The Complete Book of Tanning Skins and Furs

By James Churchill, 198 pages

Churchill covers the tanning of many different types of animals, using many different methods. This is the good and the bad of this book. No other tanning book I know of contains so much varied information, and for this reason it’s a good one to have.  However, the techniques are not covered in much detail, so it is challenging for the beginning tanner to be successful using these instructions alone, and the methods are mostly chemical tanning oriented.

Types of skins include squirrel, raccoon, muskrat, weasel, skunk, mink, rabbit, deer, moose, elk, fox, coyote, otter, fisher, beaver, bear, sheep, goat, calf, pig, horse, cow, alligator, fish, snake, frog, lizard and birds. Tanning methods include chrome tanning, acid tanning, alum tawing, brain tanning (not very well), and vegetable tanning.

I recommend this as a general reference to help you get a better understanding of different furs and various ways of approaching them. There is simply no more thorough book on the tanning of furs available. Churchill does include recipes and instructions for each project, I just wish there were more detail.