Making Veg Tanned Fish Skin Leather
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- A while ago a did a fish skin leather blog austinlill.blo... basically to chart my progress in this adventure.
I'm certainly not setting myself up as an expert in fish skin leather but when I started this particular journey I didn't find a plethera of information out there, so I thought I'd do a video covering my latest 'production'-With tips on what I've found went well, and indeed not so well and have added it to the afore mentioned blog.
I mention in the video that I'd post the amount of tannin mix that I generated, it was around 8 litres of decent coloured 'soup' from 0.9 kilo of chopped bark plus the collected old teabags in the video.
I allude to the fact that the skins are a little sticky once prepped and I would suggest several washes under a tap, running between finger and thumb to remove gloop and scales. Also fish juice doesn't seem to do lawn much good!
I do find that the stretching process does remove a little of the colour from the underside, I'm assuming that this is unavoidable but equally if you pile too much dark tannin mix in too soon it 'case hardens' the skin meaning that the tannins won't penetrate past the inital outer colour.
Finally, with the windy conditions at the time of smoking I had the light bulb moment of supplementing the smouldering punk wood smoke with my ProQ metal smoke generator. If you fancy seeing a bit more information about the ProQ this is a previous camping TH-cam video featuring it here:
• Oatcakes, Smoked Chees... and a blog here:
austinlill.blo...
Hope this is of some use and of course if you are a seasoned fish skin botherer and you see something worthy of commenting on please feel free.
Hi Austin. A really good way to approach getting the moisture level right is something called damping back. You dry the skin out flat, maybe tacked out to a board, then wrap it in damp towels for a few hours or overnight. When it works right, you get an evenly damp skin without any really wet spots. They dry quick and evenly while softening when prepared that way. I've used it on veg tanned skins of all sizes.
Thanks for the suggestionbud. The main reason l wouldn't pin these particular skins is that being from a sushi bar they are prepared in such a way that they are thinner than a regular skin so I'm reticent to lose any more to pin holes.
Very lovely video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this! I am just tanning my first two salmon skins right now! Can't wait to see the results!
Genuinely pleased that you are trying it, i hope it goes well for you. A finished skin is as far removed from slippery fish skin as it's possible to get.
Thank you for your message!
I will try and let you know how it goes! I am waiting for a deer jaw to arrive so that I can rub them against it. I thought it was more ancestral using it! 😅😅 But I love your ideas, all the other videos I saw were doing it only with the hands, wich I find a bit difficult...
Thanks x
@@alebows Please do post, l'd love to see how you got on.
Nice video thanks for posting. Unused tea bags will yield more tannins than second hand ones. I gave up using them and just buy cheapo tea bags for tanning now! When you think it's done then you can slice a sliver off and see if the tannins have penetrated all the way thru the skin. The stringy bits can always be snipped off with scissors when it's finished so don't worry about those too much.... once the fibres of the skin are all coated with the tannins from the tea/bark mixture then smoking them some add anything...its not needed. What are you going to make from them?
Oops typo there.... I meant to say that smoking doesn't add anything in this case.
@@ZarlaTristan Thanks for the info, very useful. I did chuck a few unused teabags into the tanin mix but saving the unused ones is a free resource. I gently sanded the annoying stringy bits off and my research suggested smoking can help with the preservation and I've experienced some colour change on previous attempts. Every day is a school day eh?
What can u make with the skin ? I’m wondering if I could glue it on top of some leather ? I’ve seen fish leather on eBay and I bought one but I haven’t seen many videos on making things out of it
Hi there. You can use it like any other leather but it isn't very thick and despite the fact it's tough thin thread can sometimes rip through stitch holes. Small pouches and the like are good projects and l wrapped an atlatl handle in video l made a while ago. Hope that helps and thanks for looking☺
@@theoutdoortraditionalist thank you very much this was helpful
Have you tried using a pumice stone or cuttlefish bone to do the tail and headend. There not as abrasive so you get a finer finish sandpaper can work. If you mixed the eggs with a small amount of olive oil and make it warm to touch that helps aswell.
Good suggestions, I hadn't really considered either. Have to say that I have used oil in the egg mix and didn't find much difference in the extremities.
Great video. My son I just finished bark tanning some carp skins that we bowfished from our local water ways. We did one round of stretching but I am thinking we need to perhaps soak this yolk and oil and work it a bit more. I do notice a bit of fishy odor with the resultant leather. Is this your experience?
Hi Ian and many thanks for your kind comment. You shouldn't really have a noticeable odour, l am guessing that you need to scrape a little more and even once I've cleared the flesh and fat l will often go over an area gently and wipe with kitchen roll and thoroughly wash afterwards. ATB.
