Can someone advise me please.
I have a fresh hide (1 day) which has been removed from the carcass of a crocodile that died in a public exhibit here in the UK.
I wish to clean it up and preserve it to be used in an education centre.
We are unable to obtain any "off the shelf" tanning liquids/powders here in the UK, Could someone advise me of the raw chemicals to obtain or the best method to achieve our aim.
Thank you for your time.
Sara
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ALL the meat needs to be removed from inside the hide. Especially the area around the back centerline. Now this is ROUGH advice as I'm assuming you don't have tanneries to use either. It should be acid pickled and tanned, but IF that's not a possibility, you can submerge in in an H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) solution. This is a PICKLE ONLY recipe. If you're using a 55 gallon drum (sorry, not into metrics), you can fill it 3/4 full of water and then CAREFULLY pour 1 gallon of acid into the water. DO NOT LET IT SPLASH. Check the pH on the solution. You want it to be as close to 1.0 as you can get but never above 2.5. Let it set in there for a week or two. Remove it carefully keeping the acid off your skin and rinse it off with fresh water. Scrape any excess meat off now and put it back into the acid for another day. Then in a clean barrel, fill it 3/4 full and put about 2 boxes of baking soda in the water . You want the pH to be above 7 so that the hide can enter it and stabilize it at 7 for about 4 hours. Now remove your skin and lay out flat. Pin or nail it to keep it in the position you're going to use. Allow to dry. When dried, remove and use. REMEMBER however, this is crude methodology and not intended to be used in lieu of professional tanning. As long as you don't try to bend, fold, spindle or mutilate the hide in any way, this should last a long time. If it's wet again or bent in any way, expect it to crack and deteriorate easily.
If you contact Bruce Rittel he would be glad to send you his safety acid and tanning kit to do the trick