I've done a few coyotes and deer myself and here is what I have learned. If you decide to do it yourself get ready for a MASSIVE project. I will give you the cliffs notes on how I've done my deer hides and if you still want to DIY let me know and I will send you some full details. This is for a hair on tan.
1. First thing is to flesh the hide. Cut off every scrap of meat and fat so that all you have is skin and hair. Any meat or fat is going to risk ruining the hide and causing the hair to slip.
2. Next you have to clean the hide. Wash it with soap and water, I used just plain old dish soap. Wash all of the blood out of fur, get all of the dirt out of it as well, and there is going to be a lot of dirt. I wouldn't be surprised if you have to do 5-6 full "wash cycles" if you will to get it clean. I have also thrown hides in the washing machine with good results, but then again I rent my house so the health of the washing machine wasn't paramount. Now is the time to get any stains out of the leather too if you want a nice clean leather finished product.
3. Salt the hide. You are going to need to hang it somewhere where it can drip as the salt pulls the moisture from the leather. Use non-iodized salt and rub a good coat into the skin side of the hide. Let this hang for about two days and reapply the salt periodically.
4. Tan the hide. Soak the hide in a water/salt/ pickling alum (can get at bulk barn) solution. I think the ratio was 5 gallon water, 1 lb salt, 1 lb alum and leave this for about 3 days. Stir the hide regularly and keep it covered so that all of the hide is in contact with the solution.
5. Dry it. After three days, take the hide out and rinse it in clean water thoroughly. Get all of the pickling solution out of the hide. You are going to need a frame slightly bigger than the bear hide to let it dry on. You will have to build something probably out of 2 x 4 to support the thing it is going to be so big. Get some screws as the hide will pull nails from a board as it drys. Screw the hide down around its perimeter stretching it as far as you can before screwing it down. Let this dry completely stretched to the boards.
6. Peel/work/break the hide. When the hide has dried completely the real work starts... it will have a thin membrane on the entire skin side of the hide. You need to peel this off and work the leather to make it soft.This can be done a number of ways from a belt sander to stretching the hide over the end of a 4x4 post. Stretch it in every direction you can repeatedly until the leather is soft and pliable. Once you get the initial membrane pulled off you are still going to have to break all of the fibers in the hide to make the leather soft. You can use a leather treater at this point (I use Neat's Footoil, its for saddles I think) rub that stuff in and stretch and work the hide over and over and over until the leather is as soft as you like.
And that's it. Haha but seriously, working just a couple hours after work each day you can expect this to probably take you a couple months before you have something comparable to what you would get at a tannery. Its rewarding but it's a god awful lot of work. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
There she is NewGuy, follow those steps and you should have something usable. Let me know if you have any questions I'd be happy to help.
|