Great video! I'm a fish skin tanner too. I can tell you are a hide tanner the way you made the "donut" and wrung out your fish skins! Did you do a final oiling of your skins? I find it really helps to soften the leather if you use oil as you are softening them.
Thanks for your kind words, l'm just a hobbyist bushcrafter but l think l've just about got tbe hang if it. There's something very satisfying about twisting thd donut :) l have used coconut oil in the past.
@@theoutdoortraditionalist I would agree with the donut twist being satisfying! I haven't actually tried it for fish skins. If I'm in a rush, I usually just wrap it in a towel to soak up the liquid and then it's perfect to start softening. My favourite for oiling is bacon grease! If you're on FB, come join my Adventures in Fish Skin Tanning Group! We have people from all over the world!
Oh and I have a lot to learn about video editing. All of mine are raw, unedited footage. I'd rather tan than edit! :)
@@janeychangart l just use my laptop's editing app, l think I'm getting ok at it but content over slick presentation every day. :)
Hi! Can I reuse the tea bags?
How long did you wait for the skin soaked in egg yolk solution?
How long did you wait for the skib soaked in tea bags?
Thank you!
I tend to discard tbe bags and bark after use, put the skins in the yolk solution for a day or two and the introduction of teabags/ bark has to happen over several days starting with a weak solution and then getting stronger, this allows the tannins to penetrate. Thanks for swinging by.
Thank you!
Great method thanks for sharing. Definitely gives inspiration to try.
Nice one. It's super stuff once made.
This is awesome! I have made buckskin from deer and elk. Haven't tried this yet.
Ahhh glad you liked it. I do my vids and if folk find value in them then that's great so it's always nice to read positive comments.
Nice one pal.
Really good video, I'd watch more like this for sure mate 👍
Cheers bud, it took me long enough to make :)
Very helpful video! Great job
You're very kind, thank you.
I'll try to capture a fish and make a wallet out of it, thank you for the video.
Good stuff!
You mention that the skin resembled snake skin. Something for the Python hunters in Florida, USA to sell for leather.
I bought a phone case with this leather but bleu colored without knowing 😜
Hopefully it will give you years of service. Thank you very much for swinging by.
nice job, can u show the stitching or whatever u do w those
Thankyou. As regards the stitching either saddle or blanket stitch are good for most leathers.
Nice video. Do you need to brain tan AND veg tan? Wouldn't one or the other do the job?
Thank you for watching. I only use egg for tanning, I've tried to extract the Salmon brain but found it almost impossible, I reckon they must have enough grey matter to procreate and eat! I don't see that there would be a problem mixing but more skilled practitioners of the art would be better placed to advise. Look up Will Lord, Sarah Day (Memma the Cavewoman) and Theresa Emmerich Kamper to name but three.
@theoutdoortraditionalist but if you are egg tanning, do you need to veg tan, and visa versa
@@jasonlowery1369 Ah I misread what you put. The egg or brain softens it and the veg tanning helps to actually turn it into leather (not sure of the egg head science though). the veg tan solution, such as Oak or Willlow bark, needs to be a weak solution first which can then get progressively stronger to prevent case hardening which means a strong solution first off forms a layer that prevents penetration.
Can I tan it with the scales?
I would suspect not. I wonder if the flexibility might be impacted and l suspect the softening process may knock a few off and not look so good.
@@theoutdoortraditionalist Thanks for the response, I’ll try tanning some regular fish skin and maybe in the future I’ll try that out.
Pig brains, they work great and come fresh, canned, pickled whatever. Ive never seen a grocery store that didn't have them.
Not sure l've seen them in tbe UK but l've occasionally seen Goat brains in Asians butchers. Thanks for watching.
@@theoutdoortraditionalist ah that makes sense. I think it's an old American people thing. It's gross, but for the tanning. Love the videos.
@@erisgh0sted961 Thank you so much for the video comment. I just love making them for the sake of it and if folk find something worth watching then all well and good. As an added bonus I've seen this comment on my birthday 🙂
Good job very interesting
Thank you 🙂
Very good video :)
That's very kind, thank you.
Good job
Cheers bud, I've just managed to power a bowdrill with some salmon skin cordage.
I Used A Pink Himalayan Salt Wash To Clean The fish Skin And I Layered The Fish Skins Together With An Adhesive And Made A Thong And Bra Pajama
Wow, l bet that set looked amazing, did you use the pink salt for a specific reason or because it was to hand?
Cool
How is that a VEG
It's veg tanned meaning the tanning is done with vegetable matter ie plants, trees etc.
Good job
Cheers bud :)