Hide Skinning
If you are looking for a beautiful piece of leather, this is where it all starts. The care of a fresh hide before tanning is critical to the quality of the finished product. While skinning your animal, use caution and be sure you do not cut into the hide. Try pulling out instead of straight down on the hide. Use your knife sparingly, instead try to “peel” the animal. Here is an example of what not to do:
Every time your knife touches the hide you damage it somewhat. Although you might not make a hole, a nick is just as bad, and can not be used in making the final product. Here is an example of what nicks look like on a finished piece of leather.
The next important step is preparing your hide for a perfect piece of leather. Let it cool off after harvesting as quickly as possible. Open your hide, flesh side up, and let it cool for about 10 to 15 minutes or until it’s cool to the touch. DO NOT ROLL IT UP IN A BUNDLE AFTER HARVESTING YOUR HIDE, LET IT COOL.
For smaller hides like coyotes, wolves, and other fur bearing animals, all hides must be skinned, fleshed, and dried before bringing or shipping to our tannery. We have a 50% mark up fee for all hair on hides that enter our tannery that are not skinned or fleshed. However, hides for leather use can be damaged if they are totally dried out.
The grain on a deer hide can show damage if not taken care of, within the first 15 minutes. Although it might not look as bad as the one we received here, you can still lose the gloss finish on the grain side if not properly salted. Here is an example.
For transporting back to camp or home, always fold the hide flesh to flesh to keep them moist. Always TREAT YOUR HIDES LIKE MEAT. Keep them as cool as possible. Freezing is okay. If freezer space is at a premium, follow our instructions on our salting page or get the hide to us asap, is that they are still frozen on arrival.
Hair On Tanning
For hair-on tanning on big animals like deer, moose, elk, cows, etc., it is critical that the hide be kept in good condition and that we receive it as soon as possible. A hide will spoil in about the same time as the meat. Bacteria start to work quickly in moist conditions above 3 degrees, causing the hair to slip (fall out), making the hide unsuitable for hair-on tanning (bald spots and shedding would be the results). Keep the hide cool, get as much of the meat and fat off the hide as possible, fold the flesh to flesh and then like an accordion (NEVER ROLL), and get it to us quickly or freeze it until you can bring it in. Every year we receive many hides that are not suitable for hair-on tanning because we did not receive them before the hair started to slip. However, the good news is that we can still do leather (hair-off) tanning on hides that are slipping.
Leather (Hair Off) Tanning
For leather tanning, the condition of the hide is not as critical; we can make nice leather from almost any hide as long as it is not in very poor condition. Note: dragging, allowing maggots and other bugs to feed on the meat/hide, and storing the hide above freezing without dry salting will affect the quality of the finished product. Still, the more you take care of the hide, the better the outcome will be.
Freezing
If you can deliver the hide to the tannery so that it arrives still frozen you may keep it frozen but if you are shipping it please salt it. Roll hide flesh side together with face and feet inside. Wrap the hide well in 2 layers of plastic bags, squeeze out as much air as possible and seal the bag. Freeze. Do not store more than 6 weeks before delivering to the tannery to prevent damage by freezer burn.
How to Properly Salt Your Hide
- For leather tanning, remove any meat or fat thicker than 1/4″.
- For Hair On tanning, remove all meat and fat.
Lay the hide flat with flesh side up, or at a slight angle to allow for draining, in a cool, dry place. Spread a fine granular salt (table salt, canning salt, feed salt…NEVER USE ROCK SALT). Pour some salt on the flesh side of the hide and rub vigorously making sure to rub salt onto every square inch. You will need approximately 60 lbs of salt on bigger hides like bison, cow, moose and about 40 lbs for elk, and about 20 lbs for deer. Cover the entire hide in 1-2 inches of salt. You cannot salt too heavily. Do not skimp on salt. Salt is cheap compared to replacing your trophy or hide. Allow hide to sit for a minimum of 2 days for thin hides (deer or thinner), a minimum of 4 days for thicker hides such as elk, beef, buffalo but no longer than 7 days for any hide. Shake off the salt and fold it with the flesh side out. The hide is ready to be shipped or delivered to us.
For transporting back to camp or your home, always fold the hide flesh to flesh to keep them moist. Always treat your hides like meat. Keep them as cool as possible. Freezing is okay. If freezer space is at a premium, follow our instructions above or deliver the hide to us as soon as possible so that they are still frozen upon arrival. The sooner you can get your frozen or dry salt hide to us the better the results will be! Below is an example of a poorly salted hide and how thin the grain is on a hide and what little effort it takes to damage it.
For hair on tanning on large animals such as deer, moose, elk, cows, etc. it is critical that the hide be kept in good condition and that we receive it as soon as possible. A hide will spoil in about the same time as the meat. Bacteria start to work quickly in moist conditions above 3 degrees, causing the hair to slip (fall out), making the hide unsuitable for hair-on tanning (bald spots and shedding would be the result). Keep the hide cool, get as much of the meat and fat off the hide as possible, fold flesh to flesh and then like an accordion (NEVER ROLL), and deliver to us quickly or freeze until it can be brought in. Every year we receive many hides that are not suitable for hair-on tanning due to hair slip. However the good news is we can still do leather (hair-off) tanning on hides that are slipping.
How to Fold a Salted Hide for Shipping
Your goal is to have all of the hair concealed within the bundle with only the more durable meat side exposed.
- When your hide is mostly dry but still foldable, lay it on a flat surface, hair side up.
- Fold hide neck to tail
- Fold hide in thirds with hair inside
- Fold last third up
- Fold left 1/4 over towards center
- Fold the other 1/4 over and you are ready to ship. If your hide is stiffer and wants to unfold, tie a piece of string around to hold it in place.
