Hide conditioning advice

[Iamarealtree]

Hi all,
So I went on my first hunt last weekend and took a young kangaroo, my first take with my ibex, which I was really happy with - excellent prone shot from about 25m, clean pass through.

I hung, skinned & portioned it up and salted the skin immediately. After 5 days stretched and salted, I continued tanning in a salt / alum solution. It's time to pull it out tomorrow or the next day and will be time to stretch, dry and condition the hide.

It's come up really really good so far and I want to make sure I finish it up well, so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the final oil-up or condition.

So far I've read about hair conditioner (not sure if that was a joke), olive oil, dubbin, and neatsfoot oil (which I've never seen before in OZ)...

I'd be stoked to hear any suggestions.

Cheers !
Aaron.

[flightattendant100]

Brain tanned. What a lot of the native Americans did. Makes an awsome finished product, but is labor intensive. just a thought.

[bob watkins]

to make your hide soft and flexible you have to work it over something like an ax mall or cut a piece of 2x4 cut to shape like ax mall. take a spray bottle mixed with a little fabric softer water and salt spray it lightly while you work over the mall when finished you can oil it lightly to make smell a little better you can rub baby powder in let the oil dry in first its a bit of work have fun

[colouredchameleon]

Try this website of book I have from 1919 when furs and skins were the norm.
Has a wealth of information on tanning .
Good read from cover to cover but Tanning Formulas Section starts on page 105.


https://archive.org/stream/homemanufact ... n#page/n3/
mode/2up

Or this one may help as well to give you ideas


https://archive.org/stream/practicaltan ... 9/mode/2up


In fact there are a number of ebook publications on tanning at.

https://openlibrary.org/search

Just Type in "Tanning" into the search option

Using search for any subject will turn up numerous books with a wealth of knowledge

[W.Miguire]

had a tanning business for 9 years , you are in for a lot of work . alum is hard to work with lots of shrinkage. look it up on line and you will find a formula .any way you go it is a lot of work. good luck.
W.M.

[Iamarealtree]

The tanning has gone really well, the skin and fur has come up beautifully and is in the drying stage. On the basis of what I've read, that any animal or vegetable based oils are okay for 'oiling', I'm going to use dubbin and work it in to the fleshed side of the hide & work it in thoroughly.

I'll try post up some pics as I finish.

Aaron

[W.Miguire]

as the hide is drying work it over a sharp edge such as a axe blade . don't wait until it is dry. skin side down of course . sounds like you are heading in the right direction.
W.M.