Tanning hides

[Disco]

Hi guys.I"m only a city slicker but I"ve been thinking about trying to tan a sheepskin. I"ve heard that it can be done with salt and elbow grease. Do any of you bushies have any advise.Dean

[MadMuz]

What I would do, is get a big bag of salt, a tube of toothpaste, a couple of litres of vinegar, some caustic soda and some sawdust....Mix it all together thoroughly, make it into a honey like paste....Then......Chuck that in the bin and go and buy a tanned one

[RossM]

Leidreiters Tanning

[Disco]

Thanks guys,

[birdy]

Just salting will give you green hide.Tuff as sh!t, and bout as flexable asa dried one.Orrite if you just want a floor mat or seat cover, coz it wont have to change form.But if you want to convert hide to leather, thats a different, and much longer story, coz your changeing the structure of the material, and salt just preserves it.

[blakemorem]

Hey Dean I spend alot of time with me old bush mate and he has a endless amount of bush knowledge, we used to spend alot of time hunting wild goats and i also had an interest in tanning as it seemed to be a waste of skinns as we only used dog meat, and not bad eating too. He told me if you get the bark off black wattle tree which grows wild down granite belt area. The tannin is very good when soaked in a drum. Potash is also used. Any way I"ll hit him up for the method again as i also found it a little labor intensive but if you are doing a batch it will be worthwhile as skinns/leather is very expensive.Just one thing its gunna be on the nose so ya neighbors may complain. You may need to make a wood hanging rack as part of the process too. Garbage tinns with lids handy or wheelie bins. You can make a fly trap too pending on there numbers.Mike.

[Disco]

Thanks Birdy & MikeI won"t be sewing with it or anything.

[birdy]

Green hide is just dried out skin with the hair onit, and salted against bactierial rot.It makes the best bronko ropes.Leather is the product you get after you turned it from dried layers of skin cells to a more supple fiber, and as Mike says, it dont happen overnite.

[RossM]

I have used sheep skins as a mat. Greenhide type.as with any skin, make sure you scrape all the salvage/flesh off the hide/skin.salt the skin [ non wool side], rub in and lay the skin out.salt will draw moisture out too. give the salt a bit more of a rub in next day or so as well.when dried out, give a bit of a trim up.If going to tan, by Leidreiters Tanning kit.After skin has been cleaned of flesh and salted for a week, put in tub of tanning mixture. not sure how long stays in there. next step after out of tanning mixture is to rub in the leather lub into the leather. Ross

[blakemorem]

Yeah Dean the salt is a preservative good for transport of green skins and there is two processes one is leather which involves the removal of fur with potash from memory and the other is the floor rug. Clean the skin Remove as much fat n meaty bits.The wattle tannin is a strong brew and plenty for tanning. You have to turn in solution two or 3 times a day the hard yakka is breaking the skin over a wood rail post no big deal. And the smell ain"t that bad if done right. Your solutions should be in a shady area keep cool less smells. One thing i saw/ heard costic soda mentioned CAUTION this stuff WILL give you deep tissue burn, it will eat flesh and you will have very serious skin burn and not known to be used in this tanning process to my knowledge anyway. There is a very useful book by R.M Williams i read and has a very comprehensive process of tanning, handy to get. The process ain"t real complicated and you will get good results with practice. I"m onto me old mate for the secret bush method. I"m almost inspired to have another go at it too.Mike.

[MadMuz]

Mike, my post was a 100% completely made up pile of tripe.... for your entertainment only..... I recommend no one tries it at home The only tanning I have done was once on the X"s butt

[mattsteele]

Google Packers Tannery they have kits for about every thing. Matt