How would one go about home tanning beaver tails? I’d like to try making a wallet from one.

Good luck with that I've been using them for a long time and never yet found a home tanning that will suffice
with out a large amount of work and even then they are not the same as a professional tanning job !!

I will watch her and see if anyone comes up with something different I have not tried !!

They tan up fine, but as mentioned, a home job is never going to turn out as soft and pliable as a good tannery can provide. Not to mention, they're a PITA to skin, degrease, etc...

Do the tannerys have a magic formula or something? Not buying that only a professional tannery can do the job. That said, I haven't perfected beaver tail tanning yet, but I can do one good enough for a wallet. Look into snake skin tanning.

My advice buy an already made beaver wallet and put in a hr or 2 of overtime at work.... I believe F&T sells them mine is still quite nice after 3 years

Buy what you want, but I guarantee you don't have the equipment a tannery has, and that's what is required to get the skin super soft. You can continue trying dull axe blades, sanding, etc.... but you'll never be able to reach the result that a professional tannery with professional tanners and professional equipment can. Things like staking machines and 10' drums can't be replicated at home. You can get something passable, but not equal. And like mentioned, professional ones are affordable and quite nice.

I braintan deer hides for a living. Yes, you can get hides just as soft working by hand.
A staking machine is the same thing as hand staking, only mechanized.

Anyway we're not talking tanning elk hides here. My daughter did a tolerable job tanning a beaver tail just using what I told her by phone. If you can flesh a hide, you have the hard part licked.

I'm curious what tannery gets beaver tails super soft?

I've only used the one in Iowa. They told me my beaver tails came out the best of any they did and told me to keep on doing whatever it was that I was doing to them. What I did to them was thin them with a skiving knife. During the learning process I cut and destroyed some but the rest were good.

Even so they were not what I would call "super soft".

trapped4ever once posted a pic of his beaver tail wallet that he had bark tanned himself. The color was fantastic. Based on that I bark tanned several beaver tails; some with alder and some with hemlock bark. Both barks producedvery very nice colors. But the leather tore easily and was ultimately unusable.

I'm guessing the commercial tanneries are chrome tanning?

BTW PAskinner is a very experienced tanner.

You can't get all hides just as soft as a good tannery, and if you tan as much as you say then you know that. Just like hand staking and a staking machine being the same thing except mechanized, you know that's only true in theory. Your hands and arms will lock up before doing a fraction of the work a staking machine will do. Like I said, you can get them passable, but still not as soft as a tannery. Now in theory, I think a person could spend enough time and get a result nearly as nice, but not many people have that much time on their hands. It would take countless hours to break a hide the way 10' diameter drum will.

I believe most or the best beaver tails are chrome tanned and these days,very few tanneries still do it.I am not sure if individuals can use these chemicals today.Iam sure that disposal would be problematic.I would much prefer to pay some one to do the tanning.

[quote=drasselt][quote=M.Magis][quote=PAskinner]

I've only used the one in Iowa. They told me my beaver tails came out the best of any they did and told me to keep on doing whatever it was that I was doing to them. What I did to them was thin them with a skiving knife. During the learning process I cut and destroyed some but the rest were good.

Even so they were not what I would call "super soft".

drasselt, do you remember how much they charged per tail for tanning? What's the name of the place?

It's as I thought it would be, there are home tans of course but none make the tail soft as its not like a skin.

The Tannery in Iowa Is Specialty Leathers, I would recommend them highly for tail leather for projects, there cost is $6.50 a side

One would certainly be better off sending their tails out to these folks than wasting all the effort to find out it is going to break when you fold it for a wallet !!