How to Tan a Deer

It is worth the effort to know how to tan a deer hide. All that you need is a bit of time on your hands to spare for the act. Let us first have an idea about the things that we need to tan a deer skin.

Deerskin
A large garbage can
Sawhorse
Hardwood ashes
2 lbs of slaked lime
2 quarts of vinegar
5 gallons of warm water
A small bucket
1 lb of alum
2 ½ lbs of salt
A plywood sheet
Hammer
Neat foot oil
A soft and clean rag
Sandpaper

The process is as given below:

After you have skinned the deer, keep the hide in one place. Now you will have to keep the hide on a sawhorse with the fleshly side up and scrape out all the flesh and tissues that remain attached to the skin with a sharp knife.
Take the large garbage can and mix in it the hardwood ashes, lime and water. Keep on stirring the mixture until it gets dissolved. Place the deerskin in the mixture and leave it for a period of 2 to 3 days until all of the skin’s hair loosens. However, you need to reorganize the deerskin in the mixture twice a day.
After around 3 days, take out the skin and rinse it well with water and then place it again on the sawhorse ensuring that the hair side of the skin faces upwards. Take a sharp knife and scrape off all the leftover hair of the deerskin and rinse it again afterwards.
Now mix 10 gallons of water and 2 quarts of vinegar in the large garbage can and place the deerskin in this mixture. Let the skin soak in this mixture for around 24 hours. Ensure that the mixture is stirred frequently. After 24 hours, drain out the mixture and refill it again with clean water. The deerskin needs to be again soaked in this water for about 8 hours.
Take the small bucket and dissolve alum in 1 gallon of warm water. You will have to use 4 gallons of water to dissolve the salt in the garbage can and then soak the deerskin in this mixture for about 6 to 8 days. Make sure that the mixture is stirred twice a day.
After around 8 days, remove the skin from the mixture and wash it in running water for about 15 minutes. After that, you will have to stretch the deer hide on a sheet of plywood and tack its edges down.
Rub the deerskin with sandpaper and your job of tanning the deerskin is complete!

Watch a video instruction on how to tan a deer