I'm sitting down here in the lower level of my house looking around as my game room starts to form up, and I'm thinking a nice addition to start hanging on some walls and draping over the backs of my couches down here would be some nice furs or hides...

I'd love to tan out some coon hides or yotes, and especially some doe hides and an elk hide whenever I get one out in Colorado.

Anyone done it themselves before? What steps are involved? Tools, products, etc?

Nctaxi?

Greg, I am of the same mind set, I'd love to have the same type of thing down here in "my space" but I think I'll leave the tanning to the pros. God only knows how mine would turn out.

Ive had my own rear hide tanned before...[&:]

I have one tanned hyde, actually a pelt of the second coyote I shot. It's hanging on the wall downstairs (first floor, I'm in the loft) next to the mountain stone fireplace. I could have bought one cheaper than it cost me to have tanned but that bought one, wouldn't be mine.

I want some hides, like you Greg but I'm not sure I want to do the work...lol Too much going on now. And I was thinking, like you need another project. [8D]

I tanned a fox hide after a 6 hour sew job 25 years ago..holy crap I am an old fart... turned out OK (well sort of)- but was not at all like the mink & foxhides we sent in. Some of the guys thought it was great, but I was somewhat disapointed.

Maybe some better stuff to use now, but I would send out for professional tanning.

Shed had a huge elk hide done and it is incredible

I did a doe hide a few years ago, and it turned out pretty good. I bought a tanning kit out of Cabelas. I think if I wanted another one, though, I'd probably send it to a tanner. It's a quite a bit of work, getting it all scraped and worked soft. Mine could be softer, but it looks real good on the floor.

I did one a few years ago when I was still a gun deer hunter. It could have been softer. I used the kit from Cabela's. I'll do another. It is a lot of hard work scraping it. The one I did is hanging in a local bow shop.

I bought a kit and when I saw the stirring every 20 mins for 24 hours, nope not for me. Also, the pro's can do a much better job at the pre-work that needs to be done. I think you would be better off sending it of to get it done.

One trick for getting them soft is to take the heating element out of a dryer and tumble them with a couple of logs for hours until they are as soft as you want them. A buddy of mine tans hides all the time for his boyscout troop and let me in on that secret. If you don't like the scraping, yank the hide off with a truck or 4wheeler instead of cutting it off. It pulls right off without much, if any, muscle or fat to remove. I plan on keeping all of my hides from now on and have been kicking myself for not keeping my caribou hide this year. Of course, at the time it was a long hike back to camp and my pack was already maxed out

It doesn't really seem that difficult to me. It can be done in stages so as not to consume a whole lot of time all at once.

Here is a good site to get some excellent info from online how-to's to good books and dvd's.

http://www.braintan.com/

Tanning supplies

http://www.leatherunltd.com/furs/tanning/tanning.html

http://www.sullivansline.com/sline/furhand/furhhome.htm

I have some more links if you are interested and want them.

Good luck.