How to Tan a Fur at Home for Free, Organically

[Serpentes]

More folks should be tanning their own hides, and hopefully this will help. I will outline a process to oil-tan your furs organically, for free, and with long-lasting quality results.

I will use a rabbit fur I harvested this morning as an example of how the tanning process works. You can do this with any fur, sheep, goat, deer, fox etc., up to the size of a calf (cattle), beyond which the hides get too thick and tough. The fresher the skin the better. If you can't start within a few hours, then the skin needs to be frozen as is. You can then just thaw it out and start the tan. Salted furs will lose their fur using this mild technique, so I don't recommend it.

1. Skin the animal and clean off the fat and membrane tissues from the fresh skin. This is easier said than done. Make speed, not haste!

2. Put the fur in 20:1 water to white vinegar mix, for 1 hour to 3 hours (light to heavy skins respectively). The exact ratio does not matter, but very strong or weak will ruin the fur, and stronger is better for bigger skins. The aim is to acidify the skin to about pH 3 before returning it to pH 6-7, this process locks the hair into the skin follicles.

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3. Place the skin in fresh water (a big bucket full) and change the water ever half hour for one hour (small skins) to 4 hours (large skins). Swish the skin around every 10 minutes or so to wash out the acid (vinegar) from the previous step.

4. Hang the skin to dry, do whatever it takes to get the fur dry AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, but be gentle. I find hanging in the sun on the line the most effective, with time in front of the hairdrier too. The longer the fur is wet, the sooner the hair will begin to "slip", or fall out catastrophically. Do not heat shock the fur too much. Gentle heat and strong wind is the best bet.

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5. When properly, crispy dry (this may take overnight) you need to oil the skin, keeping the fur side as dry as possible at all times. Mix up some soap and some oil in warm water, about half a bar of soap and half a cup of oil should do, in about 1 litre of water. Don't worry about proportions. Use any oil and soap, I use Pears soap and olive oil, because that's what I have. You can use any emulsified oil, from brains to livers to lard- I prefer soap and oil for furs, and lard for some leathers.

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6. Get your skin, flesh side up and pour your oil mix into it. It will take some time but eventually the skin will absorb the oil (about an hour). You can spread oil on, leave it and come back as you please. Folding the skin over on itself flesh side down will also work to help oil absorption. When the skin is white and wet, hang it out to dry again.

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7. When the skin is dry, it's time to re-oil it. Make sure you keep your oil mix as you will use it at least three times through the tanning. When I say "dry skin" I mean stiff as a board and BONE DRY!

[Jeffro]

A very good post thanks for taking the time and effort to try and show people some rarely taught skills.

It is disappointing that with the ammount of members on here that no one can be bothered to reply to many threads.
It takes no time at all to say a few words .

[Gringa Bows]

I agree with you Jeffro, it is very interesting, but i'm waiting for the rest of the thred....Rod

[blu-dog]

Same here gents...waiting eagerly for the rest of this one...I'm very keen to try this technique!

Thanks for posting this thread!!

[Antonio]

Like wise I have been waiting for the rest of the thread ........Antonio
the thing about half a bar of soap and half a cup of oil with water is interesting .I was wondering abouts that before .I can see now that the soap mixes the water and oil together like a single liquid .

[woodie]

I have a rabbit skin in the freezer that I am going to have to try.
Woodie

[Serpentes]

Cheers guys. The rest of the thread will come, but I've been busy. The rabbit skin is sitting, dry and crispy and happy on my desk until tomorrow, when I will re-oil it and begin the softening process. I have second rabbit fur that I got today and have it acidified, neutralised and hanging out to dry overnight. This is a bit of a slow dry and it will be interesting to see how much hair loss my laziness will cause. The hair really needs to be dried very quickly. Stay tuned!

[terryzac]

thank you for the tute. looking forward to the rest
terry

[Antonio]

[Serpentes]

So, the fur has been sitting, bone dry and oiled once. (NOTE: The skin will last a long time in this state, even longer if you give it a quick smoke when dry). It's time to oil it again. I spread it out and rub the warm soap and oil mixture into it until the mixture is frothy and the skin is all wet again.

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After oiling fold the skin over itself in the sun to aid penetration of the oils. You'll be able to see a change in the colour and texture of the skin as the oils penetrate and it all becomes wet, white and mushy again. This will take up to an hour, but no longer.

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Then hang the fur back on the line to dry. When it is almost dry you can give it a bit of softening, either stretching it over a stake (blunt) or through a rope as pictured. Don't go too hard, as the skin will soften later; for now this is just to help the fibres open up. You can skip this softening step and go onto the next oiling, but I find a bit of stretching helps the oil penetrate and shows any stiff spots in the hide where more work is needed.

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Then it's back out to dry. When it is next dry we will be ready for a final oiling.

[Serpentes]

Well, the dog has eaten two rabbit furs off the line so far, hence the slow progress on this thread, sorry. I have a pair of furs on the line tonight to be oiled and softened in preparation for smoking, which is the only step missing in this little tutorial! For the impatient, just keep stretching and softening the skin, and when it dries soft (you must work it until it is dry at least once) you can smoke it. Just apply smoke not heat, and for about an hour or two and then re-oil, resoften, resmoke and viola, a tanned fur that will last 100 years. I will hopefully continue with the next furs, should I keep the hound at bay!

[perry]

First read of this thread, very interesting process. I'd give it a crack for sure but I'm 5 or 6 hours from my nearest hunting property and I would have to salt the skin before bringing it home if I shot it early on the hunt. Would immersion in an esky with melt water preserve the hide until I could get it home and frozen until I'm able to give the tanning process a go Serpentes.

I made a hair on Goat skin Quiver that I tanned with a Leidreiters kit years ago and swore I'd never work with hair on tanned hides again, the lacing is maddening with hair pulling through with every stitch but lately have been thinking of giving it a go again. Would love to make a Goat skin vest or a fur lined cap

Very cool, Oh Yeah - tan the bloody Dogs hide in your next how too

regards Jacko