How To Case Skin A Deer And Stretch It

I read a post recently by a guy that had finished tanning a deer hibernate for his daughter. He said it was a fairly long ordeal (and he probably wouldn't ever exercise it again), but information technology turned out beautifully and he had a picture to prove it. The hibernate looked very soft and flexible and hung limp like a blanket over the bed. Then thanks to "livbucks" from PA. for providing the initial motivation for me to try my hand at tanning a consummate hide.

I like the idea of DIY or as I would say, DIOY (doing-it-your-own-self) and I likewise like the idea of not wasting the hide and am glad to see that there are many other people that feel the aforementioned way. I am encouraged to meet and so many people on websites and forums that are keeping old skills like how to tan a hibernate alive. Chances are, if you are reading this, y'all are a exercise-information technology-yourself person too.

I mostly hunt public land with Over-the-Counter tags. I commonly hunt by myself, simply sometimes my wife goes with me. We butcher, wrap and freeze the meat and brand our own sausage, ground meat and patties for burgers.

Raw mule deer hide from hind quarter.

I occasionally tan the hides from hind quarters of elk or deer that have been packed out considering it'south always skilful to have deer and elk hair on hand for tying flies, but I plan on making a carpeting or coating from a whole deer or elk hide.

If I always draw a express entry tag, I also plan on making my own European mode mount of the skull and antlers.

Before I tackle a whole skin, I need to learn a few more tools, just I will update this mail service when I get started.

Start Experience Tanning Rabbit Hides

Many years agone while I was yet in high school, I was asked past a friend of the family to prove him how to dress rabbits. No… Not to put dresses on them similar some people do with their pocket-sized dogs, merely to skin, gut and clean them.

He had bought a few acres, and though he had a good job in town, was trying to live as self sufficient every bit possible. He was growing a garden, raising a few cows, goats, free-range chickens and had also started raising rabbits.

Well, you lot know how it goes… A cow has a calf (i calf), goats unremarkably have two kids, chickens lay eight-12 eggs and y'all will be lucky to raise 4 or v chicks in a season if yous don't go along them penned up, but the rabbits were breeding similar rabbits! He already had baby rabbits that were having more infant rabbits and had built more cages, but even the new cages were stacked full of rabbits. Something had to give.

The original purpose for raising the rabbits was for food, merely his wife and kids had get fastened to the rabbits and hadn't fully bought-in to the thought of eating what y'all raise. I don't recollect this boyfriend had actually "harvested" any of his livestock yet. So I  was glad to assist out and to brand a long story short, we "dressed" half-dozen rabbits.

This rabbit looks similar to the hybrid skins that were tanned

His original rabbits, (California giants) were big and white with a soft medium length coat. But nigh half of the younger rabbits were mostly white, but with an irregular wild-type colored blanket splashed across their backs. My friend said he but assumed the wild native Cottontails were responsible.

How did those sneaky fiddling devils do that through the craven wire? Not possible, plus domestic rabbits are really from European Hare stock (22 chromosomes) and wild cottontail rabbits have 21 chromosomes, and then that was not the answer. He merely had white rabbits that still had some genes for wild color blazon. Still, all the hides were beautiful, especially the wild "cottontail hybrids".

The purpose of telling this story at present, is that once I saw those hides, I couldn't just throw them away and I had to endeavor to preserve them. At that time (mid 1970s), modest game was plentiful where I lived, but big game (white-tailed deer) was not. People used to joke that you could chase deer an entire lifetime and go out most of a box of shells for your kids. I had skinned many-a-rabbit and squirrel, but had no experience tanning hides and didn't know everyone that had done it. My Grandfather said he used to know people, they tanned their own hides and even made their ain shoes, but they were all "long gone".

Foxfire Volume 3; Chapter 2 Hibernate Tanning

This was apparently many years before Al Gore invented the net, and then back then, the just source of information at that time was our Globe Book encyclopedia set, the Gilded Book Encyclopedia of Natural Scientific discipline (1962; I notwithstanding accept that set today) and the public library. I had to hustle likewise, because I didn't know what to do with the skins, except to stretch and tack them to plywood. My father told me to remove all the excess meat and tissue from the skins and to spread a little pickling salt on them. Luckily, that was enough to agree them until I discovered the Foxfire books at the library the next twenty-four hour period.

