Tanning
and preserving Deer’s Feet for making Walking Stick Tops The feet are
complicated things to tan, because you have some flesh and bones and
tendons as well. My suggestion is that you cut the skin at the base (not totally, leave it attached to the nails of the deer), remove all the fat and flesh and the tendons as well. Saw off the bone (leave some base where you can nail or screw the end of your stick. For the tanning since the feet are preserved in salt, you have to soak them back to natural humidity. for this you have to soak it a couple of times in warm water(not more than 40celsius) to remove all the salt (change water)(some detergent or liquid soap will help) after its feeling like fresh skin again, with a blade, you remove all the fat that is left under the skin. After, soak it in a solution of vinegar and salt (the salt is to avoid the skin plumping up with the acid) the Ph in the water should be around 3.5. When you reach this ph leave it there for a couple of hours. After that you can add the bark extract (tannin)( I suggest you cheat a little bit on this one and get the readymade tannin extract. Removing it from the bark and leaves by yourself is a really tough task) you can look for mimosa, quebracho, chestnut, they are the most common brands used by the industry. The tannin has to be added little by little, when the Ph reaches 5, leave in the solution for a couple of days. Take it out sundry. If you want to, to soften up the skin to make it easier to work, you can brain it. Braining is the application of cooked animal brain in the flesh side of the hide. Just cook it in some water until it melts and apply this solution to the flesh side, fold it over and store it in the fridge over night. Dry it up and remove the excess with soap the next day, sundry it and later you stretch it and move it so that the oils in the brain can soften up the fibres. Try your own way, but basically it can be done this way. It’s almost the same way they do buck skins but with buck skins instead of vinegar you use hydrated lime in the first solution to loosen up the hair. Soda ash will do the trick as well, but these are old school methods.Information written by Regis Gasparotto |
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