Hello, I was wondering how to streched a tanned hide (commericialy tanned) to make it lay flat on floor or wall. I am trying to do whitetail, axis, and blackbuck. Thank you
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Wet the hide down until you get some stretch out of it, then, on a sheet of 1/2 " or better plywood, staple it out to the shape you want. Thats pretty much all there is to it. Brad
a checker board design on the plywood, 1"x1"or 2"x2" this will aid you in keeping the hide stretched evenly.
Our method for stretching skins:
Wet the back side of skins, with an antibacterial solution in water,
fold the hide, skin to skin and place in a plastic bag in cooler overnight.
On a flat, full skin, such as axis, find the center point at the neck(Use the dark line as your guide) place a nail there, pull the skin lengthwise firmly and place another 3 nails in the tail, the center nail being the center line. Run a string from the top nail to the center bottom nail and tie off tightly. Nail small finishing nails along the string line about 6 inches apart.
Usine the centerline to pull against, pull skin out as far as it will go and nail. After nailing all the way around, pull the center nails and allow to dry. Pull all nails, and trim symetrically, by folding along the center line.
We use grided tables, 8'x8', but a single sheet of 3/4" plywood will generally work for axis, blackbuck and southern whitetail
Thanks for the help!