Is It Possible To Veg-Tan Moose Leather So It Can Be Carved?

[Destrier]

Sorry if this has been asked and answered before, I did a quick search and didn't come up with anything.

Does anyone know if moose (or deer, though I'd imagine that would be on the thin side) can be made into carveable leather? My dad, brother, and several of my friends are hunters and so getting the hides would be as simple as asking them. I wouldn't necessarily be trying to save money with this venture, it would mostly just be for the ability to say 'locally sourced.' I suppose I could always look up some tanneries and ask them.

[Jazznow]

Hi there

In theory it should be possible to veg tan those hides, but I'm no expert at all even if it is possible it could be that tooling and dying properties would be completly different to cowhide. You should find a tannery and ask them if they can do that and how the result will be.

It will most probably not a good deal. My father has got a little farm where he raises cows, pigs and sheep (he doing this for fun lol, I never will understand that). He once asked a tannery to tan one of the cows hides. They quoted 300€ which is 50% more than what I pay normaly for veg tan hides. Could be completly different in the US of course.

Good luck anyway

Jonathan

[Destrier]

I'd imagine quality control would be pretty rough with just a few moose hides to choose from too. My dad's just been bugging me about it and I thought I'd ask if anyone had tried something like that before.

[medsar]

I guess I'm reviving an old thread....but I finally can contribute to this place.

Most tanneries in the US don't do small batches anymore. Even the small Mom & Pop ones have limited the small batch tanning to hair-on skins.

I have veg-tanned deer hides before and it is doable. Most of the books and instructional videos will show you how to make buckskins which are suede (great book is 'turning deerskins into buckskins'). You won't want that for tooling. When you are bucking the hide (the lime bath), you will want to leave it in there for longer than the regular 3-5 days. I would say 5-8 days. The hair on the hide should just come off with minimal effort. I would use the back side of a draw knife. That way you will have a full-grain leather for tooling. Then continue the tanning process as usual, rinsing/acidifying/membraning/oiling/tanning. Oh yeah, I would skip the softening step that is done in most buckskin suede tanning -- I think you want the fibers of the leather to remain stiff and close together to allow for tooling.