tanning hides ?


Guest fourtrax_300

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Re: tanning hides ?

Tanning and Mounting are two totally different processes. When mounting an animal, you want the hide to get hard. It helps it adhere to the form. Although some people want their tanned hides to be hard, especially if they are making wall hangings or rugs out of them. The artilce that RTF linked to is dead on for making a 'soft' hide. Dad was a taxidermist and I wish I had a dollar for every hide we tanned.

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Re: tanning hides ?

[ QUOTE ]

The artilce that RTF linked to is dead on for making a 'soft' hide.

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I don't really know what you mean by “soft” hide. But I find your post to be a little misleading. I wrote the article in question a few years back because the tanning question was the #1 question being asked in this room. The end result (the final product) of your hide will be pliable and manageable. The methods described in my article will NOT give you a hard stiff deer hide. It will be able to fold and drape as any blanket would. As stated in the article the softer you want the hide the more break-in must be done. No home tanner will be able to , unless you have the $$$ for equipment (electric fleshers, pressure tanner etc.....) get a 100% factory result. Anyhow the article is written for the do it yourself home tanner. The only time you can get a really soft leather hide is to remove the hair from the hide and shave down into the grain of the hide, which cannot be done when tanning hair on. The article written describes tanning a deer hide. Deer hides with hair on are not made into coats for one reason. The tannery’s cannot get them soft enough for the garment industry to handle them. This is why your fox, coyotes and minks are used for coat making, because of the animal flesh thickness.

Furthermore I would like to add that if you tan a fox, coyote or mink by following my instructions, you will end up with a tanned hide that will be close to what you get back from the tanner if not as good.

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Re: tanning hides ?

Sorry for the confusion, by 'soft' I mean one that is pliable. Guess I got thrown off by the post that said someone tans hides so that they can be mounted. I was thinking that someone tanned the hides and then mounted them on a form. I was just trying to point out how tanning and 'mounting' are two totally different processes that achieve totally different results.

I get confused alot, comes from spending too much time in the woods. tongue.gifgrin.gif

I hope you don't mind but I've saved a hard copy of your article and with some luck in the next couple of days will be putting it to use on the deer I'm planning to shoot.

Merry Christmas (late) and Happy New Year.

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