How to Get Cowhides Tanned

Tanning cowhides is a tremendous amount of work. If you are new to cowhide tanning, it is recommended that you begin with a small hide or even a portion of a hide.Decide whether you want to tan your hide with the hair on or off. If your hide is going to be used as a rug, it is often a good idea to leave the hair on. However, if the hide is going to be use for clothing or other purposes, it is often best (and easiest) to remove the hair before tanning.There are actually several different methods of tanning, each of which has its own special challenges. Once you have seen what is involved, you may just decide to let a professional tanner do the work for you.However, should you decide that you want to tan your own cowhide, the results can be just as good as those from a professional tannery.

Things You'll Need

• Cowhide
• Large flat board
• Dull knife
• Sharp knife
• Large vat
• Dung (dog or pigeon)
• Gloves
• Wooden dung pole
• Crushed oak bark

Instructions

How to Get Cowhides Tanned

1. Soak your skin in a vat of water overnight. Then stretch your hide, hair side down, on a large flat board, such as a piece of 3/4-inch particle board or plywood. If necessary, use your knife to make small holes near the edge of your hide and pass ropes through the holes. Stake the ropes to pull your hide tight.

2. Scrape the hide with your dull knife to remove any fat or meat still attached. If the hide is thick, use your dull knife to slowly and carefully scrape the hide until it is thinner. If you do not want the hair left on your cowhide, turn the hide over, rub the hair side with a mixture of urine and the ash from an old barbecue or wood fire, then scrape the hair off with your dull knife, being careful not to cut into the hide itself. This is a long and smelly process.

3. Place dog and/or pigeon dung into a vat and add a small amount of warm water. Use a wooden pole with a flat end to squish the dung into a paste. This is a smelly and disgusting part of the process, but the enzymes in the dung break down the collagen in the skin of your hide and make the leather soft and supple. Immerse your hide into the dog dung and use your pole to continue pushing your hide deeper and deeper into the dung, stirring it and using the pole to help break down the hide. Once your hide has become soft and supple lay it out flat where it can be hosed off, and properly dispose of the dog dung. Clean your vat.

4. Fill your vat with medium hot water and stir in your crushed oak bark. Use your pole to continue crushing and breaking up the bark. The water should become a dark reddish brown color. This is tannin being leached from the oak bark. Once the water is a good, deep color add your hide into the vat and continue stirring until your hide is completely soaked. Allow your hide to soak in the tannin solution for a minimum of two full days.

5. Pull your hide out of the tannin solution and lay it flat out of direct sunlight. Allow the leather to dry for at least 1 day. Your leather should now be soft and supple and ready to make into shoes, belts, or used for whatever purpose you wish.

Tips & Warnings

• If you wish to impart a deeper color into your tanned hide after you have completed all of the above steps you can built a tepee over which you can drape the hide and then build a small, smokey fire in the tepee. The smoke from the wood fire will help to soften the leather even more and will also add an even deeper and warmer color to the skin. When the smoking process is complete, soak the hide in plain water over night then hang out to dry the following day.

• Wear gloves when mixing any dung.