# hide tanning with common chemicals



## Lilith

I have been asked how I tan hides. I can't really find a home for this tutorial, but as we are essentially preserving the skin off of animals we have harvested, I figured this was the best fit. If not, I hope that a mod will please move this thread to a more appropriate home and then tell me where they put it so I can finish the tutorial and answer questions.

Note: this thread is not complete! I will be adding to it over the next few days as this is not a simple process. Additionally, this thread contains detailed information on how I personally use a *dangerous mixture of common chemicals*. Anyone trying to duplicate anything described in this thread does so *at your own risk*!

Gut and clean the animal as you normal would. When that process is complete, sit down and take a deep breath, even when it is to hot outside and you are worried about ruining your meat you wonât get a good fur on hide anyway, but you can still make decent leather. 

Skin or cape your Deer as you normally would; take great care to not cut holes in your hide or even score the hide â it causes problems later! The cleaner cut the edges are, and the more emat and fat left on the hide, the easier the hide is to work later. 

If you are out of time and need to deal with the meat, the hide can be placed in the freezer (rolled hair side out) in a paper bag for a few days or weeks. Do not use plastic bags to store hides in the freezer, they collect and hold excessive moisture that breaks down the skin and hair, especially in a frost free freezer! Be sure to completely thaw your hide before moving on to the next step.

Your next step will be to take a dog brush and brush the fur of the hide to make sure that there are no unwanted seeds, cockleburs, or twigs and such stuck in the fur. These need to be removed before fleshing, or you are likely to tear a hole in your hide at that point and you will have wasted all the effort you put into skinning your animal. Any areas of dried blood will need to be gently washed out in VERY COLD water(hot water causes slippage). Dried blood can also cause tearing problems during fleshing. 

Fleshing is easily the most difficult part of the tanning process. It is often the difference between a good tan and a poor tan. The idea here is to remove ALL the meat, membrane, fat, and anything but skin from the inside of the hide. You do this by scraping the hide with a fleshing knife, chisel shaped piece of wood or rock, or anything else that works to remove the goo off the skin. I personally like to use an old file or rasp that has been worn (or ground) smooth on the narrow edge. There are a thousand ways to skin a cat, and as such, there are a thousand ways to flesh a hide. To give you an idea of where to start developing your own method, here are some links to some great videos and tutorials already out there. 
The best advice I can offer is: If the hide is still white when fleshing, then you need to flesh more. If the pelt changes to a bluish or silver grey color then you have fleshed the perfect amount off the hide. However, if you notice dots, you have cut through to the hair roots which will result in the hair falling out - you have fleshed too far.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz6y4a1Vaqg"]video A[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-KMEjU5Eps"]video B[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hyl-UCpGtI"]video C[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZOOoAnvMP4"]video D[/ame]


Treat your hide with salt. Salt stops bacteria and helps set the hair. Rub fine grain salt into skin well and liberally all over. Fold skin to skin and lay on incline over night to one day to drain and cure. Two days at most. Make sure that temperatures do not exceed 70 F. 
Washing: Check for and remove any remaining flesh. Hide must be washed and completely rehydrated prior to tanning. Plunge and wash in cold water until water remains clear. Wash in warm water (75 to 85, but less that 95 deg.). You may use commercial Blood Release, Degreaser, and 1/2 oz. detergent. I have had good results with getting the grease out by using a little Dawn Dish Soap. Repeat until clean. After clean rinse well in cool water and check for and remove blood stains and make sure that no degreaser or soap remains. Tanning chemicals will set blood stains into the fur. (Very greasy hides may need a wash and soak in degreaser for about an hour.)
At this point, you have several choices as to what direction you would like to go. 
Have you had enough and want to come back to this later? If so, roll the hide fur side in, Place in a paper bag for a few days or weeks. Do not use plastic bags to store hides in the freezer, they collect and hold excessive moisture that breaks down the skin and hair, especially in a frost free freezer! Be sure to completely thaw your hide before moving on to the next step.
Do you want hair on? Proceed to the solution. 
Do you want the hair off for leather? Proceed to slipping the hair. 
Slipping the Hair:
After scraping and washing the hide mix garden lime (available in garden stores) in warm water until no more will disolve. Use enough water to submerse the hide. Add a little more lime and check to see that the pH is high (between 12 and 14). I often use a cheap ph kit intended to be used on fishtanks or swimming pools to make sure. Check to see that the temperature of the mixture is below 70 F and then submerge and agitate the hide until thoroughly soaked. Leave the hide in the lime agitating occasionally until the fur can be pulled out easily, usually about three days. When the fur comes out easily then remove all of the fur - I use the same process as I did to flesh the inside of the hide on the hair side with good results. Rinse the hide, scrape it some more to make sure no flesh or membrane remains, and then rinse it several times in cool (not warm!) water until the pH of the skin comes down to 7 or less. I test it by wiping off a mid-portion of hide and rubbing pH paper on it. Note: PH above 7 and warm temperatures can ruin the skin beyond repair. Continue to The solution.


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## Lilith

Making your solution:
This is where things get really dangerous! There are several recipes out there using various household and common chemicals, I prefer to use store bought hydrochloric acid (HCI), This is probably more commonly known to most people as battery acid. The cheapest resource I have found for it is at the local auto parts store. Just to be sure check the container they sell you to be sure that it is HCI. The second ingredient is non-iodized salt. I but this at the grocery store in 1lb paper cans. I often wait until they go on sale for less than $1.00 ea and stock up with at least 20 to 30 lbs. I then seal them in food grade plastic buckets with silicate packets to absorb any moisture. The third ingredient is water. Filtered water is ideal, but not always necessary. Have your water tested so you know what chemicals and minerals are in your water before using tap water with HCL. Check to make sure that none of the things in your tap water will have any kind of chemical reaction with HCL, or Salt, or both. 

