Tanning hides yourself

[dholmtime]

I have been looking up different processes and solutions to tan your hides at home and the one that seems the easiest requires Alum (aluminum sulfate) but I can't find anywhere to buy it in bulk. Does anyone know where I buy some? Or any alternative solutions that don't require Alum? Any advice is good advice thanks

 

[mattkellyind]

My grand father used to brain tan his hides I was to little to remember how he did it but with google you should be able to find out the process. It was mostly small game I dont think he had any store items but i was to little to pay attention. Good Luck and hope you get your hide tanned.

 

[FordMan08]

eBay is a good place to get it, you can get 50lb bags of it there for $25

 

[dholmtime]

Is that was you use to tan non-iodize salt and alum? Seems simple enough if so

 

[trailrider]

I'm attempting this for the first time on a beaver I got this fall. I'm using Borax. advice from a guy who has done this alot in the past. Too early to tell how well it works as we just skinned it and stretched it Fri. night. I'll reapply next weekend then leave stretched for a few months. after a couple of days it seems to work ok but as I said, too early to tell. Borax purchased at wally world as "3 mule team" laundry additive. beeen around for a long time. Anyone else heard of this method? my 2 cents.

 

[selinoid44]

Yes Borax. I've got taxidermy books and they all say use the borax. I know two taxidermist they also say use borax.

 

[Ashkelon]

I have a beaver hide that has been under salt for a couple weeks now and am planning on trying the Borax method or buying a pre-made from hoosier trapper.

I will not be attemtping this again. What a PIA. I know there is at least one more beaver in our pond after seeing fresh cuttings this weekend. My hat is off to guys that do this on a regular basis.

Lotsa meat on a beaver but I couldn't bring myselt to eat a giant rodent.

 

[trailrider]

I had heard that beavers are about as tough as it gets to tan because of the HIGH fat content. I'm a believer!! I just got done sraping and reapplying the borax("20 mule team" not "3 mule team" as I stated earlier). Seems to be working well. I mixed a thick paste consistency. Might I suggest starting with something a little easier say maybe a rabbit. I also will not attempt this again on a beaver and didn't bother to try and "use" any of the meat except for coyote bait!

 

[mattkellyind]

Oh man I went to a party and they had one in a hog roaster the meat was supreme in ny book mouth watering, but I imagine it takes skills to get it that way. I would love to try it on a open spit basted in apple cider cooked over apple wood.

 

[finity]

While I cxan't answer the OP on getting alum I can tell you my experiences with tanning hides.

I used the traditional brain-tan method except for making my own lye from ashes. I used red-devil lye but making the ash lye doesn't look very hard.

I did all my deer hides hair-off & made buckskin out of them. I (foolishly) started out with about 10 hides. I asked the hunters at work to bring in their hides & ended up with asbout 15 hides & ended up throwing some away because I just didn't have the ability to finish them all.

I will tell you it is A LOT of work & it makes A BIG mess. In the end though you will have very nice buckskins that feel almost like cloth.

The book I used was "Deerskin into Buckskin" by Matt Richards. He used to be associated with the website Braintan.com: Natural Hide Tanning and Leathercraft . I even e-mailed him with a question & he responded fairly quickly.

All of this was probably 12 years ago now & I haven't done any more since then. I'll definitely say it was a good learning experience. You never know when learning how to make your own durable clothing out of all natural materials easily obtainable in the wild might come in handy.

Oh yeah, I also tried to do a cow hide but it was so big & fatty that I couldn't even scrape the initial fat off after I salted it. I gave up on that pretty quickly.