How would you tan your hide??? It can be any animal. new hobby I finally have time to start.. looking for old and new idea's.. Thanxs for all your advice im sure ya all will share...
Well, if you aren't grossed out, every critter has enough grey matter (brains) to tan their own hide. Vegetable tanning (using plant matter rich in tannic acid) is advantageous to chrome tanning in that while it is pretty labor intensive, it doesn't use heavy, dangerous metal in the process.
Great thread! I am looking forward to reading answers here. Getting set to tan some rabbit hides soon. I found this when I was looking around here they show using eggs in place of brain. http://www.unluckyhunter.com/2011/07/how-i-tan-rabbit-hide.html A friend sent me a link to someone claiming they were tanning the "Native Traditional way", but they outlined using suave shampoo as part of their process, and having to purchase brain from a butcher to have enough... so I was very doubtful about following that particular individual's advice! I also found a lot of articles about using salt and alum, or borax, but am curious to know what others think about that.
I've tried several different methods with deer hides in the past. Salted several this fall and plan to try to tan them also. It's been a few years but I had pretty good luck with the salt and borax method. You can buy tanning kits from places like fntpost.com. The trappers hide tanning formula works well, just uses a hole bottle for a deer hide, so you'd need several for larger hides, or could do several smaller animals.