Tanning hides

[piglady]

I have always wanted to learn how to tan hides. I had read years ago that you can soak them in those old ringer washers and then ring them out when finished. Then you put them in a old electric dryer without the heating element to keep them soft and flexible as they are drying. My husband finally found me one of those old washers so now I'm in business. As soon as deer season comes around, I'll have lots of deer skins to tan. That is if I know how. Do you know of any good books to help me learn?

[ArmyDoc]

I think there was a section on tanning in one of the foxfire books, but I don't remember which one. If you go to a decent bookstore, they should have the foxfire books and you can get the one it's in. Meanwhile, here are a few web sites you might find of interest.

First:

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

This next one's a bit preachy, but once he gets on to the topic of tanning it's pretty informative:

http://www.manataka.org/page27.html

and one more:

http://www.braintan.com/

That should get you started at least.

[hunter63]

Lot of discussion earlier in the "outdoors section".
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sea...archid=1332307

Hunter63, for some reason your link doesn't get me anywhere.

Piglady, here's a book I used to learn how to make leather. "DEERSKINS into BUCKSKINS" by Matt Richards. It's very informative and takes you step by step in all the process. I've made some very good leather using deer hides. Hard work but if you don't mind a little scraping here, tug there, and lots of bucking you'll make leather your proud to brag about.

[hunter63]

Originally Posted by r.h. in okla.

Hunter63, for some reason your link doesn't get me anywhere.

Piglady, here's a book I used to learn how to make leather. "DEERSKINS into BUCKSKINS" by Matt Richards. It's very informative and takes you step by step in all the process. I've made some very good leather using deer hides. Hard work but if you don't mind a little scraping here, tug there, and lots of bucking you'll make leather your proud to brag about.

Sorry it didn't work.
Thats strange, I didn't work for me either.
All I did was go to Great outdoors and do a search and the link came up again.
Any way, years ago I bought the book "Mountainman Crafts and Skills" From the Lyons Press.
Used the instructions for rawhide and tanning. Lent the book out and never got that one back, so did buy another one off the net. Can't remember where.