# Hunting > Taxidermy >  Tanning, what do I do?

## Chelsea

Finally got us a sika, beyond proud. Love hunting them but have only just managed to get one. 
I decided to keep the skin. we just got home and its hung on the fence. What do I do? Im guessing Ill need to buy a leder tanning kit? But until then what should I do with the skin? Freeze it? Salt it? 
Im based in morrinsville if anyone local would be able to do it for us! 
Thanks

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## Chelsea

So I can leave it be until tomorrow and just scrape and salt it until I get the tanning stuff?

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## Dicko

Get it salted ASAP. Otherwise you may /  will get hair slip. If not have time now to salt put it in the freezer double bagged to stop freezer burn and then thaw and salt when you have time to tan it

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## Maca49

Don’t send it to Taupo Tannery the guys an arsehole!!

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## bigbear

@Chelsea wash all blood of it and get it cooled down as soon as possible chiller or freezer. Freeze if you are going to send away .Only need to salt it you are in the bush.
Also make sure you remove as much meat as possible. For what its worth i would let a professional do it. 
I have just got back a fallow skin and couple thar skins for the money it cost i am wrapped. 
Also got my chamios skin getting done by a lady at the moment
I can give you here named if you want

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## lumberjack

Iv tanned a Thar skin myself. Was with a mates brew, think it was pool alkali and tanning oil diluted with water. Just flesh the skin out, then put it in the solution for a few days until its soaked it through, stir every day. Take it out and tack it up to dry. Came out pretty good but hard as. Anyone have any tips on softening it up?

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## Chelsea

I threw it in the freezer lastnight double bagged. Folded skin to skin. I didn’t have enough salt and I’m a bit far from town. I’ll head in today and get some salt and a sheet of ply to tack it out to. Am I essentially just drying the shit out of it with a salt cure? If it gets too hard can I just use leather conditioner repeatedly to soften it?

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## Bill999

I used salt / kero 50/50 mix
nailed it out on a piece of ply in a cool dry area with lots of air movement
trimmed the meat fat off
the fat will never dry. trim and scrap and trim and scrape till you get sick of it fuck it was a lot of work

it finished up like a board then you have to break the fibers

its not technically tanning after talking to my friend who works with leather he told me its just preserving
mine was a tahr if that changes anything, still looks cool as fuck ten years later so im happy

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## Bill999

I didnt want need to have a soft skin for anything mine will either hang on the wall or be a floor covering so didnt do the breaking down the fibers

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## Husky1600

First thing is get it salted! not only does the salt stop hairslip and keep all the bugs away, it starts the tanning process. Use plain salt, not iodised, about 2-4kg for the first salting, rub it in all over, in to every little fold and leave all the surplus all over the skin, dont shake it off. Fold it skin to skin, then make it kinda tidy so you can roll it up with no skin showing and either tie it up in a neat bundle or put it in a cloth bag or pillowcase and hang it out of the sun for a week to drain. Then take it down, unroll it, shake it out and repeat the process with clean salt, 2 kg will be heaps for the second salting. Then you can roll it up and leave it hanging for months, until you have the time to tan it. 
If you do each process nicely as you go it doesnt become a chore, starting with skinning it, make it as clean and neat as you can, dont leave flesh on it. If you do leave some flesh on it, the salting makes it so much easier to flesh it out later, but definitely not big thick bits etc.
Then salt it correctly and later fleshing is much much easier. I use a half round post placed with one end on a waist high post, and the other end on the ground, and used the Leders 2 handed fleshing tool. Put the skin over the post, some hanging down the waist high post, lean in to it to hold it in place and push the fleshing tool away from you, keep going until its all clean.

And if you do salt it correctly,I've had a tahr skin hanging for 2 years before I tanned it.

I have used a number of tanning solutions, but Leders is probably the best for product and instructions. Follow the instructions to the letter and you will come out with a really nice pliable skin.
It is best to have your skin stretched on to a frame, easily made from 4 lumps of 100x25, slightly bigger than your skin. Hammer in a small flat head nail every 100 mm around the outside, make your self a heap of straps, old leather is good, but inner tube works well too. Punch them full of holes and get some brass gas welding rods and make an S hook for in the end of each one. DONT use steel or galvanised metal anywhere near your tanning solution! On the frame is ok.

Once you've soaked and stirred your skin in the tanning solution for a week or so, lay it out flat on the ground, and place the frame over it. Start stretching it out on the centre, then the legs and so forth. Using the straps with various holes you can make a nice job of centring the skin and squaring it up.

Lean it against a fence for an hour or 2 to drain off excess tanning solution, then weigh the whole thing, frame and all. Then deduct the weight of the frame and a wee bit for the straps. You will need this weight to get the right amount of leather lube later. 

Then put it away in the shed or behind the shed or somewhere where the sun wont get it, or the dogs. And leave it for a week or 2. The reason a frame is better is cos the skin dries better, and stays softer and more flexible, and its much easier to sand the skin at the end to make it soft.

