Taxidermy "How to"

[Guest clutepc]

You should be OK with your hide. As long as it stayed cool, treat it just like a fresh hide. Flesh it, and rub salt in well.

Great thanks..

[gregintenn]

I have a question. I am considering trying my hand at holster making. Is there any part of a deer hide heavy enough for this purpose, or am I better off purchasing leather?

[DaveS]

You would be much better off buying cow leather. Tandy leather has all the right grades and weights of leather for holster making, plus all kinds of patterns. If you are into blackpowder shooting, tan your deer hide for shooting pouches, bullet bags and knife sheaths. They make awesome mocs too. A larger buck may have thick enough hide across the neck and part of the back to make a holster. Most will not. Hope this helps you out.

[gregintenn]

Thank you so much for your input, wd-40. Tandy is where I was planning on going when I decide to stock up on the supplies. Also, thanks for this thread. I've always been interested in leather tanning, and this has been very informative.

[Guest Jcochran88]

If I have a hide that has not been salted but has been frozen for about 2 weeks now will it still be able to tan it with the fur staying on?

[DaveS]

Your hide will be fine as long as it's been frozen. If you will thaw it, and rough flesh it, you can put it in the pickle bath and skip the salting step.

[gregintenn]

6. If you are making leather or buckskin, dehair at this time.

How do you accomplish this?

[Guest Jcochran88]

Your hide will be fine as long as it's been frozen. If you will thaw it, and rough flesh it, you can put it in the pickle bath and skip the salting step.

Cool thanks for the info, waiting on chemicals now!

[Guest clutepc]

Where does everyone normally get their chemicals from?

[DaveS]

There are several good companies out there. Like anything else, we all have our favorites. I use Van Dykes Taxidermy

[gregintenn]

Seriously, how do you go about dehairing a hide? Do you shave it? Is there some chemical or process that makes the hair fall out?

[DaveS]

I'll post instruction here in a bit. De-hairing is not hard to do at all.

[DaveS]

Sorry I haven't got back to you before now. I had to get me some treestand time. To dehair a deer hide, mix 1 lb of Hydrated Lime with 10 gallons of room temperature water. Mix well to desolve the lime. Submerge deer hide and stir it around for a minute or two then sink it by placing a heavy rock or brick on the hide. Stir daily. After 3 days, give the hair a gentle tug. It should be getting loose. Continue stirring and checking daily, until the hair "slips" from the hide with little effort. Remove the hide and lay it over a piece of fire log and use a blunt object (a 6 inch piece of 2x4 works well) and scrape the hair off. If you find any stubborn spots, just re-soak it another day. Continue until all hair is gone. When de-haired, wash several times in running water until clean. Then proceed with tanning. There are several commercial de-hairing products on the market that you may wish to try. Hope the helps.

Dave

[gregintenn]

Thanks. I always wondered how they did it.

[Wingshooter]

Great info here! I'm sure I will be referencing this thread often.

[Guest clutepc]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great Info,

Tanned my first deer hide and it came out great.

Wish I had thought that I was going to try tanning it when I was taking it off the deer I would have done a better job.

I really didn't expect it to come out as well as it did.

Ordered the material from: Van Dykes Taxidermy

Used this Kit and everything worked like it was supposed to.

Curatan Kit (Hair On), Chemicals and Tanning, Supplies at Van Dykes Taxidermy

Probably didn't have $40.00 total cost in the whole thing, fleshing the hide is the most work during the whole process.

Can't wait for the next deer so I can cut a better hide to tan.

[DaveS]

Well, did anyone get to do any hide tanning this year? Lets see some pics!

[Guest clutepc]

Well, did anyone get to do any hide tanning this year? Lets see some pics!

This is a hide from my 8 point that's at the Taxidermist,

I had no intention of tanning this hide as you can tell by how badly it's cut up.

It actually was in the back of my truck for a day before I thought about tanning it.

I bought the Kit from Van Dykes Taxidermy

Great company to deal with by the way.

This was the kit I used.

Curatan Kit (Hair On), Chemicals and Tanning, Supplies at Van Dykes Taxidermy

Besides the fleshing part, it was a lot easier than I expected. It came out very soft and no problems with hair falling out, smell or anything.

I'm extremely happy with it and enjoyed doing the whole process.

If you look at the top of the bottom picture you can see where the Muzzy had a complete pass-thru on the deer.

I caped him a little more than needed so the taxidermist had plenty to work with which is the reason the hide is so small.

Can't wait to get a big doe next season to do a better skinning job and have a larger hide to work with.

[DaveS]

Nice job on the hide!

[Guest clutepc]

Nice job on the hide!

I appreciate the all the help with how to do it.

Looking forward to doing a few more next year.

[DaveS]

You'll have to get you a good hide next year and make yourself a nice rug. That hide looks good though!

[DaveS]

I am mounting a full body boar and will be photographing each phase of the process, and telling a little about the process. I will chronicle this under my website. The page title is planned as "Taxidermy".

[Guest brenster99]

WD-40, would tanning a coyote be about the same process wise as a deer? I know the guy said supplies to tan a deer ran about $40 for the supplies, do you think it would be less to do a coyote? or do you have to buy more in bulk? I am interested in trying one out just to see how it goes, but I'm on a somewhat tight budget...

Thanks in advance!

[DaveS]

You would use about the same. I think that $40 included shipping. I would have to go back and check. But about the same amount of supplies.

[Guest brenster99]

One more question, is this going to make my garage stink? One of my buddies told me it would. It doesn't bother me, but I have a feeling my wife would not feel the same way... haha

Appreciate all the posts, its very informative. I looked at your hog start to finish and it looks awesome. Your photo series makes it look super easy, although I'm sure its not...