hello

I'm fairly new here and cannot post in the survival section, so, am I doing this right?
i130.photobucket.com...
i130.photobucket.com...

Those two photos show what I got after I skinned the sucker right on the side of the road, and when I get back from the grocery store I'll post a pic of it all cleaned up, and then clean it a little more before tanning.

Was gunna use 50g's alum, 1/2kg salt, 1/2 gallon of water, leave it in for 2-3 weeks then dry, stretch and work.

Look good so far?

and what's a good way to post pictures on here, it's sad this site cannot host pictures

Hello and welcome.

Did you make sure you got all the fat off the hide?

When I preserve alligator hides it is very imperative that not a speck of fat is left or the hide will be no good.

Yes I do know the alligator hide is layered different than other animals and has an abundance of fat.

I have some very old rocking chairs that my grandfather used deer hides he had tanned for seat bottoms.

I would guesstimate they are over a hundred years old and still intact.

Tanning snake hides are my favorite hides to tan.

But I use a barrel and not my bath tub.

Again, welcome.

i130.photobucket.com...

That is where things are at now. Man is it ever a pain pulling stuff off, seems like that white membrane never ends....
I am continuing till it's bone white, is that correct? Or must I go deeper as this bone white portion under the membrane is fat? I'm new to this don't expect terribly much, but since this is basically the only part I can screw up provided that I follow the tanning recipe ok, I figured I would do a progress thread so that anybody else trying this out can come along and pick it up.

I found a tin of alum, 65g's, so I'll do the 1 gallon water, 100 gram alum, 1kg salt mixture but with 2.7L of water, the whole tin of alum at 65g's, and 650g of salt which I can weigh out.

I'll keep posting pics till people think it's a good time to toss it into the tanning solution for 2-3 weeks.

oh and the bathtub is just for cleaning, I have a plastic container to soak it in for 2 weeks, personally I don't think I can go that long without a shower...lmao]

any tricks for getting rid of ticks?

most of the ticks are dead, drowned, any that survived are now being pickled. I need to double the amount for the recipe or flip the skin over every few hours to get it to sit nice in the brine. I gave her a real good cleaning, the only stuff that's left are little strings of membrane, which as far as I know is ok to leave some. I used steel wool to scour the bottom a little to ensure the membrane was broken up enough to ensure penetration of the salts, as I'm assuming the point is to get the hide to absorb them over 2-3 weeks, then dry while stretching. There sure were a tonne of ticks, I spent a few hours picking them out as best as possible. Seems they like the belly fur alot and I only grabbed a small patch of that (which I'll probably cut off, not furry enough seems a little pubic hair textured.

Either way I think I did pretty good. This technique I heard is more aptly called "tawning" rather than tanning, though is somewhat similar... I'll definitely have to pickup some cedar oil and try to make a stretching frame.... hopefully I can get away with $5-$10 for this. Looks like I've got two weeks to figure it out now.

still sitting in the pickle, doesn't stink (unless you count briney smell), no visible rot. Seems the concentration was enough, that was cause for concern considering other recipes called for a larger amount of alum.

I'll post a photo soon at the following link:
i130.photobucket.com...

I figure I've spent long enough. 2 weeks seems like too round of a number and I am sure there is a margin in there just in case someone like me chooses to change the directions. It's only another 12 hours, as far as I'm concerned the skin is quite pickled, it has retained it's hair (the first sign of problems) and it has been there over 13 days... good enough.

So I've pulled it out of the pickle and shampood it, then put some conditioner on the fur so that it isn't as coarse feeling. I'm about to rinse the conditioner out and proceed with a quick dry of the fur. Then I will brush out any remaining debris, ticks, whatever, give it a quick rinse, then it's off to figuring out how I can dry this thing.

I have a raft I can salvage some rope, it's just a matter now of getting it stretched and worked in as it hardens.