Deer tanning advice and questions

[TNDadx4]

I have a question... We have the pelt from my son's first deer and he wants to tan it and we are trying to decide if it's something that we can do. I've read about it and it doesn't seem that difficult, but I've also heard horror stories of the fur slipping off, etc. (he wants to keep the fur intact)

I've read some articles and some comments on this site and it seems doable, but this being our first one, I don't want to mess it up for him. It's be different if I had someone local that I knew who could help or offer some assistance, but like I said, I don't want us to ruin it.

Should this be something that I should have done by someone who has experience with this?

Is there one method that's better than others? I've heard that the "brain" method is not reliable. I also heard that salting the pelt makes it deteriorate.

How long can I keep the pelt before we HAVE to tan it? He got the deer this Saturday afternoon and it's currently being stored in a shed (the temps are pretty cool here now.)

Thanks in advance!

[bee_pipes]

I have a question... We have the pelt from my son's first deer and he wants to tan it and we are trying to decide if it's something that we can do. I've read about it and it doesn't seem that difficult, but I've also heard horror stories of the fur slipping off, etc. *(he wants to keep the fur intact)

I don't have any hands-on yet. Just finished a book on brain tanning and it sounds simple enough that it might be worth a try. I know a lot of deer hide gets thrown away because it just isn't practical to get it tanned. Commercial tanneries work on economies of scale. To get a single piece done would be too costly.

Here are a few articles I found on pelts:
Brain Tanning Furs (http://braintan.com/articles/furs/george1.html)
Tan Your Pelts With Nature's Tools (http://braintan.com/articles/furs/miller1.html)


I've read some articles and some comments on this site and it seems doable, but this being our first one, I don't want to mess it up for him. It's be different if I had someone local that I knew who could help or offer some assistance, but like I said, I don't want us to ruin it.


Setting the bar might high, aren't you? You want to do a tricky process, that takes no small amount of experience to perfect, and do it perfect the first time? Take it easy on yourself bud. Rather than having your sights set on the outcome, take advantage of this as a chance to work with your boy and enjoy the learning process. Get him involved in the research, proposing how to proceed, and the experimentation. This could be a grand experience for the both of you and something you will both look back on as quality time spent together.


Should this be something that I should have done by someone who has experience with this?


If you have access to that sort of resource, by all means.


Is there one method that's better than others? I've heard that the "brain" method is not reliable. I also heard that salting the pelt makes it deteriorate.


Read up on it. There's an excellent book out there - "Deerskins into Buckskins: How to Tan with Brains, Soap or Eggs" by Matt Richards (ISBN: 0965867242). It is well written and easy to follow. The bucking process works better in warm weather, so you probably won't be able to get to that until later this year.

Salting is just a method for preserving the hide. If you can get someone with experience to show you, that would be dandy. If you have to do it yourself, read up on the subject and experiment.


How long can I keep the pelt before we HAVE to tan it? He got the deer this Saturday afternoon and it's currently being stored in a shed (the temps are pretty cool here now.)


Freezing the hide is supposed to be indefinite. Here's an article I found:
Storing Hides (http://braintan.com/articles/storing.html)

Let me know how you make out and what you decide to do. I'm very interested in the topic and would love to read your experiences. Most hunters I talk to are truly regretful that there is no way to make use of the hide. They seem to be a conscientious crowd around here and make use of as much of the deer as possible, wasting the hide is a sore spot with most of them. There just might be a cottage industry opportunity here. The process is labor intensive, but folks in the cities with more money than sense might just pay top-dollar for hand-processed buckskin, clothing and accessories. If I can get the hides free from the processing stations, or even skin in exchange for meat and hide, my cost would be nothing but labor.

Regards,
Pat

[TNDadx4]

Pat,

Thank you very much for all of the great advice and for the links! I appreciate it! It does look like we will probably tan the hide ourselves. I love doing projects with the kids and this seems like a great one. I've been doing a lot of reading (online) on the subject. I'm also going to see if I can get "Deerskins into Buckskins" . I see that braintan.com sells it, so that should be a no-brainer...sorry for the pun :)

My son and I feel the same way about the skin. We want to use as much of the animal as possible. You are right about the potential industry for this, too. I wasn't aware that people really didn't keep the hides. I guess that it never crossed my mind. In talking to a number of friends of the family that hunt, that seems to be the case....they only keep the meat.

Anyway, I'll take pictures along the way and let you know how it goes.

Thanks again for the advice and encouragement. If you think of anything else, please let me know.

Thanks!

[bee_pipes]

In recent readings on various forums, I have found more than one person recommending against hair-on deer hides. Something about the deer hair - it's hollow or something like that. If you get through the slippage during the tanning process, you will spend years sweeping it up because it comes out over time. With four dogs I spend enough opf my time sweeping up hair - I don't need furnishings that shed too.

On another note, I have read of people harvesting road-kill for pelts. Seems like there is some taxidermy skills that go into harvesting a pelt that includes ears, paws & pads, nose, etc. I don't really have a desire to get into taxidermy - though the recent threads about deer heads are interesting, but it seems like there are some parts of the discipline that would be useful in detailed skinning of pelts. Obviously, if you are going to use the pelt for garments, you wouldn't necessarily need to go this far, but if you wanted a pelt for a rug or trophy with the face and such in tact, these skills might be useful.

One fellow recommended salt curing to "lock" the hair into the hide.

Have you gotten your book yet? It's a fascinating read.

Regards,
Pat

[TNDadx4]

Thanks again! No, I have not gotten the book yet. Yesterday was a whirlwind with my wife being ill and getting everyone ready for church, but I still plan to. It looks great!

