Moose hide tanning with out chemicals?

[Bear hounder]

Just wondering how to tan a moose hide it is a large cow hide my wife wants to make the hole thing into leather for making slippers and gloves .I would rather make a moose rug I relize it does not have the same ring to it as when we say bear rug but I think it would be cool to have a moose rug no open mouth head mount or hooves but just a tanned moose rug so we compermized we will do part with hair on and use the belly hide for slippers or leather for slippers and we thought some of the leather could be cut into long strips and make dog leads I also told hear she could tanned the ears and they would be nice slippers just add a few laces and you got slippers. Lol [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH] so we are on another moose mishion of another sorts any suggestions do. . Or don't s we would appreciate thanks . Or any suggestions on what you would do I thought about bleaching the skull as well

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[david]

I have tried home tanning a few things, and all i can say is have some one besides me do it.
I didn't want them and couldn't give them away.

If you want to learn to tan stuff start with a muskrat or a mouse; and I did not say moose.

Spend the money and have an experienced tanner do it, hair on or hair off, either way, so you will enjoy the beauty of it for many years, and maybe the rest of your life.

[david]

USA Foxx in Duluth MN has always done a fabulous job for anyone I have ever met that used them.

[Bear hounder]

Ok thanks David I'm going to look into the idea of someone else tanning it I'll check the price and stuff thanks for the advice because we really want to preserve this hide as it is the first one shot in front of the Hounds I'm asuming it hast to be fleshed and stretched before we can send it to a tanner

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[Dan Edwards]

Ive done coyote tails and stuff like that with no problem but that's far from a moose hide.

[BAR BAR 2]

Here is a very good book that details several ways to handle and put up fur, as well as how to turn raw hides into leather.
http://www.minntrapprod.com/The-Complet ... B-JCSKINS/

You might want to consider brain tanning your hide. Each animal has enough brain matter to tan its own hide.


Tex

[duck duck goose]

I've done a few coyotes and deer myself and here is what I have learned. For a moose hide to be professionally tanned you are probably looking at $1000. If you decide to do it yourself get ready for a MASSIVE project. I will give you the cliffs notes on how I've done my deer hides and if you still want to DIY let me know and I will send you some full details. This is with the hair on, I don't know how to do a hair off tan.

1. First thing is to flesh the hide. Cut off every scrap of meat and fat so that all you have is skin and hair. Any meat or fat is going to risk ruining the hide and causing the hair to slip.

2. Next you have to clean the hide. Wash it with soap and water, I used just plain old dish soap. Wash all of the blood out of fur, get all of the dirt out of it as well, and there is going to be a lot of dirt. I wouldn't be surprised if you have to do 5-6 full "wash cycles" if you will to get it clean. I have also thrown hides in the washing machine with good results, but then again I rent my house so the health of the washing machine wasn't paramount. Now is the time to get any stains out of the leather too if you want a nice clean leather finished product.

3. Salt the hide. You are going to need to hang it somewhere where it can drip as the salt pulls the moisture from the leather. Use non-iodized salt and rub a good coat into the skin side of the hide. Let this hang for about two days and reapply the salt periodically.

4. Tan the hide. Soak the hide in a water/salt/ pickling alum (can get at bulk barn) solution. I think the ratio was 5 gallon water, 1 lb salt, 1 lb alum and leave this for about 3 days. Stir the hide regularly and keep it covered so that all of the hide is in contact with the solution.

5. Dry it. After three days, take the hide out and rinse it in clean water thoroughly. Get all of the pickling solution out of the hide. You are going to need a frame slightly bigger than the moose hide to let it dry on. You will have to build something probably out of 2 x 4 to support the thing it is going to be so big. Get some screws as the hide will pull nails from a board as it drys. Screw the hide down around its perimeter stretching it as far as you can before screwing it down. Let this dry completely stretched to the boards.

6. Peel/work/break the hide. When the hide has dried completely the real work starts... it will have a thin membrane on the entire skin side of the hide. You need to peel this off and work the leather to make it soft.This can be done a number of ways from a belt sander to stretching the hide over the end of a 4x4 post. Stretch it in every direction you can repeatedly until the leather is soft and pliable. Once you get the initial membrane pulled off you are still going to have to break all of the fibers in the hide to make the leather soft. You can use a leather treater at this point (I use Neat's Footoil, its for saddles I think) rub that stuff in and stretch and work the hide over and over and over until the leather is as soft as you like.

