How To Make A Rug Out Of Deer Hide

Rub both sides of the deer hide with a thin layer of warm baby oil.

How to make a rug out of deer hide.

Soften the skin by rubbing the hide over the saw horse applying baby oil sparingly. Of borax to 20 gallons of lukewarm water in the second 30 gallon trash can. Leave it in the solution for four days. There is two ways to cure a deer skin if you want the hair on it.

Make sure you put down a fairly thick layer of salt to draw out the moisture from the pelt. Work only the bare side of the hide as rubbing the fur will break the hair. Submerge the animal hide for 24 hours stirring it around frequently. 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.

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. After four days remove the hide and rinse with fresh water from a garden hose. The next day there will likely be a pool of fluid sitting on top of the now wet salt. Moisten a cloth and use it to dampen but not wet the deer hide.

Use 3 5 pounds of salt depending on how large the hide is. The salting process takes a day or two if the proper amount of salt is used. 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. Scrape the old salt off and reapply a fresh layer.

Drape the hide over the rope. Rub the deer pelt with non iodized salt sea salt. Leave the hide sit overnight. The salt method will leave the skin a little hardened but if you use the borax method the skin with be very supple.

The purpose is to draw out all moisture and dry the hide out. Use a cloth to remove any excess. Stir until the alum is dissolved. Keep adding salt to the hide until it dries out and becomes crispy.

The more you work the hide the softer the skin will become as rubbing the hide breaks down the collagen fibers. Add one pound of ammonium alum in the small bucket and add one gallon of water.