The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather [Paperback]

Monte Burch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2002

From a master, a comprehensive guide to preserving skins and pelts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume belongs on your "Most Wanted" list!"-- Whitetails Unlimited

From the Back Cover

Here is the complete guide to a skill that may be mysterious to some, written by Monte Burch, an authority who practices many of the traditions of tanning and hiding. Starting at the beginning, Burch introduces the hunter to the tools of a tanner, and even gives complete plans for making many of these implements. Instructions are given for making fleshing beams, stretchers for pelts, fleshing knives, and many others. He also covers tanning formulas and materials, both traditional and modern. From the oldest method to the newest twist, Burch's guide will be indispensable to the modern hunter. (6 x 9, 240 pages, b&w photos, illustrations) Monte Burch has been trapping and tanning since the 1950s, and writing about the outdoors for four decades. He has written thousands of magazine articles and more than fifty books-including Field Dressing and Butchering Upland Birds, Waterfowl, and Wild Turkeys; Field Dressing and Butchering Deer; and Field Dressing and Butchering Rabbits, Squirrels, and Other Small Game. He lives on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks, where trapping and tanning are a way of life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585746703
• ISBN-13: 978-1585746705
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Hunting & Fishing > Hunting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 103 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for survivalists, November 18, 2005

By 

Valerie (Near Disaster) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather (Paperback)

This book is written by a professional book writer, not a tanner. He seems to be getting most of his information from hide tanning kits and some tanning he has done himself. Since the book has no bibliography or footnotes, it is hard to say where he gets his information. He does refer to a Bruce Rittel of 'Rittel's Chrome Tan Products' a few times, as if having consulted with him.. He doesn't appear to have worked with or interviewed any professional or advanced amateur tanners along the way while writing this book.

There are several pictures in the book of someone skinning, fleshing and working with hides. I don't know if this is the author or not. It could be more than one person as the face is usually not visible. From the text, the author describes his working with hides, but I do not get the impression that his work with hides is extensive.

He refers to the 'Native American' several times, as if to suggest that they were some sort of authority on hide tanning. This would be absurd because when the English landed at Jamestown in 1607, they were much more advanced than the 'Native American' in tanning hides. The only method that he connects to the 'Native American' is the buck skin making process that he shows.

He gives some good drawings and pictures of how to make some of the tools needed for skinning, fleshing, stretching and so forth. This is perhaps the most instructive part of the book. There are also pretty detailed drawings and explanation of how to skin animals. There are some pictures that look rather gruesome. (Well, if you can't stand to look at the pictures, you had best forget about tanning hides anyway.)

He makes an attempt to explain some of the chemistry, but it is weak. I would have preferred a more in-depth discussion of the chemistry involved. There seems to be some gaps and some puzzling things. He tells you to get ph paper testing strips, but doesn't give details on what they are, how to use them, or what 'ph' means. A salinometer is also necessary, he says. So where did the 'Native American' get his salinometer and his 'ph' paper strips from? And how did the 'Native American' use them? The title 'Ultimate' is a bit presumptuous.

He discusses 'bark tanning' a bit, but more so it seems to discourage the practice rather than to describe how to do it. He ultimately has you grinding the bark through a coffee mill. (I guess the 'Native Americans' didn't have leaf shredders.)

He does give some formulas for mixing your own tanning chemicals. I think it might be hard to buy some of those chemicals, especially with all the regulations these days. But it is good information to have.

The only method he gives in the book that might not require you to run to the store or the mailbox, is the 'brain tanning' method, or making 'buckskins'. The same method is described in the Foxfire 3 book. Foxfire describes making different furs and skins while this book only discusses deer skin. Foxfire has more pictures, also, and doesn't mention 'native americans'. (Foxfire 3 was evidently written before Political Correctness had permeated everything.)

I was hoping for a book that would tell me how to tan leather without the chemical companies, and Tandy, Cabella's, and Rittel getting involved. More self sufficient, in other words. This book is pretty much a disappointment in that area.

This book lacks the heart and soul of a craftsman. It is a lot of technical information. But I don't feel inspired to go out and tan a hide, and I don't feel that I have been given enough knowledge to feel confident that I could tan a hide if I wanted to.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Product seller book, March 17, 2010

By 

Joesph T. Holloway - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather (Paperback)

On the back of the book it refers to the author practicing ancient traditions of tanning and hiding. This is what interested me into buying the book. After getting it in the mail today I read through it and concluded that I wasted my money on the product. I have found more information googling with "how to" articles then reading this book, especially concerning the traditional methods that have been used for years before all these solutions and such have came out.

My advice, google what your looking for. This book mostly refers you to other products, like the bait on the fishing hook.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather, November 29, 2010

By 

Ronald Andrews - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate Guide to Skinning and Tanning: A Complete Guide to Working with Pelts, Fur, and Leather (Paperback)

this is a great source for the young leather worker it has many detailed plans for constructing a work site and it offers directions on multiple tanning methods