Interactive lesson

Tanning hides, step by step

Interactive lesson: from a slaughter hide to soft fur and leather for a strap — salting, soaking, fleshing, alum and salt, lime, oak bark, softening, storing and waste.

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The whole lesson as text

1. From slaughter to raw hide

A hide is salted or dried the same day it comes off.

Healthy animals only — Hides of animals that died or were ill are never touched: anthrax passes to humans. Always wear gloves with raw hide.
Cooling — Spread the hide flesh side up somewhere cool for 1–2 hours to let the body heat out. Don't fold a warm hide or stack it.
Salting — Sprinkle the flesh side with fine non-iodised salt, a layer 0.5–1 cm deep, rubbed into the edges and folds. Roughly 0.5–1 kg of salt per kg of hide.
Draining and drying — Leave the hide on a sloping board for 1–2 days to drain, salt it again and dry it in the shade, in a draught. Rabbit skins aren't salted: they dry on a frame, fur inside, for 3–7 days.

Why: A raw hide is protein that rots when wet. An unsalted hide starts to rot within 1–2 days and the hair slips.

A hide that stinks, has green or purple patches and loses hair in tufts must be thrown away: it won't recover.
The first time, take a rabbit skin: it is small, quick, and a mistake doesn't cost much.

2. Soaking and fleshing

A dried hide must take up water and be completely clean on the flesh side.

Soaking — Put the hide into cold water, flesh side down, with a stone or board on top. A rabbit skin 2–6 hours, sheepskin and goatskin 1–2 days.
Change the water — Change the water every 12 hours: warm water and long soaking mean rot. The hide is ready when it is soft and supple all over.
Fleshing beam — A rounded beam or a split log, 30–40 cm (12–16 in) across, leaning at a slant: one end on the ground, the other at waist height. The hide is draped over it.
Fleshing — Hold a blunt knife or scraper at 45° and push away from you, from the centre to the edges. A sharp knife cuts the hide; at the end the flesh side is white and clean.

Why: The thin membrane, fat and bits of meat are taken off the flesh side. Without this, the bath can't get into the hide.

If hair roots (dark dots) appear on the flesh side of fur, you have gone too deep.
Before tanning, wash the wool of a sheepskin with a mild detergent in lukewarm water, without rubbing, then rinse.