Step-by-Step Tanning Process for Deer Hide

You can tan your own deer hides

Tanning your own deer hide is useful and inexpensive. Deer hide is soft and makes great gloves and other leather items. Most people get deer hide when they shoot and skin their own deer during hunting season. Tanning isn't complicated, but it does require chemicals and patience. It also requires practice, so your first hides are unlikely to look perfect.

Things You'll Need

• Deer skin
• Salt
• Gloves
• Dull knife
• Naphtha
• Sawdust or wood shavings
• Water
• Bucket
• Lime
• Wood ash
• Boric acid crystals
• Alum
• Refrigerator
• Neatsfoot oil
• Table

Instructions

1. Skin the deer. Pour salt on the hide and inside the hide to preserve the hide until you're ready to work with it.

2. Remove all flesh and fat from the raw deer hide using a dull knife or a scraper-type tool. The meat, flesh and fat must be removed prior to tanning it.

3. Pour naphtha on both sides of the deer skin to remove the grease. Wear gloves (if you aren't already) and work in a well-ventilated area away from flame.

4. Dry skin in sawdust.

5. Rinse the hide in water until all naphtha and sawdust is gone.

6. Soak the hide in a bucket of wood ashes and lime with water. Use 1/2 cup of ashes and 1/4 cup of lime per gallon of water. Cover the skin with the mixture and stir.

7. Check the skin each day to see if the hair comes off easily.

8. Once the hair peels off easily, remove the hide from the solution and scrape the hair off.

9. Rinse the hide with water until the lime and wood ash is gone.

10. Soak the hide in a mixture of boric acid and water. Use 1/4 cup of boric acid per gallon of water and allow the hide to soak overnight.

11. Soak the hide in a bucket of salt and alum. Use 1/2 pound of non-iodized salt and 1/4 pound of alum per gallon of water and completely cover the hide.

12. Place the hide in refrigerator and soak for a week. Stir hide daily.

13. Remove the hide, rinse and drain.

14. Add Neat'sfoot oil to flesh side and stretch hide.

15. Continue stretching to the desired shape and thickness and let dry.

Tips & Warnings

• Deer hide often does well on a stretching rack while drying.

• Always wear gloves when using chemicals.

• Many chemicals are flammable or caustic; always follow warning labels.

• Do not use chemicals near open flames.

References

• Arkansas Game and Fish Commission: How to Tan a Deer Hide
• New Mexico State University: Tanning Deer Hides and Small Fur Skins