Thanks Charcoal and welcome to the board. Have/are you tanning anything?

Speaking of new hides, a friend has wool sheep and has offered me some of her hides, so will be working one new sheep hide as a leather only, and doing a couple new ones with wool on.

Also have some raw fleese put aside for me, want to learn how to make/extract my own lanalin from the wool, and then going felt the wool over my own homemade sheep milk soaps, they say it creates a soap/cloth unit, which i think kind cool, plus i want to do some nature color wools and that will work as well.

DogLover, I have not, I started researching because I thought I was going to get a hide when I went hunting. When I do get my hands on a hide and tan it, I'll let you know how it went.
-Charcoal.

Has anyone tried fish leather? I've heard about it here and there, and we were skinning fish in class today, and I though that salmon skin would make a cool wallet...

Here is a photo of my finished cow hide area rug, its posed on the hood, and windshield of my van, its going as a area rug in my smaller guest bedroom, it was a steep learning curve to go from rabbits hides, lamb and sheep hides to something this big, but it was so worth learning how to do it!

Very nice.

thanks, doing the final work on the calf hide, as its about the size of a sheep, it turned out better, as I am more prepared to work that size..

Hi, new guy here. I've brain tanned quite a few hides, deer, elk and moose. It's not a difficult process but it is hard work the larger the animal the harder and the winter hides are thicker so that much harder yet.

I de hair by soaking in water and wood ashes for a couple of weeks (+/-) until the hair slips easily. Then onto the fleshing beam with a drawknife and rush it all off, then I flip the hide and flesh it completely and thoroughly. Then flip again and remove the upper "grain" or epidermis.

Then I wring it out on a post very thoroughly, until it's like a well wrung sponge, then into the brains and water solution, egg yolks work as does neets for oil and a bit of real soap to emulsify it. Soak the hide and pull it a lot to allow the solution to penetrate. Then wring it again (catch the solution in a bucket) and re-soak it and wring it again.

If its a large hide string it onto a frame and work it while it dries with a long pole. Really stretch and work the hide, and continue to do so until it's almost dry. Then remove from the frame and work it over a rope or cable (the best) until it's absolutely dry. A smaller hide like a doe etc. can be worked over your knee while watching tv etc.

At any time during the process, once the hair has been removed you can pop the hide into a bag and freeze it to be finished later. Multiple free sings actually help to break down the fibers and make it easier. A de haired and scraped hide takes very little room in the freezer.

Once its dry, you can at your leisure smoke the hide. The smoke allows it to be ale to get wet and dry without becoming a hard dry board again.

Well, I unfortunately had to put a rabbit down, but seized the opportunity to finally tan a hide! By the time I got the whole skinning and butchering done, I was dog tired, so I went with an egg tan. Seemed to work well, and I just finished smoking the hide. It seems to have turned out well, not super soft but I just want to hang it on the wall anyways, so I didn't kill myself with the softening of it. Only problem is, it stinks of smoke something awful. Does the smell fade in a day or two? Or should I wash it out?