When using Hunter's and Trapper's Hide Tanning Formula, do you need to stretch the hide? Or if you do it soon enough, you don't have too?

If you tan right away you don't need to board the pelt. If you are going to use the pelt for a wall hanger they look better if they were boarded prior to tanning imo.

I don't know how experienced you are with tanning but I have much better results with rittels ez-100 tanning kit vs the orange bottle stuff. The orange bottle skips a very important step in tanning, the pickle bath. I'm not trying to to say not to use it but thought I would share my experience with it.

With a fresh hide,(before it was dried), you can go straight to the first salting step.

As mentioned, theres better and less likely to slip methods out there. If its a hide you arent going to be sentimental about, nothing wrong with practicing with the HTT

There is the money factor in which I don't have enough because I am trying to save for other things. Also I have caught 1 coyote and 1 otter and tried homemade tanning on both and it failed miserably both times so I thought I'd start with something easier and go cheaper or more expensive later.

I understand the money issue. Give that orange bottle a shot if it's not an important skin. It does work, I'm just curious how long a hide with that tan will last. The one I did with it I ended up redoing with the ez-100 kit so not sure on longevity.

I definitely would not try to home tan otter because they are so thick. Ther is no way to shave them down like a tannery can. All other animals coyote and down turn out pretty good. Once tanned,broke and dry you can sand the skin with sand paper to thin thicker areas and get that suede look and feel.
Boco has a good tanning thread somewhere in the archives.

Yeah I saw Boco's home tanning thread. And would it work if I did all the instructions until it said to apply the HTF and wait a while to save money if I don't catch a coyote(very unlikely most likely). Shipping is a week off of Amazon and it takes 4 days of prep before tanning it.

It's definitely a process. You could keep hides in a pickle bath for quite a while to preserve them until you could tan. Just a thought if you plan on waiting. Salting will also temporarily preserve the hide just make sure it can drain and dry out. I would board and air dry before using the salt method on fur skins though. You could use white vinegar or citric acid for a pickle fairly cheap. You would need ph strips though. Pickle should be a ph of 1.

What is a good pickle "recipe"? I have Citric Acid and Ph strips.

1/2 fl.oz of citric acid and 1lb salt (1 1/2 cups=1lb) per gallon of water. Test ph before adding skins and 1/2 hour after putting them in the pickle. I check it a couple more times throughout the first couple hours to make sure ph stays at 1.

Boco's pickle says 3oz and 1/2 lb salt per 1 gal. He also says Ph between 1-2. What is the difference?

Honestly, 1/2 oz sounds better because it saves citric acid.

I gave the recipe from the ez-100 instructions that I use. Ph of 1-2 will work, it's acidic enough in that range to do the job. I just shoot for 1. If your pH is higher than 1-2 on your half hour check just add more citric acid until you are in that range.

adding citric acid raises ph?

Lowers it. Say you get a reading of 4 adding acid will bring the ph down towards 1-2.

Sorry I meant to say lower but yeah I got it now. Thanks alot!

The acid kills bacteria and is a temporary preservative. It also plumps the skin. After a couple days in the pickle I let them drain for an hour, put them back on the beam and go over spots I may have missed with the fleshing knife then put them back in the pickle.

You are welcome. I like tanning my own furs. Start to finish type of thing for me.

3oz of citric is for the citric cristals.not fluid oz-3oz by weight.
Regardless,just check your ph,

Something you have to remember about pH...its a logarithmic scale. So a ph of 1 is 10x stronger than a pH of 2. So If X amount of acid added to a solution gives you Y pH and you want to decrease the pH number in half...you cant just double X to reduce it by half. Thats where testing everytime you add more acid is necessary.

I know this post is kind of old but where do I add the pickle bath step?