The Tanning Process

So I was able to complete 4 hides last year, and 1 had to go in the garbage. Please note: if you are not rambo, you are probably not strong enough to take the membrane of a sheep skin.

Anyway, the whole tanning process wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Remember that you will have hands that smell like lamb dinner for a while! To begin with, you need to clean the hides. This requires that you place them in running water for about half a day, or until the water runs clean. I used a large tupperware and a hose, but a river is the best option. Make sure to anchor the hide in the river At this stage, if you leave it in the river too long, the fish will begin to eat it!

Once rinsed, it's time to do some slimy work, remember this is raw meat and proper sanitation is important at this point! I used a tree and a 2x6 and wedged the hide, slime side up, onto the board, with the top between the trees. Once this is done, grab your scrapper (a double handled cheese cutter works great) and "de-slime" hide by scraping off the mucus and first layer. Don't go too deep yet, it's  not worth it. When your done, the hide should grip your hand when rubbed. If it feels slippery anywhere, your not done!

Now it's on to the lye solution. You need to make sure you have the right pH or it will not work. Also if making your own lye, try not to get any black chunkys, they discolour the hid a bit (not too much).
The hid then soaks in this for about 3-5 days, or until the hair wipes off with your hand. The hide will also loose any other colour it had, sorta looking like the colour of a dead body floating in water in any hollywood movie. Unfortunatly, those cute spots that some hides have are on the epidermis layer and will be scraped off :(

Take off all the hair. Be careful, any tool makes on this side of the hide will show permanently! As well, the epidermis layer must come off as the hide won't tan anywhere it is left on. This is tricky as you need to scrape this side firmly, but delicately. I can only say you'll get better with practice, but expect the first dozen to have some tool marks when done. Thankfully if you use the leather instead of selling the hide, you can just cut around the bad spots.

Once again, it's back to the tub, but with clean water again. The hide needs to be rinsed fully, which amounts to about 2 days in the running water. This will change depending on the water source and speeed it runs. The hide, which swelled up from the lye, must return to it's normal thickness and not feel spongy anyewhere.

Once the hide is back to normal, it's back to the scraping block again. Your scraping the back again (non fur side) The mambranes have been loosened by the lye and now come off easier. (this is in relation to before and should not really be considered "easy" even at this point) The amount you take off will determine the thickness of the final product. I have taken off all of the "body" of the hide on a few, they ended up the thickness of paper and the back is smooth. One I left a fair amount on and it is the weight of an average piece of deerskin and the back is soft. Again this is a trial and error, until you get the right feel for it!

Now it's tea time!!!
Not quite what you think the tea, I assume, is toxic, as sumac trees are toxic. Brew a large garbage bag of sumac leaves in the soaker tub you are using, for about 15 minutes. Pour off the tea into a storage bottle. (this is your liquid gold) Rebrew leaves and repeat. Rebrew a 3rd time. This third tea is fairly weak and the one you want first. Once it is cooled completely, place hide(s) in it. You need to swish for 10 minutes, then for 1 minute every 30minutes for 2 hours. It will stay in the tea for about 3 days, swishing every time you think of it.
Take out and switch to 2nd brewing and repeat.
Take out and switch to 1st brewing and repeat.

Once Check the leather for dryness by squeezing a crease with your fingers. If you squeeze a crease and it stays creased when you release, and looks dry, your done!

Remove and squeeze out as much water as possible, do NOT wring!!!

Sew up any holes. If you have a large frame and multiple hides, you can stitch them together and stretch as one piece. Stretch until dry, working the leather regularly. Once dry apply mink oil and VOILA!
You have leather!!!

Getting my first Hide

I have been making things out of leather for quite some time. I really enjoy sewing with leather. There is no hemming, no fraying, no slipping.... Of course, there are the downsides, like every time the needle goes backwards into your finger. The biggest deterrent however is the cost of leather. It's not cheap.  I've bought pieces that are 40'' round for $75.00 (CAD)
Then one day I got it in my head that if I could just find a hunter that doesn't keep his own deerskins, I could get them. Of course my second thought is what hunter would be stupid enough to give away such a valuable piece of the deer? Well... apparently most of them :)

At this point I still didn't question why they were so willing to give me their hides, I just rolled with it. I started looking up tanning online and was shocked. From my initial research I concluded that there were 3 steps to tanning.
Step 1.  Pee on hides. If possible place in a container and soak in urine.
Step 2. Rinse pee off. Rub feces (pref. from dog) in hide. Let sit.
Step 1.  Rinse Feces off. Rub pre-made fermented brains onto hid, let soak in.

I thought, "I'm starting to realize why the hunters aren't so keen to an their hides". Nevertheless, I was not about to give up. There must be some kind of less stinky way. (At this point I was also tempted to inform all the Paris Hilton's of the world what their $5000 leather purses had gone through before being slung on their shoulders)

I went down to my leather store, Zelikovitz, to find a book on tanning hides. After looking for browsing for  a while I found one called, Deerskin to Buckskin.  What a great book. AND... no urine or feces involved.




With renewed faith and the book I went home to study. I decided before hunting season, I should really practice. I stopped at the local slaughterhouse and asked what they do with their skins. Apparently they also don't see the benefit of most hides (they sell the cow ones) and they pitch 'em out. "Come by on Thursday, you can have some" He says.

Ok. 2 days and I'm going to have a hide to work on. Get reading.

Thursday rolls around and I head on down. I don't know what I was expecting. I mean leather does start out as some animal's skin, but I was sure it wouldn't be like this. The man walks out with a plastic bag. He pulls out a blood soaked furry goat skin that still looks very much like a goat, just horribly dead. The people here are in fact very good at skinning, (A bonus for tanners). Unfortunately, on that day I wasn't so sure. The face was almost entirely intact, right down to the little nose. The only difference was that it's eyes were missing and it looked hollow and was dripping in blood. With a shaky laugh I thanked the man tossed the bag in a clean garbage bag, threw it in my car and drove home.
No turning back now. If only skins would tan themselves...