And that's it. Haha but seriously, working just a couple hours after work each day you can expect this to probably take you a couple months before you have something comparable to what you would get at a tannery. Its rewarding but it's a god awful lot of work. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[david]

If you want the hair off, soak it in water until the hair slips, and then scrape off all the hair. If you do this and stretch and dry it you have raw hide, which has many uses. (Like snowshoe webbing, boat building, spear head binding, etc.)

Otherwise, follow the tanning directions after the hair has slipped and been scraped off.

I think the alum/salt formula given to me by an old man who used to make skunk hats and stuff was: two parts water, one part salt, and one part alum. But I am guessing it doesn't matter that much. You will see the skin change color. Slice it on the edge to see that the color has changed all the way through.

He used to break it down by fastening a rough rope near the floor and near the ceiling of his shed, tight. Then he would pull the hide back and forth across that stretched rope. These were smaller animals though.

He did it as the skin dried, rather than waiting till it was all the way dry before starting to break it down.

Read the post by duck duck goose again. Except this time, do at least two hundred push-ups and wait at least two hours between each word as you read it. That will give you a better idea of the time and effort involved.

By far the softest prettiest leather I have ever seen or worn (as a child on the reservation) was buckskin tanned by the Yakima Indian women. (Hair off). Traditionally they were brain tanned and they chewed it to soften it. It always had a wonderful smokey smell so I know that smoking it was somehow part of the process.

[Tanner Peyton]

Does somebody need a Tanner? Lol, I couldn't resist. Anyhow look into brain tanning or stomach acid pickling. These are old natural methods of tanning hids. With chemicals you would find in nature. There not nearly as effective as the new technology but they worked really well for a really long time for old school man. Also as mentioned above picking is also effective. I would practice on plenty of other critters though if you plan to do it your self. Its a simple process tanning a hide but there's a lot of work / labor involved. Good luck man

[Bear hounder]

Ok I'm going to try this because I don't have a thousand dollers but I do have five kids that are home schooled so tomorrow me and timbit will start the fleashing at 5 am ish the kids cleaned out the skinning Shack today in the morning well light a fire and get fleashing thanks so much to all you guys for trying to tell me the truth and spair me the agony of the hole tightwad tanning program but I think we are going to give it a try thanks for the step by step instructions that is asome I'm sure I'll be asking more info thanks again

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[bearsnva]

Bhounder,

Good luck with this project. This has been a great post that I have really enjoyed. I know this will a monumental task, but with the kids and you working together it will be educational and interesting for all of you. May be something that you will never want to try again, but then maybe it won't, but you will never forget doing it once at least. PLEASE keep us posted as you progress and show some pics. Good luck and full speed ahead!

[duck duck goose]

[Bear hounder]

Ok guys I got my first little taste of moose hide fleashing and it was sorta like a cross between a greased big contest and a extremely good exercise program for the upper body when we started timbit my 8 year old son lit a fire and got the skinning Shack warmed up so we could start by the time I was done all the windows and the doors were open and I was sweating like a false prophet on judgment day and the moose hide was growing it seemed it looked twice as big as when we had started but it did feel good to be in the skinning shake and it seemed to trigger somthing in the kids they phoned me today while my wife and I were in town force the day and my daughter says dad can us kids go set some muskrat traps as a father and a trapper I was touched as I realized that they had their own desire to trap so at that I'll leave and head out to the Shack thanks again for all the help

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

[david]

Not many posts can get my belly shaking like a bowl full of jelly. But you have succeeded at that on more than one occasion.

Man it just feels good to laugh so hard at something so pure.

God bless you and your family.

As Bearsnva put it so well:

Full speed ahead!

My prayers are with you. I know your family will always remember these days no matter how well it turns out.

[Bear hounder]

Thanks very much for the info and the prayers I'm going to order that book I'm shure it will be hear just in time for my next hide how's that for positive thinking lol so duck duck goose I'm ready for some more info and one question about the thin membrane can I just take the thin membrane of know while I'm fleashing and it seems like we are going to do the most of it into leather as alot of the hair is coming out any way as I'm fleashing on a beam and when I push on the scraper it pulls the hair out the hide was on the moose over night and it went below freezing that night we skinned it then put it in back of truck over night in garbage bag I don't think it's slipping but pulling out .I'm using a snare to hold the hide in place I'll send pics the meat and fat comes off pretty easy but that membrane shure takes some elbow grease to take off should I keep taking the membrane off or would it be easier after as far as the membrane goes

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk