Getting Ready for Hide Club
Our Hide Club materials kit comes with:
Rabbit skin
Deer hide
Sheep skin
Calx (lime), our bucking agent for buckskin: 1.6 lbs
Alum + salt, for rabbit tanning: 3 teaspoons
Framing supplies: rope + needle
Fat emulsion for softening hides: 2 teaspoon lecithin for sheep + 3 teaspoon lecithin for deer hide
Salt for bark-tanning: 1.5 lbs for our bark liquor
Citric acid for bark-tanning: 15 oz for acidifying our sheep skin
Gloves
In addition to the kit, you’ll need to source:
10 lbs of salt
5-10 lbs of tannins (I recommend sourcing a full 10 lbs; some of our sheepskins may only take 5, many will need 10)
See below for more details on salt and tannins, plus go to the Tannins section of this online space to get to know them better.
Salt
We’ll employ salt in Hide Club 2x:
When acidifying our sheep skins for bark-tanning. You’ll need 5 lbs.
When submerging our sheepskin rug in bark liquor for the first time. You’ll want another 5lbs.*
The first time we employ salt, we do so to make sure we don’t “acid swell” our hides when acidifying. The second and third time, we employ it to help the tannins moves into the hide + make more naturally flexible leather.
Salt can be found at farm supply stores (“feed stores”). A 50-lb bag ranges from $6-$25 depending on where you live. I recommend getting at least 20 lbs to have extra on hand, and up to 50 if a full-sized bag is the most affordable option.
*Update February, 2025: Many folks in this cohort has trouble finding salt in their local area. So here’s where it becomes important to know when salt is needed versus when it is optional. Salt is needed for #1, for acidifying. Salt is optional for #2, for adding to bark-liquor. In lieu of adding 5 llbs to your bark-liquor, you could add just 1 lb, and you’ll still get a supple sheepskin leather.
Tannins
Hide Club is BYO-tannins: you choose which tannins you want to work with + whether you harvest them yourself or purchase them.
Deciding which tannins to work with may be a matter of meeting what’s in your local ecosystem or on the colour you want your leather to be - or simply what’s the most affordable option.
You’ll want 5-10 pounds per hide of dried tannin material (extract or bark).
Of note: I strongly encourage beginner tanners to purchase their tannins. For anyone who is harvesting their own, please get a “barkometre” device so you can measure the tannin content of self-harvested bark.
Purchased Tannins
If you’re brand new to bark-tanning + want the simplest, fastest-acting, and most affordable purchase option, get Acacia (Mimosa) extract powder. This will turn your leather a light pink to red.
If you want all of the above qualities except a light beige leather, find ground Oak or Oak Gall powder.
If you want a brown leather, get Willow.
I recommend beginners don’t work with Sumac…not yet :)
Our recommended list of tannin suppliers:
Boundary Hide and Leather
Just a guy named Wes who buys Acacia (Mimosa) wholesale and sells them
This is a great Canadian option for Mimosa (most affordable if you factor customs fees of Themazi and TT)
Email boundaryhidetanner@gmail.com
Vancouver, BC store + school of natural dyeing
Has tons of variety for tannins; higher cost
You can search their website information for details on tannins
Based in Türkiye + works directly with producers
Has tons of variety
You need to somewhat know what product you’re looking for, i.e. not all natural dyes are tannin-based
Their Oak galls, Pomegranate, and Acorn extracts will all tan hides
Based in Oregon, USA + buys Acacia (Mimosa) wholesale for re-sale + harvests their own Tanoak (Notholipocarpus) bark
You can also get extracts of Acorn and other on-again-off-again products
Great for buying large quantities at once at a reduced cost (most affordable option for Americans)
Canadians will have to pay customs duties
Harvesting Tannins
It’s most likely that to harvest tannins, you’ll be harvesting bark. A major exception is shrub Willow, which can be harvested by clipping the shoots and chipping them up finely. Another exception is Sumac, in which we use the leave - but I recommend not using Sumac as a beginner. Wait til you have some bark-tanning success before using this high-demand plant.
Bark harvesting principles + directions
A tree must be freshly fallen from a windstorm or cut by hand. Scrape the bark within 48 hours of cutting if possible.
Once rain gets to a fallen tree, the tannins leach away
The bark is stripped by hand with a drawknife or by power tool with a “log wizard” attachment for a chainsaw
Once stripped, the bark is chipped into pieces using a hatchet, typically on a piece of plywood to catch all the flying pieces
See the section “Tannins” for a video on harvesting tannins + a PDF on which trees contain the right tannins for hides