A word about alum tanning: It is technically not a true tan, it is a pickle and is not a permanent tan. the alum, salt and water mix creates a weak sulphuric acid pickle. You can get nice results, white and fluffy leather, but over time the acid will eat away at the collagen fibers and the leather will degrade and the hide will fall apart.
It's the humidity that will do the damage. Lutan FN is a better choice as a tanning agent.

After the alum tan,once the skin is re-tanned with a true tan like chrome of veg,there will be no degradation of the skin.
What the alum tan(or any pickle)does is allow the tanning agents of the re-tan to fully penetrate the leather,much better than just using the tan alone without a pickle.
A lot of failure in home tanning is stiff leather and this is due to one or a combination of 3 things-insufficient re-hydration of a dry skin,-incomplete penetration of the tanning agent,-insufficient or incomplete penetration of the leather lube.

This is an alum tanned beaver re-tanned with chrome.I have made hats and mitts with these for hard use on the trapline and they hold up better than the commercial tan from the tannery.

Thanks boco, I've been thinking about trying the veg tan using logwood trap dye. I can't find a lot of info on it. what are the steps? mixures? and how long will it take. I read a few places it can take months, unfortunately I'm a little impatient for that amount of time.
if it is a long drawn out process I might just try to smoke and see where that leads me, thanks

It does not take months if you alum tan first and soak the dry alum tanned skin in the veg solution.
To mix the veg tan,dissolve 3oz of logwood powder(quebracho) in some boiling water.After the quebracho has dissolved in the boiling water add enough luke warm water to make two gallons,add a 1\2 lb pickle salt and leave skin in until the leather has turned brown ( or tan color) all the way thru the thickest part of the skin.If the veg is not striking thru add another 0z and a half of dissolved quebracho and leave for a few more days.
Take it out of the solution when done and wash out all the salt.Slick out all the moisture and treat the leather side with neatsfoot oil or another commercial tanning oil.
Work skin a bit as it dries.
You can also make up a combination tan with the alum mixture and then add the dissolved quebracho directly into the alum salt solution.This way it is more difficult to get a soft leather,than if you do them both separately.

sounds great, i will be trying this weekend. this is a lot better explanation than what i have found elswhere

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a4ce08b3127cd2961624659e7900000010O00ActWLJizZOWYPbtxi/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00309231215920141029231905588.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/?tn=-104430396

here is a pic after pulling out of veg tan solution. still working a little bit but i think its soft enough for what i want. its not as nice as yours but not bad for 1st time

Can we get this put into the archives? There is some great info on here for anyone wanting to tan their own hides...

Heck yeah, I'm glad you resurrected this post.