I’m looking at trying my luck to tan a few hides possible to make a beaver blanket and some to hang on the wall . Has anyone ever used this? If so what was your experience with it ?

It's fine for wall hangers but if you want a blanket you better send it out. Beaver are hard to get soft if you don't have the skill nor equipment to shave em down.

Krowtann is basically a formic acid pickle. Nasty stuff and you better have gloves and goggles on when messing with it.

I've used it a lot. Very simple but open it away from your face. You can oil the hyde after its out of the tan while wet then work it, but it still won't be as soft as sending it out.

I was thinking maybe as the pelt dries after it’s oiled I could stretch it back out on a board and use an orbital sander with sand paper to thin the hide out . Would this work ? I do have access to a shaving machine . The guy that gave me the krowtann to try is a taxidermist, but he has only tanned to mount stuff never for a blanket or throw .

Yup, gotta shave that hide down and get all the grease out. I tan beaver at home and I've discovered that what I use to tan with is less important than how thin I can get that hide. They never come out as good as the pros but dang close and and certainly good enough for a blanket.

Orbital will work. I like to use a little die grinder with 50 grit on it. Very aggressive but very controllable. There is lot of variation in thickness so I like to hold the hide and feel it while I'm thinning it. I thin before I tan and after. Sometimes on skins like beaver it's hard to get the tan into the thicker parts if you don't thin it first.

One thing to remember about taxidermy is that what they call tanned is not what the fur/leather market calls tanned.

[quote=Jonnytrapper]Yup, gotta shave that hide down and get all the grease out. I tan beaver at home and I've discovered that what I use to tan with is less important than how thin I can get that hide. They never come out as good as the pros but dang close and and certainly good enough for a blanket.

How do you shave the hide down ? Shaving machine or just sand it down ? I just want to be able at the end to say I done this start to finish and I realize I could send it off to get tanned then send it off to be sewed together, but in the end I want to be able to say I done the whole process and by sending it for someone else to do I can’t say that lol

I’m assuming your talking about sanding a dried hide before you rehydrate correct? What about a freshly fleashed one ?

Could you explain this ? I think I understand what your saying but im not sure . I know how to skin flesh and dry for the auctions , but I have never tried to take the process further .

Taxidermists don't need to make their hides soft, they need them to stretch so they can fit on the forms correctly. So there's a lot of steps at the end of the process that garment tanneries don't do.

As far as what they call breaking the fur correct ?

Breaking, oiling, drumming, heck some just powder the raw hide and stick it on a form.