When you decide its ready, the Leders instructions will tell you, then apply the right amount of leather lube with an old paint brush, work it in well, all over. Then let it dry again for a few days. 

Now comes the part that makes it nice and white and soft. While its still in the frame, leaning against a fence use a Cintride sanding disc in your drill, one of those coppery metal ones with a rubber backing wheel behind it, coarse. Sand it all over, keep going until your happy with the appearance. Cos its hanging in the frame its easy, and safe, and very difficult to cut or damage the skin. If its on a board or on the ground its very easy to cut the skin.

When finished, take a Stanley knife and cut the skin from the skin side so you dont cut hair, and carefully cut it right around the outside just in from the hooks.Again, cos its in the frame it makes a really tidy job. And your left with the thin strip of the edge which doesn't usually tan up too well.

Have fun, its simple and easy, doesn't take long at all.

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## Dicko

Follow this advice above from Husky 1600 above. I've done a heap of roo and deer skins over the years as per this procedure using Ledreiters kits..

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## Dundee

Send it down to Dannevirke you won't be disappointed.

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## Bill999

whats it cost to have that done for you?

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## Chelsea

Hey all. So I couldnt get my hands on a tanning kit before lock down and I was a little impatient and decided to defrost the skin and salt and scrape it for a week. Its pretty dry now, like cardboard and needs some trimming around the edges that were harder to scrape. I think I got a little carried away scrapping the rest of it. Not sure if iv taken it back maybe a little too much. 
Anyhow what should I do now? I was thinking of using my leather conditioner and just conditioning the shit out of it. Would that be ok? I have some leather conditioner for my boots. I want to soften it up a bit but not sure if its too soon.

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## Chelsea

> It will keep indefinitely as a stiff/salted skin. Then you'll rehydrate/dishwash liquid it before tanning.


So I could just leave it as is forever? Or leave it as is until the shops open? I’m just worried it might split or crack.

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## canross

For a deer, as long as it's clean, cool and dry it should be ok. Sounds like you've scraped it well, so that's good - fat and meat will cause spoiling over time even if it is salted, and scraping is needed to remove membrane anyways. Unless you scraped so far that you're hitting the bottoms of the hair follicles and having the hair fall out in those areas on the other side, you're ok with how much you've scraped.

Deer aren't particularly oily, so no issues with oil in the skin going rancid and causing spoiling that way (happens in fatty animals like raccoons, bears etc), but fat on the flesh side of the skin can cause the same thing. Fat burn shows as the skin turning a very dark yellow or green tinged then black (not to be confused with the skin drying to a rawhide translucent yellow, that's a good thing). If the skin is heavily salted make sure it's got a lot of airflow around it - the salt will pull moisture in damp climates... can lead to the skin being damp, swelling, and small areas of salt migration allowing some slow acting bacteria to move in and slip the skin. Basically your goal right now is to make a clean rawhide - when it gets tanned you complete the process for turning it into a converted leather product, but as long as it's kept cool, dry, and neutral ph a rawhide will last a long time.

Edit - other things to look out for are animals and bugs. It's now a tasty chew toy for dogs, rodents etc, the salt just adds to the flavor. Birds sometimes steal fur or poo on hides left in rafters, leading to staining and rot. Bugs, especially dermestid/carrion beetles will eat the hide, so heavy salting reduces the chances of that, as well as spraying with a bug spray on the hair and flesh sides (some bug sprays are in turn lethal to your pets if they lick the hide when you aren't around).

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## canross

@berg243 any reason for the difference in citric vs boric acid? Is that a powder mix, wet mix etc? Any idea of PH you're going for with the acids?

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## canross

> it comes dry premixed in 1200kg bags . citric makes the lambskins /wool a yellow tinge but doesnt seem to colour the deer skins . you can barely see the yellow citric acid granules in the salt normally but some bags are very yellow. with the deer skins they are tumbled in a mixer for about an hour and a half with the first lot of salt then removed from mixer and the mixer is drained to get rid of as much moisture then are put back in and a second smaller lot of salt is added and then tumbled for about half an hour .can still have a lot of juice on them but they are fine to pack onto a pallet then strapped and have a couple shrink wrap bags put over the top and sides which dont seal the bottom then they are stored outside till sold.will see if i can find out the mix ratio for the salt and citric acid as it might be handy for anyone wanting to preserve deer skins .


Very interesting. Lots of good info there!

Are these skins are being made into leather rather than hair-on? Or both?
I would have thought wrapping and storing outside would make the hair more likely to slip, but that it would be ok for the skin itself, but with your saying that it colours the wool that suggests they're doing hair-on as well. 


Sorry for the thread derail Chelsea!

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## G.I_Joel

Loads of good information here but a pro tip is to use a 3000psi water blaster with an oscillating head (tip) to get all the meat and crap off the skin. Makes light work of what once was a hard job. YouTube hunt shack tanning, step by step how to which I followed and got great results. Excuse the holes in the photos, my skinning needs work.

