Sol
Well-Known Member
By no means am I a professional at this but It was an interesting process that I found fun out of.
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Subject A brown hare, Thin skinned not an "easy" first like a deer not to mention shotgunned shot so so many holes!
1: Took some of the meat off with a scalpel many holes at first but when you get into the sweet spot It rolls off with ease.
2: I then rubbed salt into it and left it over night (12-14 hours) with it being a hare It was already drying out so only one salt was needed.
3: I washed all the salt out, several times making sure to get a lot of blood out as well
4: while salting I mixed up what is referred to as a pickle. (1.7L of water, Half a pound of salt, and 1.5 Oz of Citrus acid) and left it 12+ hours (while hare was being salted), The PH should remain between 2-2.5 leaving the solution allows it to balance out however you'll still need to monitor PH through the upcoming days. Hare was in the pickle being occasionally moved around for 2.5 Days
5: The hide now needs to be returned to a PH of 4-5 to accept the tanning solution, so back to the bath it went for a good rinse then into a new tub with plenty of baking soda an hour later, It was at the desired PH
6: Ring in a towel, hair dry a bit, let it hang for 12 hours whatever, It needs to dry out a bit before the tanning solution goes on.
7: Tan goes on all over the skin, and wrapped up into a bag until the morning then hung and air dried :7.5 (Your hide may need a wash to get rid of oils, or in my case some shampoo! dry with a towel again)
8: Ideally you would have a quality tanning oil for this part but I did not however now as the pelt dries you may break the leather in (will turn from cream to quite a stark white.
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This is just one of the processes that makes Taxidermy deer expensive. Shaving, deodorizing, breaking, oiling are many others prior to the mount even being made. Liqua tan, the tan I used here Is what quite a lot of Taxidermists use in the country large scale ones use Lutan FN however unusually there's quite a big shortage of it at the moment.
Effort wise a fox skin or a deer will actually be less if your making it into a rug, If you invest in a fleshing knife and beam you can have all the fat and membranes off In about 25 minutes (I was here for 3 hours, and I wasn't all off) I think I'll probably do a deer hide in the future and add it to this thread with what changes with the process, the only major one I see at the moment is obviously I would want a quality tanning oil.
Creature next to the hare Is a Coyote, Anyways off I go to stew the hare! But for sure something to keep In mind with the countries rug tanning services starting to shut down to tan a deer hide assuming you made your fleshing knife by yourself (grinded down rasp with some handles) It would be about £50 in start up, with the option to probably do 3-5 hides after that. one large fallow hide from that one company is £110 with months wait time. If little lady me can do it, and I'm quarter of the age of some people on here I'm sure plenty others can give it a shot too.
Only thing to keep In mind is a rug done by yourself wouldn't be anything like the machine broken ones they use huge drums that spin and break them for hours, however you'll still get them to great rug quality with effort and oil.
.
Subject A brown hare, Thin skinned not an "easy" first like a deer not to mention shotgunned shot so so many holes!
1: Took some of the meat off with a scalpel many holes at first but when you get into the sweet spot It rolls off with ease.
2: I then rubbed salt into it and left it over night (12-14 hours) with it being a hare It was already drying out so only one salt was needed.
3: I washed all the salt out, several times making sure to get a lot of blood out as well
4: while salting I mixed up what is referred to as a pickle. (1.7L of water, Half a pound of salt, and 1.5 Oz of Citrus acid) and left it 12+ hours (while hare was being salted), The PH should remain between 2-2.5 leaving the solution allows it to balance out however you'll still need to monitor PH through the upcoming days. Hare was in the pickle being occasionally moved around for 2.5 Days
5: The hide now needs to be returned to a PH of 4-5 to accept the tanning solution, so back to the bath it went for a good rinse then into a new tub with plenty of baking soda an hour later, It was at the desired PH
6: Ring in a towel, hair dry a bit, let it hang for 12 hours whatever, It needs to dry out a bit before the tanning solution goes on.
7: Tan goes on all over the skin, and wrapped up into a bag until the morning then hung and air dried :7.5 (Your hide may need a wash to get rid of oils, or in my case some shampoo! dry with a towel again)
8: Ideally you would have a quality tanning oil for this part but I did not however now as the pelt dries you may break the leather in (will turn from cream to quite a stark white.
.
This is just one of the processes that makes Taxidermy deer expensive. Shaving, deodorizing, breaking, oiling are many others prior to the mount even being made. Liqua tan, the tan I used here Is what quite a lot of Taxidermists use in the country large scale ones use Lutan FN however unusually there's quite a big shortage of it at the moment.
Effort wise a fox skin or a deer will actually be less if your making it into a rug, If you invest in a fleshing knife and beam you can have all the fat and membranes off In about 25 minutes (I was here for 3 hours, and I wasn't all off) I think I'll probably do a deer hide in the future and add it to this thread with what changes with the process, the only major one I see at the moment is obviously I would want a quality tanning oil.
Creature next to the hare Is a Coyote, Anyways off I go to stew the hare! But for sure something to keep In mind with the countries rug tanning services starting to shut down to tan a deer hide assuming you made your fleshing knife by yourself (grinded down rasp with some handles) It would be about £50 in start up, with the option to probably do 3-5 hides after that. one large fallow hide from that one company is £110 with months wait time. If little lady me can do it, and I'm quarter of the age of some people on here I'm sure plenty others can give it a shot too.
Only thing to keep In mind is a rug done by yourself wouldn't be anything like the machine broken ones they use huge drums that spin and break them for hours, however you'll still get them to great rug quality with effort and oil.
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