Is there a good way to tan a deer hide at home. I know the tanners do good work but I would like to do one to see if I could.
Any help would be nice ........ John
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There are many ways of tanning a deer hide at home and still get the same or even better results than the tannery.
For one you will have total control over the whole tanning process. Next to that the only difference is that they are there for your convience to save you time and money for many folks.
I have been tanning my hides since I began in taxidermy and have found out I have plenty of fun doing it.
There is the cost factor into getting it started if you want to do a good hide. You should get some type of fleshing machine of some sort. It can be the mini flesher or all the way to the Eager Beaver, but it's a neccesity to get a thin hide. Yes you can do it by hand and beam but I won't waste that much time.
Now as for tanning solutions there are plenty of good ones out there that produce great tan and best of all the tanneries use the same tans as we do.
My two favorites are EZ-100 from Rittels in which the hide is soaked in the tanning solution or you can go and do rub on tan. For that I will use Liqua-tan from Knobloch's. Both work real well and it just becomes a matter of the flip of the coin to which one I will use.
You can go to either site and find out even more info on tanning from Bruce Rittel or from Mark at Knobloch's. Both are great guys to deal with!
John,
Get the EZ 100 tanning kit if you want to try tannig a hide at home. I've tanned a few hides of verying species with it. I get great results each time. It produsces a soft white leather. Just as frank said their are other meathods and quite a few of them. This is just what I prefer. Hope this helps. A complete list of instrustions will come with the kit. If you need help just send me a E-mail and I'll be happy to help you. MichelleW