Foxfire was started as a class projection in 1966 every bit students from northern Georgia interviewed elders and retold their stories near how they lived (self sufficiently) in the Southern Appalachians. They had enough stories to produced a magazine, which later was turned into the book series. There is besides a Foxfire museum and non-profit  organization. The name "Foxfire" comes the local proper noun for a bioluminescent (glows in the dark) fungus that grows in the region.

The Foxfire 3 volume was the one I needed to acquire how to tan the hides, simply the book also covers subjects similar animal care, banjos and dulcimers, wild plant foods, churning butter and finding and using ginseng.

The Foxfire 3 book describes several methods for tanning hides, including bark tanning, brain tanning, alum tanning and tanning with lard and flour. Most of the information is for tanning afterward the hair was removed.

The bawl tanning method is a fourth dimension consuming method that is very like to method described past the U.S. Dept. of Agronomics Publication below. They did mention how they ringed or cut downwardly trees to get the bark and how they used the bark from different tree species for dissimilar colored hides. Chestnut Oak would turn the hides brown and the bark of White Oak would turn hides a yellowish color. Bark could be used either dry or green, just the "tea" or "ooze" fabricated from the bark needs to exist the color of night coffee before using it for tanning hides.

The brain tanning method is like to other encephalon tanning methods described. Brains are merely cooked then rubbed into the hide. Brains were rubbed on the hide either absurd or hot, but seems the hot method also helps remove the hair.

The lard and flour method is a method I accept not seen described anywhere else before. For tanning a hide with lard, the hibernate was rubbed with a thick coat of lard and and so the lard was coated with flour. The hide was rolled upward until "the blood was drawn out". The hibernate would be oiled and worked to go along information technology soft.

None of the methods or equipment are described in bang-up detail, and some of the methods (lard and flour method) were described from memory. There are numerous blackness and white photos of skins and hides in various stages of skinning and tanning.

The Foxfire iii book has a short department about tanning hides with the hair on, and that is the section that I followed. The method describes scraping the hides to remove the mankind and fat and so salting the hides (which I did). Then I covered the hides with alum and allowed them to dry out. At this point, they should exist fix for apply.

Another method described using one-half alum and half soda, but without salting the hide. Another method that would probably be frowned upon today was to use a bar of laundry soap and six ounces of arsenic or lead. This toxic mixture was made into a paste that was then rubbed into the hibernate.

My hides were preserved well and the fur held tight and remained beautiful for years, but I was disappointed that the hides were very stiff. That seems to be the case for alum tanned hides. I don't call back much about the softening process (maybe that was the problem – I probably had to return the book before the hide was fix for softening), but the Foxfire 3 book but has a short department on keeping hides pliable. Methods for keeping the hides pliable include using Neatsfoot oil or beeswax and beef tallow to "work" the hides. Methods or techniques or tools used for working the hides are not described.

I remember that I tried chewing one of the hides for a while. If chewing was actually how native American women softened deer hides, I stand in awe of them! Perhaps someone told me to chew the hide just to play a joke on a gullible teenager. What I didn't know at the time, was that hides go soft from working them while still moisture, non later they are dry out. I basically made raw hide with the pilus on. The hides were preserved, just they were never soft and pliable.

