I have been searching for weeks and taking in as much info as possible. Still the most common answer I find is send to commercial tannery. I want to do my own flat hides. I have done aprox. 500 with somewhat good results. I am fleshing ,salting for 2 days then into my saftee acid for 2 days fleshing with dakota V back to acid for 2 days neautralizing, oiling, drying then tumbling till finished. My ? is to get a better result. What am I missing? What do commecial tannerys use that work so well for softness? Different Chemical maybe?
any info that would help please.
Kyle
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Flesh-Salt-Pickle-Neutralize-Oil Im pretty sure you forgot the tanning before the oiling.
The commercial tanneries have huge tumblers that is how they get things so soft. The big tumblers do a much better job at braking hides.
the tanning process - for soft skins use lutanf - you can hand break these or use 6' tumbler for machine breaking
Curatan on your flat hides. You can purchase it from Van Dykes. I have taken crappy hides that were scraps and have tried Curatan on them as experiments and they no longer had to be thrown away. Follow the directions on the oiling of the hide. Continue to use your safetee acid pickle and they will turn out great. Stretch them as they dry. You'll soon see a soft pliable, good smelling hide. Good Luck. Dan Hudzik
Thank you for the comments! So I do have to tan, and lutanf or curatan is the way to go. Any idea what some commercial tannerys use? Also I do use an 8'x 4' tumbler, works great.Thanks