I'm getting a Bison hide from a ranch near me next week and I was wondering what the safest way to thaw it is, I've heard people say that hair can slip easily and i really want to avoid that. The ranch owner said it's 7.5 x 6.5 ft.

I fleshed it a little but it's taking a while and I'm wondering if there's any better way?

Made out of one of the bears we got on our last spring hunt

In terms of Roadkill, or in this case, a dog dragging up a dead rabbit, how long until saving the hide is unadvisable?

I wasn't told about the rabbit until around midnight, and it had been fetched by the dog about five pm.

I was going to retrieve the critter from the trash can tomorrow to skin and macerate it, I'm wondering if it's worth it to save the hide or not.

Generally, how long until a hide is considered not usable for tanning purposes? I suppose if the hair is starting to slip or if it smells funny or chewed up by bugs? Just wondering if there's an advisable amount of time to salvage things, as I can't seem to find a good answer.

Hello! My fiancé recently told me he's headed out on a hunting trip with a buddy of his, he asked me if I knew how to tan hides. I told him no, to that he tells me that if I can figure it out, he'd like for me to make a "racoon hat" for him. That being said, I'm a seamstress by hobby and I've made many basic clothing pieces before, including hats. I have no idea where to start and, just by breezing through this subreddit, I see there's many complexities involve in this.

Does anyone have any resources I can use to start the learning process of prepping racoon hide? Any help is appreciated!

Thank you!

What is the best process for dying bark tan leather. I have a hair-off deer skin that’s almost done tanning in mimosa. It’s kind of pink/maroon now but I’d really like a nice chocolate brown. Can I add something to the tan bath now or should I use conventional leather dye after it’s dry before dressing? Id like to avoid chemicals dyes if possible but I’m not opposed to using them if needed.

And what about future mimosa tans - anything I can add to the tannin bath to make the color darker and richer while it’s tanning?

Sent this to the roadkill gal but figure I’d toss a wide net so I’m not sending individual messages.

I have started a project that involves me marking off states as my art/crafts land in them. I’ve got some amazing stories just from the few states I’ve sent it to so I set this as a goal as a way to re spark my interest and creativity. Plus I’m very traditional in that old way lol.
I make dream catchers with natural/repurposed materials, and can paint well. I’ve made a bunch of painted boxes and have other pieces available on canvas. Or could custom depending on the price for what I want. Which is some deer skin moccasins. I need some so bad. Custom sized a lil wider, my feet are having issues and it’s from wearing certain shoes, I’m also heavily into the old traditional lifestyle, crafting, and methods using nature to live basically free.

If you’re down I can make damn near anything lol. Like I just wove a full chair dreamcatcher to sit in, and made wild clay sources smoking pipes with river cane and elderberry stems. If you smoke weed I also make these lil “ceremonial” nectar collectors, that are long river cane (12-24in.)

Also makes hairpins from cedar. I have a full apothecary, I’m an herbalist and healer in my everyday interactions. I make tea blends, single herb packs, and sacred incense blends. And finally I grow tobacco I’d be willing to trade off a blend of any style you use, be it nasal snuff, smoking, or dip/chew/snus. It’s grown full of intent and care and I work with the lunar cycles as my ancestors did so it’s tuned up energy wise lol.

Alright I’ll stop there cause I can keep going (humbly) 😂 just trying to get you interested 🤙🏼😅

So I found a little dead snake kayaking, decided it was fresh enough to take and do something with the skin. Skinned it, pinned it, and salted it. Decided to do a better google search after and learned you’re supposed to soak/wash it in a solution of something I already forgot. Question is, can I still salvage it now that it’s just a stretched and dried skin? Wondering if soaking it in the solution will bring it back to a workable state or not. For context I only did this maybe 2-3 days ago. Thanks in advance for any advice

This is my first time making tannin liqour, it is made of willow bark and leaves from my property, and I spent most of the day working on it.

Hello folks, hope everyone is well!

I will soon be getting an unprocessed sheep hide from a coworker who is slaughtering one of their sheep. I wanted to double check my planned process here, as I have never done this before and want to make sure I don't screw it up too badly. For context, future use of sheepskin will be as a part of a bedroll/sleep system for SCA camping.

1a. Freeze if not able to flesh hide immediately. Thaw before working. May need to rehydrate, but probably not.

