We saved the deer skin/fur from our last roadkill and I’d love to know how to tan the hide. Has anyone here done this? I have a few country skills books on the topic but love hearing from “real” people how they do it. Nick laid it out back up on some junk to start drying but some critter ended up stealing it from us a couple weeks later. LOL ~Lissa
I did this back in the 80's. (Wow....sure sounds like a long time ago..... ) Just checked your profile and it was before you were born! I chose to leave the hair on in my case and as I remember it, I had to soak the hide in a preparation brine totally immersed for about a month (?) before I could start working it. Had to order some tanning oil that would be worked into the leather side of the hide. Hide also hade to be fleshed very thoroughly. It was very labor intensive and looking back on it what I should have done is just bought one already done for me! I also should have worked the hide more as it was still a bit stiff. I ended up making a hat out of it and with the rest of the hide, I saved and ended up letting the family dog lay on it (hair side up, of course) next to the wood stove. I may still have that dang thing down at the cottage packed up somewhere!
Don't leave it out!! You need to freeze it if not going to do it now. If not the hair will "slip" or fall out as it basically started to rot and the hair follicle on the back side will loose their grip. But he is correct you need to completely flesh the hide, you can look in a book or just watch YouTube for the process. You have to remove all of the tissue from the skin on the non hair side. Fat and remaining muscle. You can brain tan with the brain (called brain tanning) but at this point I'm guessing you no longer have the brain or head and it sounds like it's been days so it might not be any good anymore. At this point your going to have to buy chemical tanning stuff from a place like McKenzie taxidermy supply or just Amazon or ebay. Follow those directions then you hang to dry once treated in that process. Then you will have to work the hide over a taught rope or a still metal edge or maybe vertacle mounted 1x4 . This I understand takes hours. Grab handfulls about a foot apart and work it meat side down over the surface you choose pulling it side to side sliding it over the edge. Keep moving around the whole hide till every part is done. This is what makes it soft. The more you do it the softer it is. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
As a kid I skinned the best, most complete bunny pelt I'd ever done. It was my grandparents farm, they lived out in the middle of nowhere. Tacked it up on the lean to as we always did, and pack of wild dogs came and took it!! He'd heard they were around but had never seen them. The bunny pelt above was before she was born too
