I have an emu hide from an emu i just slaughtered. I have done some fur on and fur off hide tanning of other animals, but have just started working with bird skins (chickens so far). I know the basic procedure for preserving birds such as chickens, but there seems to be some differences with the emu skins that i'm not sure about. first: i would like if possible to preserve or tan? with the feathers left in. however, the feathers seem to be somewhat differently arranged then in birds such as chickens. the quills go entirely through a subcutaneous fat layer that makes it very difficult to defat the skin. so, my questions are this: first, can emu skins be preserved for use with the feathers in? and if so, what is the best way of going about getting all the fat off the skin? thanks
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They are worse than awful to try and de-grease. In addition, a bird killed in August (assuming you are in the northern hemisphere) will be in the midst of moulting heavily. Any feathers that are still in the process of growing will be sticking through into the fat layer as you describe, and they will almost certainly fall out during de-fatting.
Emus can be tanned, but to my knowledge they can't ever become nice soft leather with the feathers still attached. The breaking process would probably leave them close to bald by the time it was finished. Bird leather is somewhat like reptile leather in that it doesn't have any pores and seems to have a rather stiff consistency even when properly tanned.
As far as getting the fat off ... use whatever works, whether it's a serrated knife, a wire wheel on a drill, a pressure washer ... you name it.
Also, in the case of an emu, I would break with my normal tradition and give it a good soaking in white gas after first washing it thoroughly in Dawn and warm water. (Sorry George, but they are really disgusting!) Let the gas fumes evaporate, rinse again with plain water, and then procede with tanning.
The good news is that you won't have to blow-dry it. Emu feathers will dry just fine by temselves.