How To Make A Rug Out Of Deer Hide

The salt method will leave the skin a little hardened but if you use the borax method the skin with be very supple.

How to make a rug out of deer hide.

Let the water drip from the animal hide. The purpose is to draw out all moisture and dry the hide out. Hold the hide with one hand on each side of the rope and rub the bare skin side of the hide in a back and forth motion across the rope. Submerge the animal hide for 24 hours stirring it around frequently.

Leave the hide sit overnight. Leave it in the solution for four days. You can cover the skin in salt and let it dry out by the sun or you could take borax and cover the skin and leave the skin out for a day and then take the borax off. Moisten a cloth and use it to dampen but not wet the deer hide.

Scrape the old salt off and reapply a fresh layer. Of borax to 20 gallons of lukewarm water in the second 30 gallon trash can. Make sure you put down a fairly thick layer of salt to draw out the moisture from the pelt. The next day there will likely be a pool of fluid sitting on top of the now wet salt.

Keep adding salt to the hide until it dries out and becomes crispy. The salt essentially preserves the hide but if you aren t going to continue the tanning process now then simply roll the hide up and freeze it until you re ready to continue. Rub the deer pelt with non iodized salt sea salt. Use 3 5 pounds of salt depending on how large the hide is.

Add one pound of ammonium alum in the small bucket and add one gallon of water. The more you work the hide the softer the skin will become as rubbing the hide breaks down the collagen fibers. Stir until the alum is dissolved. There is two ways to cure a deer skin if you want the hair on it.

Rub both sides of the deer hide with a thin layer of warm baby oil. The salting process takes a day or two if the proper amount of salt is used. Work only the bare side of the hide as rubbing the fur will break the hair. Pour the alum water mixture into the garbage can with the salt water and then put the hide into the solution.

After four days remove the hide and rinse with fresh water from a garden hose. Soften the skin by rubbing the hide over the saw horse applying baby oil sparingly.