Tanning Advice

[Iona]

Hi all... I am back from a bit of an abscence to consult the oracle (that's you lot) on the process by which I might tan a deer hide.

I presently have, residing in my freezer, 2 fallow hides with winter coats... I really want to find out how to tan them so as to retain the hair in order to use them as comfy bottom of hammock insulation. However, I'm a total novice, and thought I'd see if anyone had done it and could advise me on process, pitfalls and 'handy hints'.

Thanks in advance and all that... :You_Rock_

 

[bushcraftbob]

I remember seeing a tutorial on here for doing rabbit skins using an egg solution, as per one of the recent River Cottage episodes - not sure if it can be used for Deer though.

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Iona

I can't say that I have ever tanned a animal skin that was frozen first.

I generally flesh the hide immediately after removal & throughly salt the skin side & leave for 24 hours. I then scrape this salt off & resalt the hide with fresh salt and leave for 6 - 7 days.

You can then either use a commercial tanning solution or use tannins from suitable local vegetation.


Here's two sites that provide information you may find usefull on a range of methods.

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

http://www.ssrsi.org/sr2/Hunt/tan.htm





Hope this helps.


Kind regards
Mick

 

[Waldganger]

G'day Iona

I can't say that I have ever tanned a animal skin that was frozen first.

I generally flesh the hide immediately after removal & throughly salt the skin side & leave for 24 hours. I then scrape this salt off & resalt the hide with fresh salt and leave for 6 - 7 days.

You can then either use a commercial tanning solution or use tannins from suitable local vegetation.


Here's two sites that provide information you may find usefull on a range of methods.

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

http://www.ssrsi.org/sr2/Hunt/tan.htm





Hope this helps.


Kind regards
Mick

Hey mate, what kind of local vegetation do you use?

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day Waldganger

Hey mate, what kind of local vegetation do you use?

Here in Australia, there's about 100 different species that have high levels of tannin in either their barks of leaves

A lot of the Acacia's (aka wattles) are rich in tannin including the black, silver & golden wattles but also mulgas & blackwood.

The numerous reg & black mangroves.

A number of Eucalypts with mallet gum being the best. The bloodwoods (use leaves, not bark), spotted gum, ribbon gum white box, stringy barks, etc, etc, all work as well.

A google search for plants of WA that are high in tannin should provide WA specific plants.

Hope this helps.




Kind regards
Mick

 

[jdlenton]

CyclingRelf​

is the lady you want to speak to. She has just done a number of sheep skins and the results are rather good. There are a few other tanners on here but their name at this point in tome have left me

 

[Iona]

Thanks people!

I whacked them in the freezer just thinking that it would preserve them while I got info... if it turns out to be a problem, I have a ready supply of more. I believe Oak here would be the 'suitable local vegetation', but not sure if I'll end up with a hairless hide, which would rather defeat the object...

And thanks for the tip jdlenton, I'll ask her nicely for some advice