Once I am in the clear there, I grab the chemical gloves, safety goggles, propane burner, a good Teflon coated pan with no scratches in it, a five gal bucket, a glass measuring cup, 3 clean 1 gal milk jugs of water, 3 lb of salt, a large paint stir stick, a sharpie marker and a clean empty soda bottle. I take them outside to an area where I have a level working surface, and no distractions, while the kids are at school and my husband is home with me ... just in case. I drag the garden hose close enough to be within arm's reach and turn it on and leave it running. I put on the glasses and gloves. I put 6 oz of water from the hose (my water is fine to mix) into the glass measuring cup. I pour the water from the measuring cup to the topless soda bottle. I set the bottle on the level surface and wait for the water to stop moving. I then mark the water level with a sharpie on the outside and drain the water into the grass and set the marked bottle aside. I setup my heat source and bring one gal of water to a boil. Once it is boiling, I add all 3 lb of salt. Stir with paint stick until all salt is dissolved into the water. Turn off the heat source and pout the hot salt water in to the bucket. Add 2 more gal of cold water to the bucket. Let the bucket sit until the salt water is nice and cool. I have been known to even pop a lid on the bucket and leave it overnight to cool. 

*It is extremely important to allow the salt water to completely cool before adding the acid! If you do not, you will have a chemical reaction that results in hydrogen chloride gas. Hydrogen chloride gas is chemically the same compound as battery acid in a gas form. If you do not let it cool, you are likely to breath it in, and nobody wants battery acid in their lungs! You can read more about this gas here.*

After the water has cooled, put 6 oz of HCL in the soda bottle by filling to the line you marked with the sharpie. Gently stirring the salt water, slowly pour the acid into the bucket by running it down the inside wall and allowing it to gently mix with the salt water. Again, if you do not add the acid slowly, you may still create hydrogen chloride gas. This is why it is important to do this outside! Once your acid is mixed into the saltwater solution, dispose of the empty soda bottle as you would battery acid and, your "pickle" is ready to use. 

The formula:
2 oz. battery acid and 1 lb. salt per gal. of water.

You will want enough pickle to completely cover your hide. I never make more than 3 gallons of solution in a 5 gal bucket that I will be using to soak hides in. 

60 to 75 deg. is a good temperature for pickling and tanning.

Still wearing your safety goggles and chemical gloves, you can place the hide in to the solution to soak. I often have to weigh down my hides and furs with rocks to keep them completely submerged. A 5 gal bucket is large enough to do one small deer, or two animals the size of a coyote, or 4 fox, rabbit, or weasel. depending on the thickness of the skin, you will soak the hide for several days at a minimum. 
Rabbit: 3 days
Fox: 7 days
Coyote: 14 days
Deer: 30 days

You are always welcome to let the hides soak longer ... I often have hides that do not get to the next step for almost a year. Extra pickling doesn't hurt anything.


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## Lilith

Once your hide is done soaking in the pickle, you need to once again grab the safety glasses and chemical gloves. Put them on, and pull the hide you wish to work out of the pickle wringing as much moisture from the hide as possible. The more you save, the more you have left over for the next hides you want to put in. The pickle should be good for a long time. Often, I don't throw out tanning solution until it starts growing a green mold on the fatty acids that float on top of the tanning solution. I have been told that you can run it through cheese cloth to remove the resulting cadaver mold, and the solution will still be fine to use, but it kinda grosses me out. 

After wringing as much moisture from the hide as possible, place this hide in a tub where you can wash and rinse all the chemicals from it. I use a very cheap shampoo and baking soda to help with this process. Make sure to do this quickly and use Cold water. If you allow the water to soak into the skin to much, it will swell and possibly grow bacteria that will breakdown your hide.

Another good wringing to remove any excess water helps a lot, when your hide is no more than damp, rub a thin coating of neats foot oil onto the fleshed side of hair on hides, and both sides of leather. Begin stretching the hide in all directions between your fingers. As you pull on the hide, you will see the moisture bead out of it, and the skin will become much paler in color. Keep pulling, working your way around the hide until you have stretched all the moisture from the hide. This may take several days on larger hides, be sure to roll the hide hair side out between each pulling session. When finished, you should have a nice clean white (or slightly off white) inner skin that is soft and flexible. If you have excess oil left on the hide that is not absorbed into the skin, you can place the hide in a plastic bag with a cup of corn starch. Shake vigorously. Allow the corn starch to soak up the excess oil for aprox 10 min, then shake all of the corn starch from the hide. I find that holding the hide firmly and flipping it up and down several times does the trick. 

Enjoy your hide.


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## Dead Rabbit

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## kasilofhome

THANK you I want to learn from everyone on tanning --I would love to use as much of an animal as pos.


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## motdaugrnds

Thank you so much. David has had a racoon hide (with hair) he has been saving in the freezer now for over 5 yrs. (It is in plastic; so it may be ruined.) I am copying your tutorial for him to read.


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## Lilith

You guys are more than welcome. As I have tried my best to teach my children that you never waste a kill, and you never kill without purpose, Tanning seemed the natural answer to what do you do with a coyote. 

We are overrun with predators here, including wolves, coyotes, skunks, and fox. I wouldn't dare eat them. We have never had livestock, so it was difficult to explain to a small child that killing these off to maintain a healthy population was important. So, we turned to tanning as a way to use these animals and benefit people.


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