Hi everyone, I am in the final stages of tanning my first deer hide. I'll include a few pictures of my process so far.

I used the orange bottle, Deer Hunter and Trapper Hide Tanning Formula and when putting it on, it got on some of the fur along the edges of the hide. I can feel the oiliness from it and I can smell it so I'm wondering once the hide is fully dry how do I clean it without messing anything up?

Also, the holes made to string up my hide, do people usually sew them or leave them or?

Two different hides here. I’d say most importantly they don’t smell and hair isn’t falling off. What’s best way to go from here? I’d like them to be as soft and pliable as possible.

It's my first time braintanning and I'm going for a hair on moose pelt. The whole process seems easy and straightforward but the fleshing is absurd.

I've tried fleshing on a beam with a detached sharp-dull scythe head but to no avail. I thought I'd at least see some progress with it but nothing. The membrane just doesn't wanna detached.

For the past 3 hours I've been painstakingly searching for detached membrane flaps and following them with a razor, I'm all out of flaps now and I've been creating my own ones but the process is really slow, if I were to continue at this rate I might be done in about 3-5 more hours.

I've been thinking of letting it dry and then scraping it off since it's mainly just membrane from what I can see?

I've also tried making shallow membrane scoring nets (top right cornis-ish) with the hope of them drying up and being easily sanded off.

The brown color is mainly from dirt stuck to the membrane for anyone wondering.

What do y'all think?

I have my tools ready. I have 10lbs of mimosa extract. I have a frame, string etc.

It’s deer season starting soon and I’m hoping I can harvest, skin, flesh and salt the hides right away so that I can get them in a tanin bath asap.

I’ve done some private classes and successfully made 2 sheepskins but I know deer is prone to hair slippage if not done correctly.

So - Skin deer (more pulling than cutting if possible)
Cool the hide (in fresh air or a freezer rolled up skin side out)
Then flesh it, salt it and keep it in a sealed container for the moisture to pull out.

If I can get it in tannin right away, freeze it skin side out without salting.

I’ve heard about pickling baths to lock the hair in but I have no idea how to do that, nor do I have the materials.

Hey! Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but wanted to ask people who know what they’re doing!
I got a rabbit pelt last year, and have been keeping it in my room. During my check to see if the hide had torn, and then fixing it, I noticed that the hide has some noticeable spot on it. It’s only on the leather side so far as I can tell, and I will be checking to see if it’s spread to the fur.

I wanted to ask if there is anything I would specifically need to do or get to clean this off.

It’s been extremely humid recently, and I suspect that this has been the culprit, and will be purchasing a dehumidifier soon. In the meantime, I will be storing the pelt in an area with multiple damp absorbers once I get it clean.

Hi, I'm looking for someone who works with pet memorials and pelt tanning in Ohio. Is there anyone reputable I could look into and contact?

This is my first time making hides. I have fleshed this sheep skin, and plan on egg tanning it tomorrow.

My questions:

1. I plan on using it for probaly a coat, but definetly some kind of clothing, and in my understanding an egg tanned smoked hide is perfect for that, am i right?

2. Do you see any problem with it so far? Have i left too much mebrane on it?

Thanks in advance.

So I’m trying to make something very similar to this but with bobcat fur instead of axis deer. I was wondering how I could go about finding a nice bobcat pelt that just doesn’t have the face on it. If a pelt has the face on it then I feel guilty deconstructing it (because I feel like I could’ve made a soft mount instead) so usually for my crafts I just find one where someone’s already taken the face to use. 😭

I’m having a VERY hard time finding a bobcat pelt. I was wondering where the best places to look would be. At this point it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker if it was a complete hide.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a hide tanning workshop and I rolled the hide up when I got home to store it. This evening I went to finish brushing the hair out I realized I created a mold issue within the hide.
The process we used was to pressure wash the flesh side, put an egg mixture & scrape the hide with a wooden tool to soften it multiple times, then smoked it for about 20 minutes.
Is this fixable or trash :(

Edit: I am thinking of brushing/scraping mold off with a soft nail file & spraying with isopropyl alcohol (I have 90% but will likely dilute) and leaving that out to dry in the sun.

Hello, I have 1/4 of a large bull moose hide i am wanting to tan, but i did not get the brains with it. What can I use as a tanning solution instead? I am having a hard time finding options when I Google it.

It is currently on day 5 of soaking in wood ash to release the hair after fleshing. I plan on removing the hair, and then drying to store until freezing temps so I can frost scrape it. From there I plan to save the raw hide until spring, where I can then smoke it.

Hi everyone! So a client at my workplace was gifted a 70+ year old sloth pelt by a friend, who acquired it from his late grandparents who worked as missionaries in Nicaragua from the 1940s to 1960s. Part of their job was collecting artwork and other cultural items, which they would present in churches when they returned to the US as they talked about their work in Nicaragua. One of these items was the sloth pelt in question, which was passed down to my client's friend, their grandson, when they passed.

This client came to me for help trying to restore it, as I've been known to work with animal bones and such. However, I have never worked with hides before in my life, so I wanted to ask the people here so I can give him a more informed answer.