Types or Methods of Tanning Hides and Leather at Habitation

• Bawl Tanning – Uses the Tanin or Tannic Acid from bark of oak, hemlock or other trees. This method has also been referred to as vegetable tanning – Tanning with tannic acid from tree bark can take upwards to 6 months to complete, and will stain the fur of an animal, and then I would try this method for tanning leather, but non for preserving a hide. Come across recipe beneath – would need at to the lowest degree 100 lbs of bawl for a cow hibernate, And so maybe 40 or 50 lbs for a deer hide.
• Brain Tanning – every fauna has one (a brain) and it seems that every animal except bison have enough brains to tan their own hide. I am a lilliputian concerned about using brains of ungulates as a tanning amanuensis due to the possibility of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CWD is form of spongiform encephalopathy, similar to mad cow affliction and several very similar to a very rare prion diseases that effect humans. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC); "To date, no potent evidence of CWD transmission to humans has been reported." Well that is skillful to know, simply the CDC advises hunters to have game tested for CWD earlier consuming it and to have certain precautions in the field while butchering the animal, including; "…wear gloves, bone-out the meat from the animal, and minimize handling of the encephalon and spinal cord tissues. I am notwithstanding consider brain tanning, simply I don't think I will be using the brains of a deer or an elk. If not, then I demand to observe a source for pig brains. When I was young, canned hog brains were always at the grocery store (Armour – aforementioned people that make potted meat). I never had them then I don't know what I missed. I used to wonder who actually bought them. My Grandfather said he used to eat them, but only had them fresh when they killed hogs. I don't know if they are even available at present subsequently all the mad cow disease scare. I will bank check at some of the Asian food markets. Information technology besides seems that virtually brain tanning instructions also recommend that the hides exist smoked also.
• Tanning with Mayonnaise and Raw Eggs – Since mayo is raw eggs and oil, then the mix is lots of raw eggs and some oil – utilise the same way equally brain tanning – Interesting, never heard of this method before – More research needed.
• Tanning with Alcohol & Turpentine – seems that some people have used this is a fifty% booze and 50% Turpentine solution – others say they never heard of this and suggested that the leather would probable be very dry when alcohol evaporated. More inquiry is needed hither, but I don't think I want my hides to scent like turpentine.
• Salt & Alum Tanning (ammonium aluminum sulfate or potassium aluminum sulfate)
• Chrome Tanning (Chromium Sulfate) – commercial method – typical hard, shinny texture. Your motorcycle jacket was probably tanned this manner – wash water is considered chancy waste.
• Glutaraldehyde Tanning – an alternative to Chrome Tanning? Related to Formaldehyde. Dow chemical recommends their production Zoldine® exist used in conjunction with Chrome Tanning. The Safety canvas states that it is very toxic and extremely harmful to aquatic organisms. Non for me. Probably not for home tanning at all. Certain wouldn't want my neighbour dumping Chromium or aldehyde compounds on the ground or in the creek anywhere almost me.
• Lard and Flour Tanning – method described in Foxfire 3

Steps of the Leather and Hide Tanning Process

Depending upon the source, in that location are various steps to the Hide Tanning process. I have tried to summarize them hither. Also, make certain to read the comments at the end of this post. Much info has been added there.

In that location seems to be some confusion betwixt sources about what it means to preserve, tan or break hibernate. Some dissever these into different steps, while others don't include some of the steps or they combine them into a single stride.

1. 1. 1. 1. Skinning
         2. Fleshing – remove all fat and tissues

Here is a good detailed exampled of actually fleshing a deer hibernate.

1. 1. 1. Preserving/Curing – freeze or salt – salt (non-iodized), alum – end bacterial activity to preserve hides – equal parts salt and hibernate
      2. Washing/De-greasing – If the hide is very fat, information technology might need to exist done
      3. De-hairing – if you desire leather – lime – skip this step if you want to tan a hide with fur left on
      4. Thinning (if hide is thick) – Dry out Scraping
      5. Tanning – Pickling – Neutralizing – uses an acid solution to prepare the cells of the hide for tanning (Pickle just if hibernate is not fresh) – test for completion, cut small piece from border, look to run across if color has completely penetrated hide – or put modest piece in boiling water, if curls, it is not ready. Must be completely rinsed and neutralized – conscientious virtually where you dump waste product h2o. Types of Acid; Battery acrid, oxalic acid
      6. Breaking & Oiling

This is a good look of a near finished tanned deer pare (hibernate-on) and the child knows his stuff…

To Salt or Not to Salt Hides to Preserve for Tanning?

If y'all are not able to begin the tanning procedure a soon as the animal is skinned, then the hide must be frozen or salted. If in the field without access to refrigeration, then table salt would seem to exist the only pick. But some sources say to add together plenty of common salt to cure the hide and set the fur, while others say "Do not Salt!". One website says non to salt unless you are experienced every bit salting can ruin a hide. It would help if they would have mentioned how salt could ruin a hide, so we would know what to watch for. So in that location is the pick of dry salting or wet salting. Dry salted hides wait like they could be stacked in the corner for some time, while wet salted hides must be stored in a sealed plastic container. Dry salted hides seem to be harder to rehydrate and tan when you resume the process.

The fur can start falling out (slipping) fairly speedily in warm atmospheric condition due to bacterial growth, and then what to do? I plan on salting the hide equally soon as possible, only more inquiry is needed on salting hides to learn what some of the pitfalls might be. Just if you exercise salt a hide, do non use iodized common salt and do not utilize rock salt because size of crystals is too big and likewise many impurities. Use a fine grained table salt like pickling salt. The hide needs to be completely covered with salt and a good guide to the amount of salt needed is to utilize nigh the aforementioned corporeality of salt equally the animal hide weighs.

