the early Native Americans gave a soft hide, but after a short time they had to tan more hides to replace the one that is deteriorating as they wear it!

Professional, commercial tanning involves salting the hide to remove the moisture, thus breaking down the albumin and proteins in the skin, to prepare if for the pickle solution. The pickle solution plumps the skin by acting on it in a low pH, which in turn readies the skin for shaving the thickness down and even; after which it goes into a neutralization bath to raise the pH to a level to accept the next step ... the tanning bath! After the tanning is complete, the hide is cleaned and oiled and either dried in a hot room - for a soft, dry tan - or tumbled for wet tan mounting.

Either way there is a breaking process involved that softens the hide, then tumbling in hardwood sawdust, and finally cage tumbling to remove all sawdust, then sanding the flesh or leathered side of the hide.

As a former Tannery worker, and all the time Taxidermist, my suggestion is to get it to a local Taxidermist, so they can prep it for the Tannery. As they are a service industry to the Taxidermy industry, Tanneries will not accept hides from the general public.

Good luck to you,
John.

well I'm definately not an expert with this brain tanning stuff. I'll say this though, it works well, doesn't use chemicals (I'm a bit of a greenie sometimes), and is achievable by anyone without having to go buy more "stuff." Also the museums are chock full of brain tanned items that are very old indeed, so if properly looked after it does last. It's not "leather" in our modern sense and it really depends what you want to do with it. If you wanted to make rendezvous clothing etc. it's the ticket. If you want to make more modern stuff then a tannery is your best bet. All the tanneries around here will accept skins from the public but that might be a regional difference.

cheers

the chef

+1, Crowkiller, I couldn't agree more. The idea of tanning my own deerhide was irresistible to me. Now that I've done it, I have no problem whatsoever resisting the impulse to EVER do that again.

I have done it myself, and I have sent it out. Send it out!

Goto the supermarket or wal mart or something and get a bunch of salt....Pull your hide off the ice and heavy saturate the meat side with salt. This will start the process...Let it sit overnight in the garage or something to keep the critters off it. Then the next day roll it up and either put it int he freezer or take it to a taxidermy. If you dont know how to tan a hide its not a good idea to try and learn when you already have a hide.

If you want to learn to tan hides its something you can get into before the season gets going. I suggest you practice on some buddies and your animals that dont care to loose the hide, cause your going to mess up a few of them.

After your learn the basics of what to do, then you have to perfect your skill just like any other type of job that requires skill.

I helped out a local guy back home do alot of tanning and its a PAIN! its truly is a type of business I would never want to do for a living. Possibly if I ever had the free time I would think about doing it for just a side project. But to make money at it and be good at it, takes alot of time. We are talking like 18 hours of labor per hide. If you want the hide of a tougher animal like a large wild boar or Water buffalo (yes people tan water buffalo) then you are talking 2 weeks of hard labor.

Here is some pretty good instructions I found, you spraked my interest in doing this again when I get back stateside.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_l/l-103.pdf

Read through the instructions, as you can see tanning the hide really isn't that "hard" per say...Its just time consuming and as with a few other projects the more time you put into it the better the result.

Also I recommend using Baking Soda when your first start out, then after you do a few hides you can experiment with Borax.

While we're on the subject, I saved some elk leg skin with the dewclaws attached. Can anyone tell me how to tan these with the fur on. Would the alchohol and turpentine idea work for this? They don't have to be super soft but some pliability wuold be nice as I'll probably make a back quiver or possibles bag with them.

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
While we're on the subject, I saved some elk leg skin with the dewclaws attached. Can anyone tell me how to tan these with the fur on. Would the alchohol and turpentine idea work for this? They don't have to be super soft but some pliability wuold be nice as I'll probably make a back quiver or possibles bag with them.

Read my link above, it has some pretty good instructions if you want to experiment. But dont expect to have a great turn out the first time you try and tan the pelt.

Also you didnt mention how long you have had the pelt. after a short period you will start to loose the hair and there is nothing you can do about it and the tanning process will not save it.

there are plenty of companies out there that offer tanning kits with the must have chemicals to do the tanning. The more time you take to do the elbow greace the better it will look in the end. Good luck!