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## Chelsea

A little update. So we had salted the shit out the skin and got it to the point it was hard as cardboard. Cleaned it up before hand probably took it too far back in places and trimmed up the edges where we couldn’t clean it back enough. I hung it on the clothes horse until we can get some leder tanning stuff after lockdown and our house is so damp and cold and it’s been foggy for 3 days and it’s started to get soft and a little damp. 
Should I salt it again? And again and again? I can’t have it in the sun because it’s so foggy.

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## G.I_Joel

Next time just salt the fur and throw it in the freezer as soon as, then once you have the tanning gear follow these gals recipe...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZrCf_7eGN4

I shot a couple fallow last year and tanned them myself ( never done it before ) I follow the huntshack team on Instagram and they had this video up. Super easy to do and they turned out pretty bloody awesome considering I had no idea what I was doing. Real soft and subtle, no hair slip. Even an old boy who used to tan a lot in his day said they are bloody awesome.

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## canross

For a deer, as long as it's clean, cool and dry it should be ok. Sounds like you've scraped it well, so that's good - fat and meat will cause spoiling over time even if it is salted, and scraping is needed to remove membrane anyways. Unless you scraped so far that you're hitting the bottoms of the hair follicles and having the hair fall out in those areas on the other side, you're ok with how much you've scraped.

Deer aren't particularly oily, so no issues with oil in the skin going rancid and causing spoiling that way (happens in fatty animals like raccoons, bears etc), but fat on the flesh side of the skin can cause the same thing. Fat burn shows as the skin turning a very dark yellow or green tinged then black (not to be confused with the skin drying to a rawhide translucent yellow, that's a good thing). If the skin is heavily salted make sure it's got a lot of airflow around it - the salt will pull moisture in damp climates... can lead to the skin being damp, swelling, and small areas of salt migration allowing some slow acting bacteria to move in and slip the skin. Basically your goal right now is to make a clean rawhide - when it gets tanned you complete the process for turning it into a converted leather product, but as long as it's kept cool, dry, and neutral ph a rawhide will last a long time.

Edit - other things to look out for are animals and bugs. It's now a tasty chew toy for dogs, rodents etc, the salt just adds to the flavor. Birds sometimes steal fur or poo on hides left in rafters, leading to staining and rot. Bugs, especially dermestid/carrion beetles will eat the hide, so heavy salting reduces the chances of that, as well as spraying with a bug spray on the hair and flesh sides (some bug sprays are in turn lethal to your pets if they lick the hide when you aren't around).

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## canross

@berg243 any reason for the difference in citric vs boric acid? Is that a powder mix, wet mix etc? Any idea of PH you're going for with the acids?

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## canross

> it comes dry premixed in 1200kg bags . citric makes the lambskins /wool a yellow tinge but doesnt seem to colour the deer skins . you can barely see the yellow citric acid granules in the salt normally but some bags are very yellow. with the deer skins they are tumbled in a mixer for about an hour and a half with the first lot of salt then removed from mixer and the mixer is drained to get rid of as much moisture then are put back in and a second smaller lot of salt is added and then tumbled for about half an hour .can still have a lot of juice on them but they are fine to pack onto a pallet then strapped and have a couple shrink wrap bags put over the top and sides which dont seal the bottom then they are stored outside till sold.will see if i can find out the mix ratio for the salt and citric acid as it might be handy for anyone wanting to preserve deer skins .


Very interesting. Lots of good info there!

Are these skins are being made into leather rather than hair-on? Or both?
I would have thought wrapping and storing outside would make the hair more likely to slip, but that it would be ok for the skin itself, but with your saying that it colours the wool that suggests they're doing hair-on as well. 


Sorry for the thread derail Chelsea!

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## G.I_Joel

Loads of good information here but a pro tip is to use a 3000psi water blaster with an oscillating head (tip) to get all the meat and crap off the skin. Makes light work of what once was a hard job. YouTube hunt shack tanning, step by step how to which I followed and got great results. Excuse the holes in the photos, my skinning needs work.

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## Chelsea

A little update. So we had salted the shit out the skin and got it to the point it was hard as cardboard. Cleaned it up before hand probably took it too far back in places and trimmed up the edges where we couldn’t clean it back enough. I hung it on the clothes horse until we can get some leder tanning stuff after lockdown and our house is so damp and cold and it’s been foggy for 3 days and it’s started to get soft and a little damp. 
Should I salt it again? And again and again? I can’t have it in the sun because it’s so foggy.

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## G.I_Joel

Next time just salt the fur and throw it in the freezer as soon as, then once you have the tanning gear follow these gals recipe...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QZrCf_7eGN4

I shot a couple fallow last year and tanned them myself ( never done it before ) I follow the huntshack team on Instagram and they had this video up. Super easy to do and they turned out pretty bloody awesome considering I had no idea what I was doing. Real soft and subtle, no hair slip. Even an old boy who used to tan a lot in his day said they are bloody awesome.

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