Tanning Seal Skins

CanadianNorth

CanadianNorth

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Hey there,

I bought a couple of dried seal skins from some of the local hunters up here (Baffin Island), and I was looking to get them tanned.
I understand, however, that due to the oil in the skins they can't be tanned as you would a deer skin.

Anyone know the proper process of tanning a sealskin?

Thanks
 
I've got a better idea. Send them down south.

I guarantee you that the looks of horror I'd generate having my kids use them as Crazy Carpets would be worth the price of admission.

I'd love nothing more than to watch Holly Hockeymom lose her Starbucks as Jake plays out an imaginary clubbing of his brother.
 
Canuck223 said:
I've got a better idea. Send them down south.

I guarantee you that the looks of horror I'd generate having my kids use them as Crazy Carpets would be worth the price of admission.

I'd love nothing more than to watch Holly Hockeymom lose her Starbucks as Jake plays out an imaginary clubbing of his brother.
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:D :D :D :D :D

The flippers would make good rutters........
 
All the garbage you hearthat they wil lrot in teh south is just that.

My sealskin gloves are still going strong 7 years since I left the arctic. Armchair experts.
 
To be honest, I'd never heard that sealskin doesn't hold up. My dad's got a seal skin hat he wears ice fishing. It's still in fine shape after 10 years of Ontario weather.

FWIW, a good friend was working in Pangnirtung a decade ago, and bought a skin from a local. He had some form of permit for it, showing it as being bought not poached (any insight on what the permit would be locals??).

A few years before, his old girlfriend had bought him a years membership in Greenpeace. They had been hounding him for donations ever since. When he got home, there was yet another donation request.

He mailed them the permit instead, and hasn't heard from them ever since.
 
Canuck223 said:
To be honest, I'd never heard that sealskin doesn't hold up. My dad's got a seal skin hat he wears ice fishing. It's still in fine shape after 10 years of Ontario weather.

FWIW, a good friend was working in Pangnirtung a decade ago, and bought a skin from a local. He had some form of permit for it, showing it as being bought not poached (any insight on what the permit would be locals??).

A few years before, his old girlfriend had bought him a years membership in Greenpeace. They had been hounding him for donations ever since. When he got home, there was yet another donation request.

He mailed them the permit instead, and hasn't heard from them ever since.
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If you want a pair of seal skin mitts you will want the palms made from a more durable leather, however the seal skin used for the backs and gauntlets will last for years. Some of the locals send skins out for tanning - but this sometimes alters the color. Others just leave mitts or mukluks in the freezer. Untanned in warm weather they smell.

We hunt seals here under a Nunuavut hunting permit, but it depends on who the CO is at the time if locals need one. There is no bag limit on the permit, but even if it was purchased, that permit would be for the hunter, not a buyer. Unless he had his own hunting licence I am unsure what permit he would have.
 
Boomer said:
We hunt seals here under a Nunuavut hunting permit, but it depends on who the CO is at the time if locals need one. There is no bag limit on the permit, but even if it was purchased, that permit would be for the hunter, not a buyer. Unless he had his own hunting licence I am unsure what permit he would have.
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My guess is it came from the local CO. Gary told us a hilarious ('cuz nobody died) story about going out fishing with one of the locals. It ran the gambit of falling through the ice, running out of gas cuz the guides brother had stolen the spare tanks contents, warming up and drying out there cloths in another fishermans tent over his coleman stove. It ended with them back at the Pangnirtung Lodge retelling the story over coffee with the only other white guy in sight. After retelling the story, and wishing they were not in a dry town, the other white guy asks if anyone caught any fish.

Good thing they hadn't, cuz he was the local CO, and knew they didn't have a fishing licence.:rolleyes:
 
hey,

where I am (Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut). The locals seem to have free reign to hunt as many seals as they want, whenever. They use some for food, some for their dogs, and sell what skins they can to our local wildlife officer.

I am actually not too worried about the skins holding up. They are, as many say, pretty tough. The trick is, untanned they smell pretty bad (fishy). The tanning is to soften them a bit, and make them smell ok.
 
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