Thread: Tanning / Curing Hides at home cheaply?

Hi Everyone

New to the forum, meet a few of you at Toby's 2km shoot. What an awesome weekend!!!!!

I was wondering if anyone here has done any tanning/curing?

I have recently had a go with a goat skin using Kero and baking soda and seems to have worked out alright, little bit stiff but I'm fairly happy with it and had a lot of fun with it.

I washed the skin, salted it , scraped it ,stretched it out , applied kero and baking soda a few times, gave it a work over with a bit of pumice and left it in the sun one afternoon.

Are there better ways to cure a skin other than kero and baking soda or a better way to do it?
I'm not really interested in buying a tanning kit that does one skin for $60 - $80 but there seems to be a lack of places that sell tanning supplies here in NZ.

I have read about people applying vegetable oil on the skin at the end ?? I haven't , should I or use something else?

My dad runs Scottish Highland cattle on the farm and we have a skin or 2 in the freezer, anyone here ever done a cow hide? Can it be done at home, or will it become a fluffy piece of plywood?

Here's a couple of pictures what I ended up with, any advice/help would be great.

Cheers