Over years of hunting I’ve dabbled in home taxidermy but I wasn’t artistic enough to do justice to a well-earned trophy, so I gave it away. You don’t have to be artistic to tan a pretty deer skin or winter fox pelt, though. To preserve a hide you’ve harvested as a memento of the hunt only requires you to be patient, have the correct ingredients and follow a few simple steps to achieve a pleasing result.
I’VE tanned a few skins but my most recent one happened after I’d taken my grandson out for his first fallow deer. Anthony was so excited he asked if he could have the skin tanned as a trophy of the trip. It rekindled my home tanning days of many, many years gone by.
Wow, am I getting that old, I wondered.
After removing the skin to tan for my little hunting buddy, we butchered the deer for meat and headed for home.
To begin, there are many ways you can tan a skin. In fact,
