hunt12ga

Hello all. I'm fixin' to *try* to tan a coyote hide for a friend of mine. He called his taxidermist and the guy wants $150 to send it to the tannery! I told him that I could probably do a halfway decent job for him at a fraction of that price.

I already have a fair understanding of the tanning process. We (my dad and I) have brain tanned a few deer hides, and I have done a few coyotes in the past with a powder called DixieTan. I don't know if the stuff is still available, but I didn't really like the results anyway. Do you have any suggestions on chemicals or kits that I could get to do this? I read a post a few days back that mentioned the SafetyTan ?? stuff. I looked on WASCO's site today and saw several options. Are there any other suggestions or tips that you could give? He's wanting something that he can hang on the wall or drape over his gun cabinet, so the tanned hide will have to be able to be broken and softened.

Thanks
rw

TimberlandTaxidermy

Keep track of costs of supplies, number of hours you have in this project, and then when finished honestly tell us what kind of results you get. It's not practical, but it would be nice to know in 10 years what it looks like too. The reason I say all of this is because $150 is a very reasonable price to have a hide properly tanned.

If you insist on doing it in house, you will need to skin the coyote, then flesh every ounce of meat and fat from the skin. Leave NOTHING. After fleshed, turn the ears inside out, and remove the earbutt muscles. Let this hang fur side out overnight, then the following day shake all loose salt from the hide, and salt it again with fresh salt. This time let it hang fur side in until the hide is completely dry and hard. You will now need to re-hydrate the skin in a 10% salt brine solution. It could take some time for this step. You will now need to pickle the skin in a good pickling solution. The recipe can be obtained from the acid supplier, but it will basically consist of water, acid, bactericide, and salt. On a stinky animal like a coyote, you will need to add a good taxidermy deodorizer with this step as well. Once pickled, it's time to shave the skin. For a deer, you really need a shaving machine, but since you are just doing a coyote you can get by doing it by hand with a scalpel or skiving knife. After shaving, it is time to degrease. Use a quality degreaser intended for taxidermy use. I use tannery degreaser, but Knoblachs makes a good one too. I do this in my pickle mixture. You will need to agitate the skin A BUNCH. Tanneries have paddle vats that continually agitate skins while they degrease, so you will need to do this manually. It will take some serious elbow grease, but you can get it done. Once degreased, neutralize your skin in a sodium bicarbonate/water mixture until your skin has a pH of 4.0. Now spin out the excess water and dry the skin with a towel. (You don't want too much moisture in the skin) Now you can apply your tan. I use Liquatan, but McKenzie Tan or Trubond 1000 will work just as good. Roll the skin up hair side out and let it sit overnight. The next day, wash the skin in Kemal-4 until clean. Finally it is time to apply your tanning oil. Once oiled, let the skin dry hair side in, and while it dries you will need to stretch and break the skin several times a day until completely dry. Your final breaking can be done by dragging the tanned skin over a table edge, until the leather softens to your liking. Warning: While these are the proper steps for home tanning, the results will still not be the same as taking it to a taxidermist and letting them have it commercially tanned. Like I said before, I think the price of $150 is more than fair. I have added a list of supplies needed for the job, should you decide to do it yourself.

Skiving knife (pretty cheap, available at most taxidermy suppliers)
10lbs of salt
Tannery Degreaser
Taxidermy Deodorizer
Acid (Formic or Saftee)
Bacteriacide (I use NBU)
pH testing strips (0.0 - 7.0)
sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
brush on tan of your choice
Kemal-4
tanning oil of your choice


Good luck and have fun. I think tanning is something everybody should try once. You will learn a lot and gain a better appreciation for what is involved in producing a quality tan, whether it be for taxidermy or just a wall hanger or throw. Let us know how your project goes.

Windwalker7

Go to this site, and click on kits in the upper right corner of the page. Then click on Tanning kits. The kit for deer hides will work on your yote too.


http://www.mckenzietaxidermy.com/




For fleshing, a pressure washer works great. It makes a mess but peels the flesh right off. The Turbo style nozzle works best.

I would avoid the facial areas with the pressure washer and use a skife there.

Good Luck!

finfeathr

The taxidermist isn't just "sending it to a tannery" there is alot of work that needs to be done to a smelly coyote before it reaches the tanning process, as was described above....his time is worth something,you know..he isn't going to do all that work for really cheap, because you don't feel you should pay him for his time.....

TimberlandTaxidermy

Just be sure to keep in mind that those kits do not include everything you will need to do a coyote. A deer tanning kit will not include degreaser or deodorizer, both very important components to a coyote skin that doesn't smell like hell.

Windwalker7

If it smells, just get a bottle of Knobloch's deodorizer wash.

It seems the OP has had some experience in the past tanning hides with his father.

It is stated his friend would rather not pay the price for a taxidermist to do it.

Those kits will work for a coyote.

It can be washed in dawn dish detergent after salting to degrease.

hunt12ga

Thanks a ton for the information guys. I'm not bashing the taxidermist and I apologize if I offended anyone. Time is money, and that's how they make their living. I was just surprised at the price his guy quoted him since it was $40 higher than the one he had done by the same taxidermist last winter.

I've messed with it enough to know that there is definitely a lot of work that goes into it. Our first hides we tanned were deer hides, and we did it old-school. We made a scraper out of a bent limb and a cut-down file (our substitute for a piece of flint). It took us half a day to find a suitable branch for our scraper, and that was by far the easiest part! We built a frame and laced the hide onto it and went to work with the scraper. Elbow grease...shoulder grease...back grease...bacon grease... LOL you get the picture I will tell you that I don't think I would have wanted to tangle with those olden-day Native American women who fleshed all the buffalo hides! I'm sure they had arms like He-Man.

We used pork brains to tan them. We actually ended up with some decent skins, but we usually wimped out when it came time to break them. It turns out if your dog gets hold of your finished hides, the gnawing action softens them up really well...

We made some terribly uncomfortable moccasins and a possible's bag that I still use.

I explained to my buddy that I won't be able to reproduce the quality that a professional is going to give him and he's alright with that (because I work for free lol). This is all experimental, and if it doesn't work (or should say, if I screw up) we can try again. There is not a shortage of coyotes around here! I don't know yet if I'm going to try to tackle his coyote, but if I do I will keep you all posted on the progress. Thanks again-

rw

TimberlandTaxidermy

I never said the kit wouldn't work, just wanted to point out that not everything is included. That deodorizer wash is the one I use, however, I wouldn't use dawn to degrease the skin. Dawn is alkali, which can cause an unwanted effect to your pH when pickling, causing the hair to fall out of your skin. It also won't do an adequate job degreasing in my opinion.

I wasn't offended that you thought $150 was high, I just wanted those not familiar with the process to understand why it costs what it does. Even if your taxidermist is sending to a tannery, the shipping costs to and from them is getting to be a really large percentage of the cost. I'm not at all surprised that particular shop increased their price $40, that person probably ran the numbers and realized he/she was losing money.

Windwalker7

Cole, I gotta ask, what is the deal with your avatar on taxinet? LOL!

I see Michael P has it too.


Please don't tell me that is a pic of him as a kid. LOL!

TimberlandTaxidermy

That absolutely is him as a kid. I thought it was funny, so I just enhanced his forehead a bit and adopted it as my own.