DIY hide tanning

[KHo]

Good stuff right here. Glad to see you posting up sir.

[BowHunter148]

Im sitting on the edge of my crapper awaiting the next read!!!
This is great stuff!

[zcole04]

Great Job of showing your steps. I might have to give this a try.

[Reaper]

still loving this thread keep it coming, and thanks for sharing

[MountainMan]

Great read! Keep it coming!

[AggieBall]

Great tread. What is your total cost and time spent?

[Big Brass]

Sorry I haven't updated. The hide is still in the pickle as I got sidetracked with work and kids the last couple of days. I will update tonight when I neutralize and tan the hide.

AggieBall.

The cost is pretty cheap. The lutan f kit is about $20 and there is enough to probably do 4-5 deer hides.The boxes of salt are pretty cheap. The total time for skinning, fleshing, and thinning is probably 1-3 hours (I'm pretty slow at this). I salt for 24 hours. The pickle lasts for a minimum of 72 hours. Then neutralize for 30 minutes and the tan takes about 16 hours. Then you have to dry, stretch and oil the hide (I'm guessing 24 hours here). All total that is around 6 days but most of that time is just soaking in solution and does not require any real work on your part other than waiting. The only real labor involved is in skinning, fleshing, thinning, stretching, breaking, and oiling and all together that is less than 5 hours of work. But like I said, I am slow.

[TEX_hunt_AS]

Sorry I haven't updated. The hide is still in the pickle as I got sidetracked with work and kids the last couple of days. I will update tonight when I neutralize and tan the hide.

AggieBall.

The cost is pretty cheap. The lutan f kit is about $20 and there is enough to probably do 4-5 deer hides.The boxes of salt are pretty cheap. The total time for skinning, fleshing, and thinning is probably 1-3 hours (I'm pretty slow at this). I salt for 24 hours. The pickle lasts for a minimum of 72 hours. Then neutralize for 30 minutes and the tan takes about 16 hours. Then you have to dry, stretch and oil the hide (I'm guessing 24 hours here). All total that is around 6 days but most of that time is just soaking in solution and does not require any real work on your part other than waiting. The only real labor involved is in skinning, fleshing, thinning, stretching, breaking, and oiling and all together that is less than 5 hours of work. But like I said, I am slow.

Do you have any pictures of past skins you have done?

[Big Brass]

Do you have any pictures of past skins you have done?

Here's the blackbuck doe hide I did around 4 years ago.


The hide does not shed at all and makes a very soft, cool comfortable throw over the ottoman. I need to sand the skin side a little more but other than that it turned out well.

[Big Brass]

Update.

I started out this afternoon by taking the hide out of the pickle and rinsing it well. Then I rinsed the tub well and added about 4 gallons of water.


Then I added 4 ounces of sodium bicarbonate. I weighed this out at work today. The lutan f instructions call for 1 ounce of bicarb per gallon of water. This is the neutralizing solution.




I mixed it well to make sure all of the bicarb was disolved and then put the hides in the neutralizing solution.


In 20 or 30 minutes I'll take them out, rinse them, and prepare the tanning solution. Pics to come.

[Big Brass]

Probably 30 minutes went by and I took the hide out and rinsed it. I emptied the neutralizing solution and started refilling with about 4 gallons of fresh water.


The lutan recipe calls for 1/2 lb of salt per gallon of water so I add 2 gallons of salt and mix that until it is all disolved.


The recipe calls for 2 ounces of lutan f per gallon so I put in the remaining 8 ounces of lutan f.




After I had that thoroughly mixed until everything was disolved, I put the hide in the tanning solution.


The hide needs to stay in for about 16 hours so I will take it out somtime after lunch tomorrow. I will update then.

[JSAPP]

I had a taxidermy shop for a few years(untill I had to grow up and get a real job), and for an at home job you are doing great. As far as the thawing process, your brine does help some but the main thing to remember is keep the hide cool through the skinning and fleshing process. Heat is your enemy. Good job.

[Big Brass]

Thanks JSAPP. That's good to hear from a pro.

[bowhunter08]

I love this thread. Thanks for taking the time to post all the pics and walk us through the process.

[KHo]

Thanks for keeping us updated. REALLY cool thread.