Info on simple tanning process

[powdergun]

I want to tan the tail of a Whitetail to make an ornament. I've got it skinned and salted right now.

Does anyone have a simple way to tan this ?

Thanks

 

[billdick]

Buy some stuff in a little orange bottle from Halfords. I've tanned lots of critters with the stuff. I think its called hide tanning formula.

 

[caustic]

del

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Here's the site. Check it out, I think they have a complete kit in their catalog.

http://www.halfordsmailorder.com/eSource/ecom/eSource/items/1-S1-lV1LFCS.aspx

Grizz

 

[amosfella]

I dont' think that it will work very well as deer hair is very brittle, and will be falling out all over your floor. Look up pickling hides.

 

[misfits]

you can pickle it with alum and un iodized salt (aka pickling salt) with water let it soak (stir every day at twice a day), scrape, soak again remembering to stir it twice daily. rinse, dry and when its almost completely dry start stretching, but in this case it's just a tail so you don't need to stretch it.

 

[fingers284]

Iv'e done this with Beaver hides...use the tanning butter that taxidermist use to cure game heads (might be the same stuff billdick recomends from Halfords). The hide will cure with hair on but it will be fairly stiff (if you want a real pliable tan such as buckskin is, you may be better of to get it commercialy done at Halfords). I soffened the beaver hide up a bit by running it in the drier with a couple of running shoes to beat it around a bit. Works, but don't do it when the wife is around or the hide ain't the only beaver that will need a little work to be of any use!!!

 

[Mount Sweetness]

the aluminum/salt kits work really well, go to the Gander Mountain website and pick one up

 

[amosfella]

you can pickle it with alum and un iodized salt (aka pickling salt) with water let it soak (stir every day at twice a day), scrape, soak again remembering to stir it twice daily. rinse, dry and when its almost completely dry start stretching, but in this case it's just a tail so you don't need to stretch it.

That process is actually called tawing. If the skin is going to be used as a rug or flexed a lot, it needs to be oiled. Egg yolk mixed with water does that job well.
Pickling is usually done with sulfuric acid/non iodized salt mixture. Once salt is mixed with sulfuric acid it becomes a lot less corrosive as the acid is much more attracted to ion exchange with the sodium in the salt than it is with almost anything else...