Tanning

Hi all,

Looking for some help with home tanning sheep and goat skins. Looking to make some extra cash from the skins we only have about 6 skins a year and to save myself sending them away to the organic tannery at £50.00 a skin.

what is the process after drying the skins using salt or can you do this another way?

First off, 1) Do you want to tan these hides hair on or bare?
2) Do you want to do a commercial type tan process or brain tan the hides?

The following links should get you started in Tanning hides, they also speak of the pitfalls and dangers of Tanning hides.
Tanning Hides
how to tan a hide
Brain Tanning
Bark Tanning Your own Hides


A word of caution, if you use any method other than brain tanning, you will be dealing with very caustic solutions so rubber foot and hand wear along with a good rubber apron and a face mask are necessary items to have.
Tanning is a long process, it will take hours of sweat producing work to get a good product.

Bark Tanning ( using Oak Bark Tannin ) over a two to five day soaking period) gives a great tooling leather.

The Bright Side: You did it yourself. Most home tanners aren't in this for the money to be made, but for the items they can make. Most of the home tanned products that are sold are Handcrafted, Mountain Man types.
Goat Skins make wonderful parchment papers, so stretchers will be required along with several scrapings.