#Tanning hides with eggs how to
#Tanning hides with eggs skin
#Tanning hides with eggs plus
#Tanning hides with eggs free

#Tanning hides with eggs skin

When both solutions are ready, mix them together thoroughly and let the skin soak in the liquid for three days. In another container, dissolve 2-1/2 pounds of salt in 5 gallons of water. 2, which is made as follows: Dissolve 1 pound of alum in 1 gallon of hot water.

#Tanning hides with eggs free

The next day, thoroughly rinse the skin to free it of salt and hang it in a shady spot to dry.

Then fold the hide in half (salted side in), roll it into a bundle, and let it cure overnight. Gently but firmly rub the preservative into every pore.

Wring the skin carefully to remove the brine, lay it on a flat surface flesh side up, and cover the pelt with plenty of salt.

(I make 5 gallons of this for small animals and 20 for the larger ones.) Soak the pelt thoroughly in the liquid for about five hours. 1, which consists of a pound of salt dissolved in each gallon of water you use.

When you’ve decided that all the fat is off, prepare Solution No.

If the flames aren’t smothered immediately, you may lose the skin. Should the droppings catch fire - and one wild spark can do the trick - you’ll quickly learn that fat makes a really nasty blaze.

but don’t get so involved that you forget to keep an eye on the situation. Make sure you have plenty to do (chopping wood, maybe, or reading back issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS). I’ve spent as long as eight hours - one windless day when I was working on a bear hide - waiting for the fat to drip off. Be warned that this is a time-consuming procedure. too far away and the job will never get done. Location of the heat source is important: too close and the pelt may dry out or even catch fire (I once lost a deer hide this way). I then place a large commercial cookie sheet under the skin to catch the drippings, and build a small fire on the windward side of the structure about 3 feet from its legs. I carefully tack the hide - stretched well - to the rack on the side of the framework that faces the wind (the hair must lie with, not against, whatever breeze is blowing).Instead, I simply melt off the guck that clings to the skin… and here’s how: Well, good news: That scraping isn’t necessary at all. Most often, in fact, I’ve put holes in the pelts. This method of cleaning skins has caused me many tears, since I usually end up taking off either too much or not enough. Most tanners use flesh knives or hunting knives to scrape flesh, fat, and excess blood off the hides they work. I fill the holes about three-quarters of the way with concrete for added stability, but a simple brace will do just as well. When you’re finished, dig a hole about 2 feet deep for each leg, set the uprights in the ground, and bury them so that they’re good and solid. Then add another horizontal pole every 7 inches (a spacing which makes the rack suitable for skins of all sizes). Just lay out the legs on the ground, mark off 3 feet from one end (which will be the bottom), and secure a crosspiece to each support at that point. We made ours of green alder limbs about 3 inches in diameter: two 8-footers for legs, and seven poles about 5 feet long for the crosspieces.Ĭonstruction of the framework is simple.

The following is the tanning method I use, laid out in 10 easy-to-follow steps with one optional procedure thrown in for good measure.įirst, build a rack.

#Tanning hides with eggs how to

and you can even make a little money from it if you like.” Then I go on to describe my system on how to tan a hide, and usually end up persuading my cautious friends to give it a try (maybe with a little help from me the first time or so). Besides, it’s quite a satisfying thing to do.

“I’ve been tanning for just 18 months now and it’s really very simple. I’ve often asked acquaintances why they never made use of hides, and got answers that varied from lack of knowledge or time to cost of tools and supplies. and natural rugs, furniture covers, large floor pillows, and bedspreads add a special decorative touch that seems to blend with nearly any style of home furnishings. Well-tanned skins can be fashioned into warm, appealing clothing for only a fraction of what you’d pay in the stores. That’s unfortunate, since hides and pelts are just as valuable as the meat they protect land possibly more so). Nevertheless, I’ve known many such people who passed up the opportunity offered by those same creatures’ skins.

#Tanning hides with eggs plus

Walt and Donna Thorne explain how to tan a hide naturally to provide valuable leather goods for use around the homestead.Įvery rural carnivore knows that home-raised rabbits, goats, sheep, and such - plus whatever wild animals may be trapped or hunted locally - can provide the family table with rich and nutritious food at far less than the cost of store-bought meat. Avoid putting holes in a hide by tanning hides with salt.