Any of you guys have any expirience tanning gator hides yourself. Seasons coming up in a few weeks and was considering trying it on my own. I've done deer hides in the past but have no idea how to handle a gator skin. Thanks

You are very brave. I would start by trying to skin out a gator, if you have not tried it before get ready for some work.

I always have mine hides done by a local taxidermist, just because it's so easy to really mess one up.

quote:

You are very brave. I would start by trying to skin out a gator, if you have not tried it before get ready for some work.

Amen to that!!!

Skinning the gators isn't the problem here. I was looking for some advice with the home tanning part of it. I checked with Van Dyke's taxidermy and all they had was snake and reptile tanning recipies. I'm trying to aviod the $4.50 per centimeter tanning fee's I see advertised here in South Florida.

Skinning gators! After the gator is skinned a simple and quick way to remove the fat and meat attached to the under skin is using a power washer pointing at an angle to the hide. Removes all the fat and flesh in a more efficient and quicker method!

Thanks Aktoklat. Do you know any recipies or commercial products that will work for the tanning process?