The problem is that it's been in a box somewhere for 20+ years, so it's sort of hardened into the position it was stored in, and is pretty stiff, though the majority of the skin is still able to bend and fold. The fur itself is long and in beautiful condition, but the flesh side is a little rough and less soft than most softened pelts I've felt. I'm unfortunately unsure of what was used to tan the hide in the first place.

So I wanted to ask if anyone knows how to go about restoring flexibility and softness to a hide like this. Would it be the same process as something like a deer hide, or does the slothness of the pelt change things? Is it even feasible to soften a hide as old as this one is? I have photos if that would help.

Any advice is appreciated!! Thank you so much!!

Side note: The pelt came with a document explaining its origin and general age that must be kept with the pelt considering it is an endangered species, and I've made sure the client is aware of the potential illegality of owning such a pelt. However, from what I can find online, it is legal to keep inherited animal parts provided that they were acquired before that species was listed under CITES, and this pelt is confirmed to have been acquired more than 70 years ago, long before CITES was enacted. Additionally, it is legal to gift animal parts that you've inherited, as long as you are not profiting in any way. As far as I can tell, it is legal to own in the way he acquired it. However, if anyone has more insight on that, I would really appreciate it!

I'm an extreme beginner to anything to do with hides and processing. I've sourced 4 quarter pieces of moose hide, (about 3x3 - 3x4 foot panes) and fleshing them has been a bit of a nightmare. I intended on having them all fleshed and salted, with hide-on table/vanity throws as an end goal. My first day working on them I had one close to halfway fleshed and looking alright, before nature gave me the tough lesson of what case hardening was when I left it outside overnight. The second hide I had prepared has suffered the same fate and i'm relatively unsure of how to handle it.

I've otherwise got the remaining two sections of hide in a sheltered, fridge-temp work shop but after the major stress of the first two I've essentially hit an empty-headed wall and completely stumped on what to do or where to go from here. Even other hunters close to me haven't fleshed or processed hides before so it's been a bumpy road of trying to learn on my own. The typical scraping for fleshing hasn't worked at all for me, and frankly I might be underestimating the power of the salt preservation when it comes to remaining membrane on the fresher 2 hides. If anyone has any advice on how to handle the worst-case hardened hide or whether or not the other two (if i was to provide photos or some type of example of their current condition) were too thick to be salted in their current state it would be much, much appreciated..

I have a green bison hide, i wanted to start on it soon, I'm planning on thawing it in a cold water salt bath. At this time of year the temperature is high 50s during the day and low 40s or 30s at night. Is the weather still to warm to safely thaw it?

After 3 years dried, in salt, I finally decided I’d learned enough to give this elk hide a go. I rehydrated it, finished scudding it as best I could, then pickled, and now I’m bark tanning it in mimosa bark. My question is, how long should this process take? I’d only tanned a sheep hide before this, and when I take cuttings to check the absorption, there are still white areas the tannin hasn’t penetrated. This is 2 months in the tea, inside my house next to my gas stove to maintain temperatures.

Is there anything I can do to speed up the process? Is it just a waiting game? The neck on this beast is thick!

Received a deer hide from bil estate. The problem being he stored it away into a damp basement for years stayed dry but reeks of mildew now. Does anyone have a solution without compromising the softness of the leather.

I’ve lost 90 pounds since December and I have a ton of loose skin. If I get it surgically removed and they let me keep it, would I be able to tan it and turn into a belt or something? Would this be feasible for someone who hasn’t done any kind of leather working before?

I got this white tail deer hide from my dad almost a year ago and have had it in my freezer. Finally decided I was ready to try my hand at the whole tanning process.

I sat there and fleshed it for a good 1-2 hours. I only bought a small fleshing tool, which I now realize I will get a bigger one for next time! But I got everything off except there's still some like stringy membrane looking fibers left. Only way I could get them off was to sit there and pull on each stringy bit but that would take me forever. I'm assuming as it dries that stuff will come off?

Also on the left side where there's that notch in the middle, the hide is still pretty purple on the edge. Im pretty sure that's where it was shot, it doesn't smell and the hair isn't slipping so I'm assuming it's fine and not rotting?

I currently have it sitting in a pickling solution so I could also keep going at it. But just figured I would post and see if anyone had any advice. I'll also post the fur side because I'm curious if this is a decent hide? I really know nothing about all this but have been having a great time learning and looking forward to future hides I get to do!

I got a skin from a fellow hunter friend and wanted to try tanning it myself. I’m using a spatula for scraping and it’s such a pain in the ass. The meat parts scrape off cleanly and relatively easy, but everything closer to the belly or neck (oh the neck) is an absolute nightmare. Anyone has good tips or maybe links to good videos how to do it easier? I don’t have a pressure washer, just to be clear :)

I found a fox on the side of the road and got it skinned and collected the bones, i know how to go about the bones but have no idea what to do with the hide. Its currently sitting in my freezer and id love to preserve it as itd be a shame to throw it away (ive always wanted a fox hide but havent really found any ethical sources around me) but ive never dealt with animal hides before so id love some help on what i should do with it and how long would it take/ if its worth it. Ive heard that you should salt it immediately but rn its just basically fresh of the body so idk if thats ruined my chances. Any advice would be appreciated!