Back a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to add about 6 more sheep to our flock. We bought them from some folks who gave us a pretty good deal on them because they had chronic hoof problems, and one in particular seemed to be a little week. Unfortunately, in her weakened state, we lost her during this winter storm. Unfortunately, we had just wormed her a few days before, and the withdrawal time on the medication is 11 days for the meat, so we were not able to put her in the freezer. Instead, we have been feeding her to the pig. However, I did keep her hide, and today I decided to try my hand at tanning it.
Fleshing The Hide
The First Step
I started by fleshing the hide. I had left it hanging up outside for a couple of days, and it had been frozen. It was so cold, in fact, that some of the skin was drying out. I went ahead and soaked in some water to rehydrate it. Then, I used a log that I stripped the bark off of last summer as my fleshing beam and grabbed a makeshift fleshing knife that I had made out of an old lawnmower blade. The blade wasn't ideal, but i don't want to buy one until I know that this is a hobby I want to spend my money and time on.My homemade fleshing knife worked okay. In fact, it worked a little bit too well in several places; I made a few holes, but I can just as easily chock that up to user error. I learned that it is pretty important to ensure the hide is well hydrated before fleshing. I found it difficult to get the flesh off in the dryer areas, but the more hydrated places worked a lot better.
Here is what the hide started looking like as I fleshed away the meat and fat.
Down To The Hide
Into The Unknown
Now, from here, I had no idea what I was doing. I have watched lots of videos, but its always different when you try something yourself for the first time. YouTube seems to make everything look so much easier than it actually is!I got as much flesh and fat off of the hide as I could. I still felt like I needed to keep going, but the more I tried, the more holes I put in the skin, so I decided to quit while I was ahead.
From there, I decided to clean the thing up some. There was quite a bit of debris in the hair, and several matted up spots. So, I took the hide into the house and gave it a little bath.
Thank Goodness My Wife Doesn't Read This Blog
After cleaning it up the best I could, I stretched it out some and nailed it down to some plywood. Then, I made a tanning solution from a mixture of egg yolks and mayonnaise and slathered it all over the skin side of the hide.
I Hope This Works
After covering with the tanning solution, I covered it with a damp sheet, and now it sits propped up in the spare bedroom bathtub. I'm supposed to leave it there for 36-48 hours before rinsing off the tanning solution and finishing the process. Honestly, I'm not super confident that this thing is going to turn out. I figure it's got about a 20% chance. I'll give an update in a couple of days.