We are going to salt the hide first. I expect some hair to fall out, but this will most probably be for the wall in my son's room, so I don't expect it to get knocked around too much. My understanding is that deer pelts with fur doesn't stand up to well to constant use.

We are going to start scraping the flesh either Friday night or Saturday morning.

[beeeman]

Well this is an interesting topic to say the least, 1st i would highly recommend that you NOT salt the hide, salting presearves the hide but it also requires alot more work removing the salt in order to tan. the salt will need to be completely washed out or it will ruin the hide over time. You can get the same result if you just freeze it, just roll it up into a nice tight ball & put it in the freezer until you are ready to tan, also i would recommend NOT keeping the hair on, it is ALOT more work to tan a hide if your keeping the hair on & alot of dissapointment if it doesnt work out right, get it frozen up & read a book on brain tanning, it is the best longest lasting way to do a hide without contributing to the chemical companies & the bad stuff they use to do such things. I have seen hides that arre hundreds of yrs old that were brain tanned, the chemical tanning will no way last that long. Having brain tanned several deer hides myself this is the way i would recommend it be done. chemical tans are BAD for the environment. It will be relitivly easy if there is more then 1 working on it, & it will come out the best piece of tan you have ever seen, or felt. being soft ,supple, & easily worked. The hardest part of brain tanning is the smoking process after it is tanned,, alot of set up for only 1 hide seems hard to take, but in the end well worth the effort.
good luck with your project
Rick

[TNDadx4]

Hi Rick! Welcome to the forum and thanks for the advice.

As it stands right now, we did not start on the hide. The temperature started to warm up last week and I folded it in half (hair to hair) and double bagged it and put it in the freezer in our garage until we can work on it.

We're going to take a long weekend in the near future and myself and our two boys will work on it.

We are still undecided on the exact process, but have a lot of information to read to see what we are going to do.

[PaulNKS]

I sometimes will salt the hide to hold it until I can tan it if I run out of room in the freezer. but salting is only temporary and if you get salt on the fur side, you will lose the fur.

I would almost bet that 90% of hunters do not keep the hide. Also, you can start on smaller hides while you learn. I taught myself. I started with squirrel, then rabbit, then coon, etc... and made sure I understood the process before tackling a large hide like deer or cow. Also having the right tools makes a difference, especially on large hides like deer.

You will enjoy it.. have fun.... I think it's a good father/son project.

PaulNKS

[harvester]

The only thing i can say is from when i used to tan rabbit and deer hides and tried to leave the hair on. Fleshing out is key to a proper tanning, you got to make sure you get that flesh off and down to seeing the root ends. little blue dots. you will know it when you see it. On deer hides i always washed the skin side off while it was hanging on the streacher with a little dawn soap and water. rinse it off with a clean wet towel and dry it.
Id let it sit for a couple of hours in the shade then apply the brains. each animal has enough brains to tan its own hide. I heated the brains very slowly in a little water untill the brain turned from white to gray. mashed it up and painted it on the hide.
After that id let it set inside the barn out of winds and sun for about a week.
After that id take a damp cloth and wipe the skin side down. Let it set in the shade or inside till the skin was dry but not papery.
After that id employ some help, im pretty little and deer hides were tough for me to handle. Id put the hide skin side down over the fence, (two by four) and we would saw it back and forth over the fence for hours till the fibers began to break and fray causing that nice suede texture. We moved on to a rope line strung very tight between too trees and sawed it back and forth, this not only broke more fibers but it tended to streatch it some which saved some work.
After the skin side was all nice and fluffy and the hide had a nice drape and relaxation to it we would strech it. carefully pulling one area at a time, not enough to rip it just enough that you can see it streching. working in all directions of the compass in one area and moving on to the next.
after all that exhausting work we ran it over the 2x4 fence again, trimmed off the edges that were nasty or papery, threw it into an old cool dryer and fluffed out the loose hairs. It was then sprayed with pyrethren and left out to sit for a week. put back into the dryer with an entire box of bounce and ran for 20 minutes.
done. at this point, throw the dryer away! lol
I never lost hair, it never shedded.

[PaulNKS]

Harvester, I'm going to have to try those methods next tiime. I've never done the brain tanning.

[harvester]

Harvester, I'm going to have to try those methods next tiime. *I've never done the brain tanning.


I got it out of a book years ago, something like brain tanning the american indian way or something to that extent. just a little leaflett type book.
however it took many trials and failures before i realized you had to heat the brains to release the tannic acid. the book must not have mentioned that.

[Rimfire_Red]

When working as a Park interpreter in the 1980's I brain tanned a small deer hide. I remember snippits, but not everything. (Deer hair is hollow). I got some of my information from other interpreters which included some Native American Folk. I do not remember the order in which I did things. I do remember soaking the hide in a plastic bucket with the brains - for several days I believe. We used a small frame that the park had and stretched it and I used a hooked piece of flatiron - maybe an inch wide with the ends slightly rounded so they weren't too sharp and a small piece of bone. I scraped and scraped and scraped. I did not leave the hair on. In the end I had a small piece of thin hide - naturally colored and as soft as it could be. My brother did some and covered the corners on an old barn wood frame he made for a Chris Cox print of mine. It was not as soft- and heavier, but still pliable. I know there is a trick because he told a friend of ours how he did it and she said she ended up with a beautiful chunk of rawhide chew toy for her dogs. I remember reading (somewhere) after doing ALL that scraping work that if you have a cool fast running stream nearby that if you put the hide in the water and way it down with rocks the critters will clean every scap of meat off of it. I have no idea if it works, but it makes some sense and would sure beat the scraping!!!!