How to Salt & Cure a Game Skin
A fresh hide starts to spoil within hours. Follow these simple steps from the moment the animal is down and your skin will reach the tannery in the best possible condition.
Good curing saves the hair
Curing protects a freshly flayed hide from micro-organisms. Bacteria can damage the hair roots within a few hours, which causes hair slip: patches where the hair falls out once the skin is tanned. Any delay compromises the quality of the final product.
The good news: with salt, a sharp knife and a little care, anyone can cure a hide properly.
Four steps after the hunt
Start as soon as you can. The quicker the skin is cleaned and salted, the better it tans.
Skin promptly
Skin the animal as soon as possible after the hunt. Keep the carcass in the shade until you do.
Clean thoroughly
Remove all fat, blood and meat from the flesh side, then wash the skin.
Soak in brine
Soak the skin for at least 3 hours, or overnight, in saturated salt water with a bactericide such as Dettol.
Salt the skin
Lay it flat, flesh side up, and cover it generously with salt, right to the edges.
Useful hints
Use enough salt
Use about the same weight of salt as the skin itself: 1 kg of salt for every 1 kg of skin.
Then dry it
Leave the skin in salt for at least 3 days, then dry it promptly. Drying in the sun works well.
Roll it in salt
If you can’t dry it straight away, roll the skin up in salt and dry it when you get home.
Do’s & don’ts
Do
- Skin and clean the hide quickly, ideally on the same day.
- Use plenty of salt, flesh side up, right to the edges.
- Keep it in salt for at least 3 days, then dry it, in the sun if you can.
- WhatsApp us a photo if you are unsure about anything.
Don’t
- Drag the animal or leave it lying in the sun.
- Leave blood, fat or flesh on the skin. Salt can’t penetrate fat.
- Salt a skin that has already dried out. Soak it in a strong salt solution instead.
- Store the skin in plastic bags, except while transporting it.
Curing a cowhide?
The same steps work for cowhides. Clean it well, salt it generously and keep it out of plastic. We tan cowhides for the public, so bring it in when it is ready.
Cowhide tanning