Any of you guys ever home tanned a big hide?

Yukon Mike

Yukon Mike

Well-known member
A bison hide landed in my driveway yesterday and I don't really know what to do with it. To have it commercially done would be nearly $1000 with shipping and everything, but I'm sure if I did it myself I'd end up with furry plywood. I've tanned coyotes and stuff before, but nothing bigger than a black bear or a deer. Shame to waste it though. I'll flesh it and put it in the freezer for now I guess. It would make a super cool looking rug for Jane's cabin.

Mike
 
Just starve the wife and kids and let them chew it soft...don't tell Mac I said that...I don't want him and his 9 year old buddy kicking my ass..
 
I am pretty sure they have chemicals now-a-days that will tan leather soft. Can't say for sure as I haven't done any myself just seen them at trappers conventions.

My only foray into home tanning was a medium beaver that I did with oxalic acid I think. Turned into a wonderful furry frizbee. Hard as damned rock and wouldn't soften no matter how much oil I added and rubbed in. Even tried the "rub it on a stake" thing - no help at all. Of course the beaver was just fleshed and didn't have the hide thinned before tanning. Though as hard as it got I doubt it would have helped.

Good luck, there has to be a way to do it.

Pete
 
Mike here is a link to one of there HowTo pages http://www.vandykestaxidermy.com/newsletter/jan13-2005.htm . It says at one point in the process to put it in a tumbler to get it softer. Just throw it in the dryer. he he he That'll soften it up. So it landed in your driveway? Hope you didnt do too much damage to the car. ha ha
 
Through some checking I got in touch with an older guy who has a tanning business in town here. He's pretty old school from what I gather and will do Indian leather and brain tans and that sort of thing as well as European leather. Anyway, I gave him a call and he said any commercially available stuff will work, like LutanF or even alum, BUT the hide has to be thinned to 1/8". That's the painful part. It has to be done mechanically. He said he can't always lift the wet hide out of a barrel to thin it, he has to use a block and tackle. So physically moving a large hide like that with all the wooly hair full of water is hard too. Sounds alot like work to me.

If I just salt it and dry it I'll have a rug for awhile - until the mice discover it anyways. Maybe me and the kids can make a fort and use it for carpet.

Thanks guys.

Mike
 
Mike,

I had my hide tanned a couple times when I was a kid. Not sure if that same method would work on your buffy hide tho. ;>)
 
If you would like it to really last, then have it professionally done. The tan at home tans are not the best. A professional tan is tumbled well, and therefore pliable. For the money, it is worth it.
 
I hear ya Dave. Hey Dave I'm thinking about buying another kayak this spring - Predator K140 in camo.

John I agree with you, but for $1000 we could do Jane's cabin in hardwood!

Have a good weekend all,

Mike
 
If I hadn't wanted to shave a few pounds that would have been the model I would have bought. I tried the smaller predator but felt it was too cramped at my feet. The 12 footer I ended up with was the best for me but I do wish it would have been available in camo.

BTW. your package was sent several days ago and probably should be arriving sometime this next week.
 
Mike,

Take a look at www.braintan.com for the traditional way and step by step instructions for the do it yourselfers.

I've never done it, but it definitely looks like a lot of work with the thinning and the breaking after the smoking. Maybe somebody from that site would be willing to take on the project in trade for some decoys or something.

Good luck
 
If you are going to do all the work of fleashing it, you might as well salt and dry it, then decide to do something with it asap before the micfind it.

Here's a couple of options since $1,000 is a lot for something you don't REALLY need when it comes right down to it. First, NO amount of yanning chemical will result in a nice hide like what you want. The reason that commercial hides come out so SOFT and cuddly is that the hide is put into a giant tumbler and run for hours with the final oils needed to keep it that way. It is the tumbling that makes the hide so soft. Otherwise it would be as hard as a Bagdad Marine. There is no way you can duplicate that tumbling action without putting in hours and hours of elbow grease with the hide stretched out and the use of a canoe paddle until your arms fall off.

If you want to do it the easy way (which will last a few years) with minimal effort, is to get a large plastic barrel 55 gallons or better, fill halfway with water, add 4 large boxes of 20 mule team Borax (not Boraxo soap) and then soak the hide in the mixture for 5 days while turning and working the hide so that it gets eavenly saturated.

Then find a bif barn where you can nail the hide up, stretching it as you nail it fleash side out. After a day or so depending on the weather and whether the fleash side is dry enough, reverse it and comb or brush the hair down so it looks nice and repeat this work until the hide if dry.

Once the hide is truely dry you can remove it from the wall, roll it up and take it home to use as wall rug or a floor rug. it won't be soft, but it will look fine as long as it stays dry. You can store in in a dry attic when not in use. The Borax tends to preserve the hide and will keep bugs from attacking it for a year or so, but eventually you will neet to order some chemical preservitive from Van Dyke's taxidery supplies.

With the use of an old washing machine out side, I used to tan all my beaver hides using this method and then I would make Mtn. Man style willow hoops and with leather lacing I would lace them to the willow while using my steel beaver drying hoops to form teh willows to the circular shape as they dried with the pelt. I used to get $125-$150 per beaver hide that way, which was a hell of a lot more than the fur buyers used to offer me for the hides.

Best,

Dave
 
Thanks Dave, that was alot to type out with two fingers I bet. : )

We spread it out on the ground beside the campfire and sat on it to cook marshmallows on Sat night. Pretty toasty I'll tell ya.

In the end, I donated it to the old tanner guy in trade for future considerations. It didn't cost me anything so I don't intend on asking him anything for it, but that's the way he wanted to do it.

Thanks for all the advice everybody, I'm pretty relieved that I don't have to do anything with it.

Mike
 
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