tanning bear hides

[Jay C]

I was wondering if anybody out there could give me some tips on tanning bear hides, I have a tanning kit for doing deer hide but I'm not sure if it will work for bear? And if it won't work what should I be using to get a soft tanned hide.

thanks in advance...:)

[russ]

what should I be using to get a soft tanned hide.

thanks in advance...:)

well the short answer is a tannery. Sorry. But if you want to try doing your bear hide, there's a few things you have to do and do very well or you'll be in for a wreck. You have to turn the ears, split the eyes & lips, skin the cartilage out of the nose. Then you have to get all of the fat off, ALL OF IT ie. NO GREASE. Then salt dry it. Oh wait this is stuff you should do anyway - but most people just freeze the hide and let someone else worry about it.

After drying the hide you'll need to rehydrate it in a salt & bactericide bath.

Next you pickle the hide until the hide reaches a certain pH (less than 2 I believe)

Thin the hide.

Put back in Pickle for a while more rechecking the pH.

Neutralize with Baking Soda (aka Sodium Bicarbonate)

Put in tan. Most tans are time sensitive, be mindful of this. Lots of neat chemistry going on there and some of it while have a positive effect at 1st can have an adverse effect if over done.

Can't remember the exact next step but once done tanning you'll need to tumble the hide and break it, this is the "breaker" for most people breaking a tanned hide is hard work (not really sure myself since I quit at the wet tan and then proceed to ruin a perfectly good form with my feeble attempts at taxidermy :wink: )

Any way I think the basics are all there and it should look a lot like doing a deer hide except a lot more emphasis on degreasing.

Good luck and remember - I've only done this twice!

[Jay C]

thanks russ the skinning part is easy thats what I've done losts of over the years , I've never tackled the tanning part yet . I've done alot of reading about it and have sarted to get the equipment together and thought I'd try the bear hide I got last fall it does'nt have head or feet on it and was fleshed good when it was fresh. my biggest worry was how to degrease it I've read different ways to do this, how did the two you did turn out with the method you used?

[russ]

they were deer hides and they're fine. They also went on to forms so softness isn't an issue. I've heard a number of ways for degreasing - never tried them but have heard of them. One is using methanol to break the grease, this I'm told will also dry the skin somewhat but you still need to use salt to dry the hide properly.

Have you looked at what information is on taxidermy.net's forum? It may be quite helpful, they have a beginners section with tons of tutorials.

[394-NTELK]

send it to the tanners,I'll do head mounts but send full hides to the pro,s degreaseing a bear is a nightmare and bears slip fast.

[Jay C]

thanks for all the tips , by the sounds of it the tanner is getting a bear hide it's a nice hide so I don't want to ruin it..