7 Steps To Tan A Deer Hide

 Do you hunt deer? Do you want to learn how to tan a deer hide? In this article, we discuss the steps to tan a deer hide.

1. Fleshing The Hide

The first thing you want to do is to remove all of the remaining flesh, fat, muscle, and membrane using a scraping tool. Keeping the deer hide in the refrigerator the day before you do the fleshing process is a good idea. The refrigerator hardens the meat and fat making it easier to remove.

Place the hide on a scraping beam or other surface. You want to be very careful as you do this to avoid piercing it. Work every area of the skin including the edges. Carefully scrape all excess material from the skin. For a very good tanning job of the skin, it must be completely cleaned of flesh, fat, muscles, etc.

2. Salt The Deer Hide

After thoroughly fleshing the hide, you want to completely cover the deer hide with non-iodized salt. The salt absorbs all of the fluids out of the hide. This is called curing the hide. A quarter-to-half-inch layer of salt is a good measurement to go by. 

Make sure every inch of the hide is completely covered with salt. Keep it covered with salt for a day. That will give the salt the time needed to dry off all fluids.

3. Soak The Hide In Water

Pickling the hide kills any bacteria left on it. Pickling the hide prepares the hide for tanning. Add about five gallons of water to a container. Then add two quarts of non-iodized salt to the water and stir the mixture. You can then add the pickling acid.

If you don’t have a pickling acid, you can make your own pickle solution by adding equal parts of distilled white vinegar and water plus two pounds of salt per gallon of solution. Immerse the deer hide in the pickle solution for three days. Regularly stir the solution during the three days.

4.  Neutralize The Hide

After the three days, make a solution with four to five gallons of water and two cups of baking soda. Immerse the hide in this solution for 30 to forty minutes. This neutralizes the acid wash.

Then neutralize the skin by soaking it in a solution made from four gallons of water 
mixed with two cups of baking soda for up to forty minutes. Rinse in clean 
water and towel dry.

5. Dry The Hide

After the time has passed, remove the hide from the neutralizing solution and dry it with towels.

6. Apply Tanning Oil

With the skin laying flat on a surface, apply tanning oil to every part of the skin. The tanning oil prevents it from cracking or drying out. Don’t be economical with the tanning oil. Make sure the skin is well-oiled. Leave it with the tanning oil overnight.

On the next day, you want to fill a container with five gallons of water. Immerse the skin in the water to rinse off any excess oil. This will in no way hinder the tanned hide. Dry the hide with towels and lay it flat on a surface to stretch and work every inch of it. Working the hide will keep it soft as it dries.

7. Working The Hide

The hide may be stiff and may need to be worked. You can use the back of a chair or any object to break the stiff fibers of the hide to make it pliable and soft. The longer you work the hide, the softer and pliable it becomes. Work every part of the hide until it becomes soft to your liking. After you get it to the desired softness, you will have completed tanning the deer hide.

Conclusion

How to tan a deer hide is not a difficult process. In fact, there are many different ways people tan a deer hide using a variety of natural or processed products. In this article, we discussed the steps to tan a deer hide. If you would like to learn more about how to tan a deer hide, then click this link.