COLLECTING PELTS AND BAGGED SQUERRELS AND RACOONS.
Does anyone have experience tanning hides? I started collecting pelts this year and bagged 5 squirrels and 2 racoons. I skinned, fleshed, tacked, salted, and dried them. I've watched a few videos on the tanning process, with the method being to soak them in a alum/pickling salt mixture then stretching them to break down the fibers. The videos I've watched recommend continuesly working the fur for 4-6 hours or until completely dry. What I'm wondering is, is there a more time efficient method of tanning? Working each fur for 4+hours seems excessive and I feel someone has certainly developed a better method by now! Lol. Open to any suggestions, it will be my first time and I don't mind experimenting.
Those are very pretty. i would use a mixture of eggs blended with warm water, rub it into the flesh side of the hides after rehydrating them. You could easily work those squirrel skins in an hour each. The raccoon might take a few hours. Then you can temporarily stitch them together and drape them over a stick frame , hair side facing out, with a very smoky fire underneath to smoke them
I have brain tanned and alum tanned deer hide... both are a ton of work and alum tanning is not waterproof after. Find a tanning solution you can buy and let them soak, new technology is probably the easiest.