Thread: Tanning

My little fella has just started hunting. Totally hooked. Wants to tan all his trophies... which is fine. I like to encourage use of whatever we can when you take an animal. Is tanning hides at home a difficult process? Or messy and smelly? (The wife may not approve) . Wouldn't mind giving it a shot, but if it's complicated, space consuming (we are limited in undercover space) and messy then I probably wouldn't be popular. I know next to nothing about it. Apart from sending 2 away last year and getting them back from a tannery to go on the floor! Cheers.

its mess and can be smelly. you can get a tanning kit which is a good start

https://outdoorshop.nz/products/lede...g-utility-pack

or if you just want to dry out a rabbit skin etc you can use a mix of baking soda/vinegar/alum. which will give you something which will be smell free and the hair will stay in but will go bad if got wet

Good on him for wanting to do tanning etc...

As gonetropo has mentioned, the leader tanning systems is great. Animal tanning services in Invercargill also sell tanning kits https://animalskintanningservices.co...tanning-kits-1

Also you can get trubond tanning supply's from Mountain High near you https://www.mountainhighsupplies.co....-cknP5RkOF7Ox1

Is it not possible to use the brains of the animal as the solution to tan the hide. I read somewhere that each brain is the perfect size to tan the hide of the animal it comes from) though am sure you could pick up some pig brains from a local butcher if you ran short...

https://www.internationalleatherclub...4lGaRerEJYlvCC

Never tanned with brain but as it's one of the organs that like to decompose quick I imagine it can be smelly and messy. I use Trubond and Lutan F, also used aluminium sulphate in the past when I was just messing around with possum hides.