I chrome tan my tails. You need quicklime, ammonium sulfate (common fertilizer), basic chromium sulfate (the green chrome salt), and sodium sulfide (stinky reddish-white flakes). They are very cheap and easy to buy here, but as far as I know they are not as readily available in the US, especially the latter, although amazon sometimes has all these chemicals in stock. The process itself is fast and easy and the leather is durable and versatile.

My son is into his third year of using this beaver tail school pass holder and it's still intact, and boys destroy stuff fast.

mom requested this sheath for her car keys


it works for tanning any leather.

I have maybe a dozen little bottles that I bought to play with. There are tons of various dyes, paints, coatings, finishes, waxes nowadays, apparently because leather crafts has become a popular hobby in the past 5 years or so? Some are permeant dyes and they seem to be based on a mixture of alcohol and water (so you can dilute them with vodka), some are water-based PU surface paints, that can be either opaque or translucent. Plenty of clear and tinted waxes and oils, too. The fluorescent pink in the picture is a combo of solid white PU coat, fluorescent pink tint and a glossy sealant/finish cover? I also tried dyeing tanned tails with pigments that are sold as yarn dyes (yarn is also a protein, so no binding issues), with what was left from dyeing traps with walnut husks (got a nice brown color), even with dyes derived from Cortinarius and Hapalopilus mushrooms. I tried a yellow-brown acid dye for textile, too, and it worked fine, but I'm not sure all dyes for cotton (of the kind they sell to refresh the color on jeans) will bind to the leather well, especially those that need heating for fixation. Chrome-tanned leather can withstand quite a bit of heating, so pigments that need a bit of heating to bind to the fibers should work well. It's worth checking. Lots of room for experiment.

most are in fact Italian or German-made, and just bottled locally.




I made this grip from tanned beaver feet, it's a permeant brown anilin dye. I actually wanted the color to be a bit blotchy. It has held up just fine so far and I really like the texture.



I flesh the tails rather thoroughly so that no fat remains, only some traces maybe, but it only takes a moment and it's no big deal if there are some films or fat left, it can be cleaned off during or after tanning.