1b. Flesh hide, wash with detergent~ a few hours of work

1. Pickle Hide in water, salt, and citric acid at a pH of 1.5-2.0 ~ a week

2. Neutralize Hide in baking soda solution ~30 minutes

3. Simmer white willow bark (twice as much bark by weight as hide to be tanned) to make tannin liquor. ~2 hours

4. Submerge hide in cooled tannin liquor. Keep in cool, dark place until tannins have penetrated deeply into hide ~6 weeks for sheepskin. Replace portion of liquor with fresh brewed liquor about once a week.

5. Remove hide from bath, rinse until water runs clear. Hang out of direct sunlight until mostly dry to touch but still pliable ~ a few hours? High desert climate.

6. Apply oil to flesh side of hide. Reapply until it no longer absorbs/hide is saturated.(egg yolk? Linseed oil? Tallow Emulsion? Reccomendations welcome)

7. Stretch and work hide until dry. ~ 1-3 days, several hours of active working per day until fully dry (should I build a frame for this?)

8. Reapply oil. Wipe off any excess.

9. Trim to desired shape.

Just got delivered and I am beyond impressed. I took a gator last year with the intention of getting some boots/belts made. American Tanning and Leather did the work on this and I think it turned out beautiful…even better than I had hoped for.

First go at tanning fish. I just winged it using similar method as I would with a squirrel - washing with dishwashing liquid, rinsing, pickling and neutralising before barktan and oiling. I did get acid swelling within minutes of putting it in pickle but was quick to cover in salt and then kept it very salted til it was completely tanned.
Im happy with the result, but its not a very sturdy material so will probably just use it decorative on a leather bag or maybe lampshade or something.

Has any one got any pointers or would like to share the proper method of tanning fish?
Lots of people have told me about using urine (both for fish and tanning other animals), but I don’t actually know at what point of the process it could be used.

I messed up. A container of my pelts that were steeping in tannins got left out- and ended up in the sun for… a while.

Long story short- the whole thing smells like a septic tank, it’s pretty gnarly. Smells like there’s bacteria out the wazoo.

Is there anything I can do to salvage these? It seems like there’s some pretty bad fur slippage already

I attempted rinsing with water, soaking in a diluted solution of antiseptic wash, and now have them soaking in diluted isopropyl alcohol (idk dude, they’re probably already screwed, so I figured what would I have to lose?)

I’m figuring if the pelts are garbage, I might be able to preserve the fur? I could spin it into yarn.

Any ideas on how to get the smell out of the fur? Or is it all garbage now?

I know I fucked up, please be nice to me.

I threw a bunch of thawed/mostly thawed rabbit hides in an alum/salt solution without dry salting them first for about 3 days. I rinsed the first fur in cold water to clean up the flesh had massive fur slip 😭 do I need to pull them all out and dry salt them? What do I do? I have probably 30 skins soaking at the moment and I’m really worried I ruined all of them. Please help!

Update: the next 4 I’ve pulled out don’t seem to have the same issue, but I’m afraid to put them back in the pickle now as I feel like it doesn’t smell right… I have them dry salted at the moment, but if anyone has a tried and true method for rabbit furs from this point I would be hugely appreciative

hi everyone! I am getting near the end of my very first project and was wondering if it is looking ok. I got these pelts a while back for a decent price. ive never done something like this before and have been wanting to try it for a while now so I decided to get them. I have since gone through the whole process and applied nutan to them Wednesday night. I let them sit and started working last night and again today. Am I on the right track? any tips? they seem to not really be getting the soft feel but I’ve also just started stretching them. thanks everyone!

I live in an apartment so I can't use some of the typical tanning methods, such as smoking. I have rats, rabbits and squirrels and want to make mini rugs so need fur on and relatively suppple.

I was originally going to go with the orange bottle as that seemed most accessible and affordable but I see lots of negative posts about it.

So i just finished tanning my first rabbit fur, and while at large, the fur is attached, if i pinch a spot, several hairs (just like three or so) would always come off. I've used pet bushes off and removed the bulk of the loose fur, but I still have some remaining. I guess what im asking is, how to get to the point thay the amount "shedding is negligible. Again, it isnt coming off in clumps, but it is consistent in little hairs flying about.

Looks a bit matted because I took the picture before I took a comb to it. Took my buddy on a spring hunt and he got a bear. Got it tanned in some trubond 1000B. Used the trubond degreaser.

Just gotta sew it into a hat for him to use for deer season.