Deer skin salted + pegged out...now what?

[jill.costello]

O.k., so I got a wild hair up my posterior and said "SURE!" when my neighbor asked me if I wanted any part of the deer he'd just cut up; "I want the hide!" [thinking vague thoughts about salting and scraping and fun projects, etc, etc]

So, I've googled "home tanning" and I'm gonna be quite frank with you: I aint messin' around with no BATTERY ACID, or chemicals I need a licence to handle (or can't pronounce) OR stuff that has to be disposed of more than 800 miles from my water supply (and in an area my goats can't find!), for fear I'll poison every living thing on my homestead...

So..... any Tanning methods that aren't so harmful?? [I know about the whole brains/+liver tanning that the Native Americans did; unfortunately the brains are no longer available due to some VERY happy dogs...]

Sorry about the sarcasm, folks, I just got stunned at what was in the recipes (and all precluded with some version of the phrase "....this is an EASY solution, made up of...1% zyleeacrutiumlicyium, 20% mycleatonic hyloric pyloric goo, 35% BATTERY ACID, etc, etc.... well, you get the idea...)

[WolfWalksSoftly]

The easiest method I have found is....use one cup of non iodized salt and one cup of Alum..mix with 4 or 5 gallons of water, and soak the hide at room temp for 2 days.

Take the hide out,scrape excess fat, meat, and the first layer of skin (comes of fairly easy. Rinse with fresh water, then add one more cup of Alum and soak skin another 7 days. Be sure to stir once a day and keep the hide under water.

After the week of soaking, wash hide with dish detergent or shampoo and allow to dry. With the hide dry for the most part, begin working the hide so it stayes pliable when totally dry.
The Alum can be found at most drug stores, is not toxic to your skin.
Good luck.

[cowboy joe]

I've brain tanned, acid tanned and used an off the shelf product for hides. Chemically treated hides can't compare to a properly brain tanned hide. That said, brain tanning involves alot of work & patience. You can use a eggs in the process if the brains aren't available. With all the chronic wasting disease problems (the prions reside in the brain material) probably a safer way to go.

I never had much luck with acid tanning. Between the poor results and the hazards, I'll never go that route again.

I recently did a hair on hide using a product called Trapper's Hide Tan Formula. I was strapped for time so I broke down and gave it a try. I was pleased with the results. I bought it through a trapper's supply house:

http://www.nwtrappers.com/catalog/other/tanningkits.asp

The stuff comes premixed. One bottle is ~$9 + S/H and will do a complete hide (hair off), 1/2 a bottle for hair on.

Your hide should be either stored in the freezer or well salted with non-iodized salt right now. The biggest mistake I have seen folks make is to sprinkle salt on the hide...sprinkling doesn't cut it. For a hair on tan, the salt should be at least a 1/4" thick and pushed into every nook & cranny of the skin side of the hide. Plenty of salt keeps the hide from decompossing and prevents slip (hair falling off) later on. Let the first coating sit for a day, brush it off / toss out, then reapply. Don't re-use the salt.

Good luck to you!

Are you wanting to tan it with the hair on or hair off? They both take a different method to achieve. For hair on, you can use alum and salt to pickle the hide. For hair off, you use builders lime mixed with water and soak for about 3 days. Afterwards you scrape all the hair off.

Once you have your hide ready with hair on or off, you can make a solution of 1/2 cup neats foot oil to 1/2 bar grated soap, to 1 gallon warm water, and use it to soften the hides with.

Forgot to add, if you want to learn how to make some really soft suede leather, buy the book "Deerskins into Buckskins" by Matt Richards.