Hide Tanning Books to Consider

I think I accept only about wearied the credible online resources on tanning hides. In that location are lots of You-tube videos, and some accept some good info, but nearly seem to be for leather and not for hides with the fur left on. I need a trivial more in-depth data to make up one's mind on the type of tanning I will attempt. I too experience similar I demand a little more than step past step guidance, especially on the subjects similar hide thinning and breaking. I ordered some books on how to tan a hide and volition exist using them to aid decide which tanning process I want to use and what tools I demand to obtain. The all-time one so far has been Deerskins into Buckskins.

"Lot of good detail and step by step directions. Also skilful history and like shooting fish in a barrel to follow. I take already used it to buckskin and information technology works well. Thanks and can't expect to exercise another one by a slightly different method." -Gerald

Also check out the comments section at the bottom of this folio. Lots of people have asked questions about tanning hides and lots of expert answers have been provide.

Tanning Hides and Leather with Bark (Tannin/Tannic Acid)

I found an sometime U.Due south. Dept. of Agriculture (1884) publication Habitation Tanning of Leather and Small Fur Skins and have summarized the basic steps for tanning a cow hide with tannic acid from bark:

1. 1. 1. Brand bark liquor  – thirty-40 lbs of finely ground (particles no larger than corn kernel) oak or hemlock bark
      2. Boil twenty gallons of pure water (rain h2o is best)
      3. mix in barrel (do not use fe container) and let stand up for 15-twenty days, stir occasionally
      4. when set to utilise, strain off the bark by pouring through a sack
      5. Add 2 quarts vinegar
      6. hang sides (of moo-cow hide) from sticks in the bark, the less folds the amend, motility around oft to insure fifty-fifty coloring
      7. Equally soon equally sides are soaking in the bawl liquor mixture, make some other batch of liquor mixture
      8. After x-15 days, remove about 5 gallons of mixture from the barrel with the hides, and replace information technology with fresh bawl mixture from second batch, and add 2 quarts of vinegar.
      9. After 5 more than days remove some other 5 gallons of mixture and supercede with 5 gallons of the fresh mixture (no more vinegar needed)
      10. Repeat twice more every 5 days – bank check hide past cutting a sliver from an end slice to see how much the hide has been penetrated.
      11. Then take another twoscore lbs of bawl and moisten with water, add bawl directly to the sides and bury them in the bark for 6 weeks.
      12. Later on six weeks, check of hide should show tanning spread most to the center – pour out one-half of the old bawl liquor water and fill the butt with fresh bark – milk shake the butt from fourth dimension to time, add together bawl and water as needed to continue hides covered – checking hide should reveal all tanned, no white or raw streak – if not complete, go out in the mixture and add together more bark and water to proceed covered. At this point leather to be used for harness or belt leather should be done, but go out for 2 months longer if leather is to be used for shoe soles.

Wow! A minimum of 100 lbs of oak bark and at least 77 – 87 days of preparing or soaking the hide.

The United states of americaD.A. publication warns the reader that "The inexperienced cannot hope to make leather equal in appearance, or possibly in quality, to that obtainable on the marketplace"… and "Information technology is never advisable for an inexperienced person to try to tan valuable fur skins or big hides to exist made into coats, robes or rugs. The results would be disappointing, both in advent and in quality". Doesn't sound similar govt. has changed much.

Audio like they didn't actually want to brand the publication, only since the people demanded it, they did. Only they didn't want to exist blamed if the hides did not turn out right. Well that's all I need to hear, for someone to tell me I tin can't practise it. Now I might not endeavour tanning a hide with 100 lbs of oak bark, simply back when the bulletin was published, it was probably fairly unproblematic to go cutting down an oak tree or two and get that much bark. Grinding it up into pocket-size pieces might not be and then simple.

I accept been trying to visualize how much in volume 100 lbs of bark takes upward. I accept bought landscaping bark in bags and spread it around the shrubs as mulch. I am thinking that 100 lbs of bark would exist about five cycle-barrows full or almost 30 cubic feet. I'll bet if yous lived anywhere in the eastern or southern U.S., you lot could hands find oak bark at a pocket-size timber operation.

Photo of deer hide courtesy of "JefFroh", beast hides on former cabin courtesy of "Photomatt28", rabbit from "sheep"R"us" on Flickr.

Source: https://www.backcountrychronicles.com/how-to-tan-a-hide/

Posted by: beallancomettiody.blogspot.com

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